Racial Harassment in Vermont Public Schools

Chapter 2

Presentations by Parents, Students, Teachers and Administrators, and Community and Advocacy Group Representatives

Introduction

At the 2-day community forum, 36 panelists offered their views of racial harassment in the public schools. Presenters included invited panelists and individuals wishing to offer information to the Committee during the forum’s open sessions.[1] The presentations have been arranged according to three subject headings: (1) parents and students, (2) teachers, school administrators, and support personnel, and (3) community and advocacy group representatives.

Each section includes a listing of presenters, a brief introduction, their edited statements,[2] and a summary of the major points of each group’s presentation. Participant statements have been edited by the Advisory Committee for readability and overall organization within the chapter and have been reviewed by the participants for accuracy.

The number of presentations at the forum represents a small fraction of persons invited by the Advisory Committee to participate in the discussion. The Advisory Committee made substantial outreach efforts to obtain a balance of viewpoints from a wide range of perspectives. The Committee contacted a total of 5 State legislators, 11 Federal and State agency representatives, 4 educational union representatives, 16 school administrators, 23 advocacy organization representatives, 18 parents, and 5 students and urged them to attend or share the invitation to the forum with others. In addition, the Advisory Committee contacted over 15 school principals (particularly in and around the Burlington and Rutland area) to seek information on their efforts to eliminate harassment within individual schools.

Despite these efforts, the Advisory Committee noted the absence of legislators, school administrators, and union representatives at both forums. The Committee’s efforts to solicit input from these individuals continued throughout the 2-day forum as both staff and members made numerous telephone calls to confirmed panelists who did not appear at the event.

All individuals invited to the forum but who were unable to attend were given an opportunity to submit their written contribution to the Committee. In response to this request, only Michael Obuchowski, speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives, and the National Education Association of Vermont provided written responses to the Committee’s inquiry, which are presented in appendices 4 and 5, respectively.

Parents and Students

Eighteen parents and three students made statements to the Advisory Committee during the 2-day forum describing incidents of racial harassment that included racial remarks and physical assaults on minority students.[3] The panelists also called into question responses to these incidents by teachers, school administrators, and State agency representatives. Table 2.1 lists the parents and students appearing at each session.

Parents and students described in detail racial harassment incidents occurring throughout the State’s primary and secondary school system. They also raised the following issues: (1) lack of respect or empathy shown by teachers and administrators to minority student concerns, (2) the use of curriculum materials promoting racial stereotypes, (3) a presumption by teachers/administrators that minority students are involved in criminal activity, (4) unsatisfactory school-based responses to racial harassment incidents, and (5) an overall climate of racism that exists in the State. The presenters discussed methods to enhance a climate of tolerance and respect for minority students, and offered suggestions for schools on ways to establish an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Ann Borys[4]
Safety issues, Physical assaults on minority students, Lack of respect for minority student concerns

I adopted five children, two African American, two Asian, and one Indian. My husband and I work endlessly taking care of these kids. It’s a devotion, and so we take their issues as our issues. Adopting a child is a very emotional event, and adopting outside of your race and your culture brings a whole different set of responsibilities. I am not separate from my children’s issues. I know what they’ve been through, and I tell their stories today with their permission. So I’m here to represent not just my children but all the mothers in Vermont who are raising children of color. This is an extremely difficult thing to do in our society. I can’t tell you how many hours of the day are consumed by this. I have to read, I have to study, I have to know more than the teachers of my children.

The way we have talked about it is that race is a climate. There is no such thing as someone not having a racial experience. Everybody has a racial experience. For my kids, it’s been a difficult climate. The only forum for race in our school is the bathroom, the playground, and the school bus. This is where race is discussed, this is where race is worked out, and this is where race takes on much more than just the color of one’s skin. The discussion about race is also a discussion about culture.

The race issue starts immediately when children are infants. When my boys were in day care, I saw two teachers pointing at a child who is white and saying, “Look at that boy, he’s so strong, he’s so able, etc.” They turned and said about my son, “He’s so wild, he’s so out of control, he’s so mean spirited.” These two boys were 6 months old. And I realized then how even the people who take care of the children are already beginning to feed part of this racial nonsense to them.

