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A Mother on a Mission: Sirdeaner Walker
 Sirdeaner Walker (daughter Dominique, a MacDuffie student, pictured below) |
 Dominique Walker, Carl’s sister, is shown (second from right) with other youth at GLSEN’s Respect Awards. GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. |
Sirdeaner Walker is a passionate mother who fights for the safety of her children as well as all children in schools. Whether she participates as part of her daughter’s private school parent organization at The MacDuffie School or fighting for school safety in memory of her 11-year son Carl, Walker has won the hearts of people here in New England and across the country with her message of hope.
Walker, who is truly an advocate of ‘getting involved’ is indeed getting involved. She is taking her mission for safe schools with her run for the Springfield School Committee (Election on November 3 ).
In an interview with Unity First, she says, “I don't want any other parent to go through what I have gone through, no one’s child should have to be harmed or die. I want to help other parents identify what's best for our children and work as part of the solution."
Last spring, Walker’s 11-year-old Carl Walker-Hoover, took his life on April 6 by suicide after enduring constant bullying at school. Walker found her 11-year-old son Carl Joseph in his room, dead, hanging from an electrical cord. She recounts the story of her son being bullied as administrators at the New Leadership Charter School told her "it would work itself out."
Walker has turned her pain into a passionate plea for keeping students safe. She testified in front of the House Subcommittees on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education and Healthy Families and Communities in support of the Safe Schools Improvement Act - federal legislation to require that schools adopt anti-bullying policies.
"Carl liked football and basketball and playing video games with his little brother," Walker testified. "He loved the Lord and he loved his family. What could make a child his age despair so much that he would take his own life? That question haunts me to this day, and I will probably never know the answer.”
"School bullying is a national crisis, and we need a national solution to deal with it. That is why I am here today. Teachers, administrators and other school personnel need additional support and clear guidance about how to ensure that all kids feel safe in school.
N.Y. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy among the 60 bipartisan cosponsors, said, “Students cannot learn and teachers cannot teach in environments that aren't safe. Schools should be sanctuaries for our children to learn and get the tools they need to succeed in life, not places where children have to worry about physical or emotional violence."
Nearly two-thirds of middle and high school students (65%) said they had been bullied in school in the past year, according to From Teasing to Torment: School Climate in America, a 2005 report from GLSEN and Harris Interactive an important step toward making sure that all students are safe in school."
Added Walker: "The most important thing I've learned is that bullying is not an inevitable part of growing up. It can be prevented. And there isn't a moment to lose."