ʻIlima Intermediate teacher Sarah “Mili” Milianta-Laffin recognized for gender equity work
Posted: July 3, 2022
ʻIlima Intermediate teacher Sarah “Mili” Milianta-Laffin was honored Saturday night at the NEA Human and Civil Rights Awards Dinner in Chicago. She received the NEA’s prestigious Mary Hatwood Futrell Human and Civil Rights Award for her tireless work for gender equity in STEM and health, sparking positive change across Hawaii and the country.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this before,” Milianta-Laffin said. “As an educator, to be in a room with so many incredibly talented teachers doing work all over the country for racial and social justice just felt amazing.”
The NEA presents the Mary Hatwood Futrell Human and Civil Rights Award to a nominee whose activities in women’s rights significantly impact education and the achievement of equal opportunity for women and girls.
Milianta-Laffin received the award before 1,400 colleagues from Hawaii and across the country. She was one of 12 inspirational awardees recognized Saturday.
Thanks in part to advocacy by her and her students, as of July 1, 2022, all Hawaii public schools, including public charter schools, must supply menstrual products to students free of charge. Hawaii is the sixth state in the country to provide quality menstrual supplies free of charge to public school students.
“I wasn’t kidding when I dedicated this award to my students (in my acceptance speech), because this was them. This was their work. This was their voice. This was their energy,” Milianta-Laffin said. “My job as a public school educator was to get them into the positions where they could speak to those in power to go ahead and make change. Student voice is powerful, and everybody at any position of power should be honoring that — at the state Legislature, at the Board of Education, in our union — we need to listen to our students if we’re going to serve them.”
HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr. said, “Her middle school students are getting a world-class education from her in the things that they’re doing that are not necessarily within the classroom, but outside the classroom, and what they’ve been able to accomplish is something that hopefully can be replicated across the country as more people here tonight got to see the great work that she’s doing.”
Milianta-Laffin encourages more girls to participate in STEM, and helps the Hawaii State Department of Education craft policies and curriculum that are more gender inclusive. She is entering her fourth year as faculty sponsor for the Rainbow Royales, ʻIlima Intermediate’s gender and sexuality alliance, which was named 2020 GSA of the Year by GLSEN.
This dedication and drive to action earned her HSTA’s 2020 Pono Award, which recognizes a member who is a passionate social justice advocate and whose work engages fellow educators, parents, and the community. In 2021, she received the union’s S.T.A.C.Y. Award for teaching excellence.
Milianta-Laffin said, “When we work on racial and social justice, we have to think about if we are pulling at these threads of injustice in our own communities, little by little, we can unweave this injustice system and make a better system for our students.”
Tui said, “What Mili does is amazing, but we all have a little bit of Mili in ourselves that we can go out, and if we see injustice, go out there and fight and work toward making a better tomorrow for our keiki.”
Among other awardees of the evening, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC) received the NEA’s Ellison S. Onizuka Memorial Award, which was accepted by executive director Tavae Samuelu. EPIC is a national organization based in Los Angeles that promotes community solidarity and anti-racism to uplift and center all Pacific Islanders in the broader Asian American and Pacific Islander community.
The NEA presents the Ellison S. Onizuka Memorial Award to a nominee whose activities in Asian and Pacific Islander affairs significantly impact education and the achievement of equal opportunity for Asians and Pacific Islanders.