By the time the kids got to school I was very worried about what their experiences would be, and so I tried to find out what it’s really going to be like for them before I sent them into the pit and expected them to survive. I found the names of 10 people of color who had graduated from the school that my children would go to, and I wrote to each of them and asked them to describe their experiences. Every one of them responded and stated they hurt terribly from their experiences. I asked them what it was that they felt that they were missing, every one of them told me, “My mother never believed it was as hard as it was.”

So by the time I sent my kids to school, I was pretty scared about what was going to happen to them. Instead of waiting until something happened I talked to the teachers and told them my children will be attending this school and they will be treated as who they are.

And it started the first week in school. My kids would often have to do much more work to accomplish the same goal. This is one of the stories of race in Vermont. A child of color, to achieve the same place as everybody else, has got to do so much more to get there. I myself can’t do anything but protect my five children as best I can, but there are other children out there and even white children need to be protected from racism. It does us no good to raise up a whole State of baby bigots. We need a very different and much more inclusive program. It’s not enough to send your kids to school and demand their acceptance, and for the school to respond by making them white like all the other kids. We have to make room in our school for other people for them to be heard, accepted, liked for who they are, and begin to understand other cultures.

The main concern I have is the safety of my children. They can go to school and not learn anything, but if they come home alive, I’ve got a chance. But if they go to school and they are hurt endlessly, then the discussion that I have is always about them being hurt. My kids aren’t just going to school in grammar school or high school, they’re going to college. And I think it’s the school’s responsibility to meet me halfway to make sure that they’re ready for school. They cannot learn if they spend all their time looking after their safety.

I no longer work because of some of these things. When my daughter was in kindergarten, I went to a day care to see if it would work out for my kids, and the first question I asked was, “What is your policy for racial problems?” They claimed not to have problems. While I was talking with my children, they had a racial experience. A troubled child grabbed my daughter by her braids and smashed her head into a cement wall and said, “I’m not living in no town and going to no school with no black kids.” Now my kids were terrified and they didn’t know what to do. At that point, I come around the corner from my meeting in which everybody was telling me they have no racial problems at this child care center, and my kids wanted to go home. The next morning while combing her hair I put my hands around her head and discovered that there was blood oozing from between her braids. Well, how can you then take your child back to this day care and say, sure, try again. That was the end of working for me. Although this happened at a day care center and not in the public school, that child now goes to the same school my child goes. Recently this same child was walking up and down the hall where my kids were walking, and he would find every opportunity to harass my kids until they were terrified. I would talk to the teachers and they would say this didn’t happen on school property and we can’t do anything about it. My response is that fear exists on school property and my daughter belongs in that school, and she’s not having the same experience that the other child is having.

Lice is rampant in our schools. I got a call from the school asking me to get my daughter because they claimed she had lice. The teachers claimed she had a different kind than what they have seen before and could infect the whole school. In reality her unusual lice was not lice at all but sand from the sand box. Their reaction is so out of proportion; my daughter was isolated and terrified. The school scared all the kids about her.

Another troubled youngster began beating on my kids in kindergarten, kicking, hitting, pushing, shoving, name calling. My children’s freedom was curtailed because of the other child’s ability to strike out at each and every corner that he wanted to. I would talk to the teachers, who offered that my son could sit in front of the classroom. I want my son to be able to sit where he wants and to have the same rights that the other children have. Well, the kicking became more and more insistent and one day I found my son on his hands and knees looking through the bathroom door to check to see if it was safe to go inside without looking.

Again, everything was done to curtail my son’s freedom, not the other boy’s freedom. That child’s family made no bones about the fact that they were racists. One day my son came home with two black eyes. He was so upset that he could hardly walk. He had rings of blood inside both of his nostrils, and inside his mouth was a ring of dried blood. He told me this other child had kicked him in the hall and all the children saw this. That family is proud of its racism; in fact they send their kid to karate school. The kid goes and is being taught how to be a good fighter and has learned to use my kids as a battering ram for years now. I figured the next time my son’s going to be dead. I called up the principal and teacher who said they knew nothing about it. What happened was that the line in the class turns a corner and the kid marched backward towards my son, hit him and kicked him there, and then the class continued to go. There were other adults who claim they never saw it, but I don’t think they even looked. They all went in the classroom, and he tried to tell the teacher, “I’m having a bloody nose,” and she kept saying to him, “Now you be quiet, you’re being a real pain in the neck.” And he’s really frightened because this other boy is still in the classroom and making faces at him.

Discussion

MR. TUCKER: How many times over the last 7 years have you been before various authorities that are responsible for the school?

MS. BORYS: Oh, more than 50. I see them regularly and have spoken to the school board. I called the State Police and described our situation. I told the detective that my child had continually over all of these years been assaulted, that now it had reached a new level. The other child was much more dangerous and my kid wasn’t capable and didn’t wish to fight back. You know, my son is saying to me, what would Gandhi have done?

MR. TUCKER: You took this tack because you not only felt the schools and the community, but that the police themselves would not have paid any attention to this matter if you had said it was a child of color?

MS. BORYS: People are just not interested in the situation. They would not respond at all if I said it was about race. It was the trooper who went into the school who stated that it was about race. That was only the beginning of us being able to get help for my child and other children. It wasn’t just my kids he was beating up, he was beating up my kids first. While this business of an assault was going on with my son, I realized that part of the problem was that people really didn’t understand my kids. I tried going into the class with a dozen multicultural books and leave them for the teachers and the children. I’d go during black history month and read stories. We found that there were several problems with this whole idea of the schools being all white. One thing was the refusal of the children and teachers to call my son, Samir, his name. They wouldn’t call him his name. They’d call him all kinds of things and the kids were teasing him. They’d call him Sampson, anything that began with an S, but they wouldn’t say “Samir.” I went to the teacher and explained that he’s so proud of his name and who he is, he’s got to be called by his name. At the end of the year Samir, in frustration, brought home his report card and threw it on the table and on the back of his report card written by the teacher across the report card is: “to the boy with many S names.” At the end of the year the teacher still would not say his correct name.

Judith Blank [5]
Transracial adoption of minority children, Methods to enhance a climate of tolerance and respect for diversity

I am the parent of a daughter of color and an adoption social worker for the State of Vermont. I place children throughout the State and train adoptive parents to be as proactive for children as they can be. I want to respond to the person from the Human Rights Commission who asked for the results of one of the suits. First of all in that suit, the money was used mainly for therapy. It was not used to pay back for the insults or whatever had happened. While the suit was going on, or the investigation was going on, parents gathered in the school and said, “What can we do?” Out of the settlement a diversity committee was formed in the elementary school. A local agency got a 3-year grant, which provided us with a diversity specialist in the school 2 days a week who was available to teachers. The teachers that were interested in the beginning were teachers who were more enlightened. There are many teachers who said, “There’s no problem here.” We looked at a goal of having zero tolerance of incidents, but the philosophy of the committee in the school was to go beyond tolerance and celebrate all children.

When an incident occurred, all parents of all the children were informed. This did not happen in the past. As children of color, who were harassed, had to face the older kids and were forced to tell them how the incident hurt their feelings, as the school was desirous of helping kids who are really ignorant. When I said, “It’s not my daughter’s position in 1st grade to educate teachers and other kids on issues of religion and color,” the school started taking a more global look at the issue.

The diversity committee also addressed policies from the principal and the superintendent that they were developing, whether this was racial harassment or sexual harassment or discrimination. I think it’s important to be inclusive of all children. We have to educate all children on the issues. If I had a wish list, I would want the Department of Education to set up a program to bring in student teachers who themselves are from minority groups, because our kids are not seeing adult role models for children of color. I think some parents also have to take responsibility. In central Vermont many children of color have been adopted by white parents and many of these parents feel racism doesn’t exist. When the child comes into the public school they often are shocked and surprised and feel the school should solve all of society’s problems.

My daughter’s now in middle school for the first year. I feel like I’m back at ground one. We have to start over and build up what we had in the elementary school because we had support personnel that were focused. It wasn’t just people saying, “We have a problem,” rather it was “What can we do for a solution,” “What can we do to support the principal, teachers and staff.”

Discussion

MR. TUCKER: So you’re telling me that what went on with the elementary school did not permeate into middle school?

MS. BLANK: No, it did not. I think in the high school it’s working because there were teens who were active. The middle school, like everything else in education, just seems to get lost between the two.

DR. JOHNSON: It seems that we can ask every school what are you doing to celebrate each individual child. Could you give us some examples of your ideas?

MS. BLANK: For 4 years I went to my daughter’s classroom twice a month, and if I brought materials, it wasn’t just Indian materials. It wasn’t just adoption materials. I brought a story on chess that took place in the Orient. Things like a holiday pageant instead of a Christmas show became four little plays. One was Buddhist, one was a Hanukkah story, one was a Kwanzaa story, and one Christmas story. Kids crossed lines. The kids of color in that school did not go to Kwanzaa, they went to other activities. It’s not because you’re this you have to then teach this or be this. You should be interested in everything.

When she was in the younger elementary years, we brought cooking in from different countries. I resent being a Jewish parent that is always viewed as Ms. Hanukkah. They always say, “Hanukkah’s coming up, can you do something?” Why is it just me? Why can’t the teacher or someone else bring that up? If I’m supposed to bring the Asian-Indian culture and have my child respect herself and I’m white, then other people should be able to do things too.

Diane Dexter[6]
Efforts to assist adoptive families of minority children, Teacher and peer treatment of minority students

In my role as the adoption specialist for the State of Vermont, I see a number of children who are adopted transracially. In the past 6 years, there is a steady increase in the number of minority children adopted by Caucasian parents in Vermont. And many of them are still very young. They’re hitting 5 and 6 years of age. Every year all of the agencies in Vermont put together a conference, and in the process of this conference we realized that many parents, as their children were getting older and hitting the school systems, were not prepared to help their children deal with the school systems and with the larger population. We’ve put workshops in place, and the agencies have a screening process to help families before they adopt a child of color and begin to think what the issues are in order to help their child into adulthood as a healthy person of color.

At the adoption conference every year we bring someone in who will do hands-on training for families. I’ve received many phone calls from parents who have adopted children of color saying, “Where can I go to get my daughter’s hair cut and braided?” And these questions are very real for these families. And we now have developed resources. We’re pointing them in that direction and they are getting more educated. At the conference I spoke with adoption agency representatives and together we came up with a handbook for parents that would address this issue. As part of our licensing regulations, agencies have to sit down and give every adoptive family this information. Whether they practice it or not, is another question.

I have two African American children, and my oldest daughter is 6 years old. She entered the public school system this year for the first time. I anticipated she would have a wonderful experience. On day four of her education she didn’t want to go back! There were children in her class and outside of her class who had threatened and intimidated her and made fun of her because of the color of her skin. When my daughter came home she did not want to go back to the school. She said to me, “I feel like I’m a ghost. I feel invisible; nobody sees me.” We had a meeting with the teacher and some good things have happened. My daughter’s teacher is a wonderful young woman in her first year of teaching. I don’t think she’s had any opportunity to experience a child of color in her class or in her life. My little girl sat in the cafeteria for over 3 weeks, did not eat her lunch, and sat with the tray in front of her all by herself with her head down. She was afraid. Children had said to her, “Shut your mouth.” They used the F word to her, and she was afraid. When the teacher divided up the class for circle time, my daughter was always on the outside. She’s separating herself from the rest of the students and doesn’t want to be a part of this group. I said to the teacher, “Here’s what you can do. Be my daughter’s partner. Call her name out and hold her hand. Show your students that you value my daughter and is important to your school.” I asked the school administrator, have your teachers say, “Good morning, how are you today?” When they see my daughter walk down the hall, speak to her. There’s a lot of work that has to be done. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. I’m concerned that it will take committees doing research. You know, hey, that’s my great grandchildren you might touch. My little girl is in your public schools here in Vermont right now and I don’t know what’s happening to her. I’ve worked with the teachers; I’m working with the principal, and they seem responsive, interested, caring, and willing to do something.

Here are some of the things the school has done. They do acknowledge her every day. They are holding her hand. The principal has gone and sat with her in the cafeteria, has invited other children to come and sit with her. The 5th/6th grade class decided early in the year that they would do their study project on Africa.

Parents have to invest in the community and say to themselves, even if my child is white, I should be involved in the school and care about what’s being taught there and going on.

MR. CHENEY: The positive thing is that the other parents saw this as a problem for their kids and not just your kid. I want to know whether you had that experience too.

MS. DEXTER: Yes. I spoke with several other parents of children in my daughter’s class, and I observed some incidents on the playground where one of their children, who’s a Caucasian child, was put to the test. He had to choose between being a part of the game and playing or being my daughter’s friend. He stood there and he cried. When his parents learned of that experience, they were appalled. And they also called the school and said, “This has got to stop now and none of these children are to have this experience.”

Bernie Henault[7]
Inappropriate lesson plans, Recommendations to the State Board

Nine years ago I went to the school board meeting in Newport, Vermont, for the K through 12 system high school. I sat there and wanted to talk about special education. One of the board members in all indignation said, “Who are you to come in here and tell us what to do?” In November, a board member that had served 12 years on that board resigned, and I competed for the seat and won. I joined this school board because I saw the wreckage and saw how policies were handed out.

We do a lot behind executive session doors. You want to try to solve some of this problem in the future, then there is no executive session for racial issues. If you report it and you’ve got the guts to stand on your two feet and say to those people there’s something wrong here and I want you to correct it. I don’t want to sound offensive to more learned people, but I shouldn’t have to tell somebody with a college degree and master’s education, “Gee, do you think we ought to get a consultant in to talk about multicultural acceptance, tolerance?” No way. I am one of 15 votes. If I get seven others, then the administrators and the faculty and all other people working in the school system will do as they’re supposed to do and to not equivocate when incidents occur.

This thing of dividing, I have problems with it. I don’t like it. I was informed at different times that my attitude was wrong. What does it take in our lifetime to bring about change? All racial instances will be reported to the Department of Education. There should be no equivocation and no claiming a victim didn’t officially report it.

And we do a lot of mailings home to our families and children in Vermont. Send the law plus phone numbers home with the first mailing and do it statewide. We should say to the Board of Education members to tell school staff it’s mandatory. Simple language that can be inserted in all educators’ contracts that says: if you stand by and watch racial hatred, or bigotry or slanderous statements be made, you may be dismissed. I wonder how many school administrators would be in this room if their pay was cut 35 percent and used it for multicultural programs.

Last year when they were studying the American Revolution, they were going to hold a slave auction. We got the notice 3 days in advance. We had a few reservations because Sam, my 7-year-old granddaughter, was the only black kid in the school. So we had some concerns about her friends, who were white, and what they would do with Samantha after the auction. I told the administrators, “You need to not do this. You needed to prep all the students to say how horrendous this was, how bad it was to sell human beings to be slaves. You didn’t do that prep work.” In September of 1997 out on the playground a kid called her a nigger and said, “Niggers are bad.”

There are sample multicultural programs all around the country which could be made available to everyone. What I’m searching for in my supervisory union is a good example for K through 12. I’m going to throw it on the table and I’m going to say, “Why don’t you start at kindergarten? By the time they hit 12 if they also learn good manners, they’ll be reasonable citizens and we won’t have to yell and scream at each other.” Every single school in the State of Vermont should have Americanism 101 as part of the common core.

Jacklyn Hickerson[8]
Physical and verbal assaults on minority students, Complaint processing by school staff and the Human Rights Commission

I have two biracial children in the public schools. My daughter’s been in the school system 2 years; my son just entered 1st grade. It’s hard to condense what’s been happening to them into a speech because its something that has been a very horrible experience for my children, and it is difficult to try to communicate it to you with the same effect.

Racial harassment in all its forms, including taunts, repeated use of the N word, as well as physical assaults, have been the norm rather than the exception during my children’s school career. Last year the problem got worse. Nearly on a daily basis my daughter was called the N word, was punched, kicked, and spat at. To make matters worse, one of the perpetrators was the daughter of a school board member. I have called a school official several times and would get no help whatsoever. This person would not acknowledge what was going on. She would say to me, “He has a cousin who’s black, so I don’t think he’s doing that. He couldn’t be a racist.”

I had a parent meeting with a school board member. She told me I was overreacting because I wanted a meeting with her because her daughter was calling my daughter the N word. I have very serious concerns that people like this are raising children like that and are in power over our schools.

This year already my daughter has experienced incidents; the N word has been used as well as other derogatory terms. She has been punched. I brought these incidents to the attention of the school staff. My complaints have gone unanswered and I go forward. Also because of my complaints, I think my child is being treated differently. Whenever there is a problem in the classroom, my child is the one to be blamed. When she tries to give her side of the story the school official continually asks her, “Are you sure you’re telling the truth?” and drilling her repeatedly when she’s the one coming home with bruises. She’s never taken at her word. She’s made out to be a liar. She is allowed to be abused. I have tried to call officials at the school system, but they don’t return my calls and my complaints go unanswered.

During this school year an incident occurred while my daughter was in art class. A white child sitting next to her scribbled all over her school work. In retaliation, my daughter took a marker and scribbled on his arm. That child got no punishment whatsoever. However, my daughter was not only put into detention, she was barred from the school dance. The other child admitted to starting the incident, but my child was the one to get punished whereas the white child was not. When I went to the school and talked to the teacher she told me, “Oh, well, that’s just how I feel, that’s my opinion.” I talked to the school official who backed up the teacher. I was totally outraged.

Also this year I requested an IEP meeting because my daughter is not receiving the services that she’s supposed to. The meeting was scheduled by the special education staff person for 3:00 on October 13th. When I showed up for this meeting, the staff person told me that the meeting was set for 2:00 and the teachers and everyone else had left. She then proceeded to tell me the reason my daughter was not getting the services she needs is because they are short staffed and there is not enough money. She stated that my requesting an assistant for my daughter would take an assistant away from someone else’s child. Three weeks after this meeting, I finally got the notice of the meeting in the mail. It was her handwriting, signed by her, and scheduled for 3:00. I called her up and asked, “Why have you denied me this?” She responded, “What do you want me to say?” Responses like that make me wonder what is going on. The school receives money for these services and they’re not being given. Is it because of their lack of interest in my child as an IEP student or their lack of interest in my child as a student of color? I believe it’s because she’s a student of color. My child has been kicked around in this school system too much, and I have told my story many times. I have gone to the forums, I have repeated this stuff, and each time it’s a new and different incident. The old ones keep getting lost in the jumble. When is somebody going to do something about this?

There is a case that has been pending for over a year now with the Human Rights Commission. They have not been able to make any decision. That is one I have not told you of. The incident happened at the beginning of last year.

Discussion

MR. CHENEY: Have you made them aware of these issues?

MS. HICKERSON: One of them, yes. When it came to my daughter getting the suspension and the barring from the school dance, I did. And it is currently under investigation. You call them every single day. They’re very busy. I would like to see something happen without having to wait for the Human Rights Commission because it’s already been over a year and this was a major issue that I have a case on. I also have a first grader in the school system that’s been taunted on the playground, but no physical violence yet. But he’s only been in school 2 months. I think it is important that we do go public with this. I feel like I’ve been shouting my head off since I moved here. And since my children have been in school, it’s gone nowhere.

MR. TUCKER: Since the U.S. Department of Education conducted a PAR review of the school system you are referring to, have you seen any movement around your two children as a result of that and has the school system followed any of the things that were outlined in the review?

MS. HICKERSON: None whatsoever. They have not followed that.

MR. HOFF: Do you know if other children of color in that school system had similar experiences?

MS. HICKERSON: I’m sure they have. I don’t want to speak for the parents of those children, but how could they not? I assume that every child of color is getting some type of harassment because I’ve seen it. This issue has been kicked aside for so long but I can tell you, I know that children are being harassed. If this forum was not at the Sheraton and there was transportation, you’d have a line out the door.

Jeanne Marie Schinhofen [9]
Lack of respect for minority student concerns, Inappropriate lesson plans, Response by administrators to requests by parents

I think there’s an incredible lack of respect from the teachers to the students. When the administration and staff communicate to the children, they are first and foremost communicating this lack of respect. In one incident, my son was sent to the school planning room. He wrote three pages on exactly what happened. I will read an excerpt from his writings:

“The teacher was pushing me down the hall, she was pulling at my shirt and pushing me and forcing me to go; however, of course she called it guiding. I don’t understand why they have to call you and check up on everything that I say. They’re telling me that I’m a liar just by doing that.”

Perhaps the administration needs to verify some of this information with a parent; however, he is treated as though they don’t believe him. When he approaches me with these problems, I have a meeting with the administrators to help the situation. I am educating the teacher on how to educate my children.

I need to add respect in capital letters. I have had student teachers and other parents that have helped out in the classroom come to me and say, “There’s something going on in the classroom. All of the other eight children in the group are doing this, but your child was singled out and punished for this behavior.” I’ve had calls from parents of students that have come home crying because one of my children is being mistreated in class consistently. Although the children come home and tell their parents, I may not find out this information for a year. I’m wondering what has happened to this particular child that he can’t come home and say, “Mom, I’m being mistreated.” He has been mistreated so much he doesn’t know what’s right and doesn’t know to come home and say, “They have wronged me.”

Once a teacher was trying to set up a hierarchy in the classroom. She was the queen and students were different levels of servants. I explained to her that my child deals with this on a daily basis. Of course he doesn’t want to have anything to do with this—he lives this. You’re putting it to these children because maybe some of these children haven’t experienced this. You don’t understand what you’re saying to my child.

We were talking about these children feeling invisible. For 4 years I have been asking the administration to please put the children of color together in the classroom. Finally, when my child was in a class of 40, there were 4 children of color. None of them were in his grade, but because it was a combined class, he happened to be put together with these children. He came home on the first day of school excited and stated, “I’ve got three other African American children in my class. I really don’t even care if they are my friends, they’re just there. It means on the one day of the year when we celebrate Martin Luther King or a little bit of black history, everybody isn’t looking at me.” There’s somebody else to share that burden with. The administration denied purposely putting these children together.

I was asked the other day if I work at the school, because I’m walking the hallways. I’m in a position where I’m ready to quit my job because I can barely hold onto it. We had a principal there that was an ally. I had asked him to allow my children to have access to me and let them call me at work or at home if something’s bothering them. They did this many times. We had a teacher last year who came to me and said, “I want to do the rest of the year dealing with diversity on some level; can you help me?”

Discussion

MR. TUCKER: What school are we talking about?

MS. SCHINHOFEN: Twinfield Union in Plainfield, Marshfield. I personally have not gone beyond the administration because I knew it was useless. I felt that my energy was best put into approaching each of the teachers when my child was in their class. I would do my best to educate them, explain my child to them. I have gone to the administration and asked them, “Please, on one of these teacher in-service days, can you please focus on having the teachers educated?” They’re ignorant here; can you please help to educate them?” There’s no funding for that. I feel as though the diversity that we do get, the teachers aren’t truly there in their hearts. Whenever they get something that is diverse, it’s not brought into the school in other ways.

When I took my child to the 1st grade the teacher informed me in the first week that there was no racism in this school. She said I had nothing to worry about when I was concerned that my child wasn’t going to be safe there. I looked around and there were no posters, no books, there was nothing. I now have a teacher for my daughter who has spent a good portion of her budget this year on things that would encompass her in the classroom. I do know that I’m being heard. It’s on such a small level that it’s hard not to be bitter. It’s hard not to be totally frustrated, but I do it for my children.

DR. JOHNSON: Is there something that the parents can do to educate themselves about how to deal with the school? Can parents get funding for some kind of strategy on how to be a parent of an ethnic minority student in Vermont that describes what parents and students will encounter? I don’t know if you communicate with one another.

MS. STOLEROFF: We are in contact. A group in our community formed a diversity group. What’s so wonderful about our community is it acts as a community. There are many people in the community that care about these issues, yet it’s hard to get the school to change and use the community as a resource.

Reene Shippe [10]
Reactions by teachers to verbal assaults of minority students

My two children and I live in Morrisville, Vermont. People of color are coming out of the inner cities because they want their children to have a safe environment. I needed a safe environment and a better education for my children, and I felt I would have it here. I look at that sign many times and it says, welcome to Vermont. I want to add—but it’s not for the people of color, and if you do stay, you will be harassed and will experience racism. No matter whether you’re hiding, whether you want to be a productive citizen or not, you will experience it here.

Here in Vermont the selectmen are not open for change. If we as people of color, as a community, as parents, as educators, if something is going wrong with our children and if we are experiencing racism, harassment, then there’s a way to stop it: deliver a message to the politicians that we will not vote for you until the harassment and racism stops. For every incident in your district, you lose money.

My 14-year-old daughter had a very hard time. She was called the N word. They wanted to fight. She really didn’t want to fight, but when somebody walked up to her and slapped her, she felt she had to. Teachers, principal turned their back; they didn’t see a thing. And it was good because I wasn’t waiting for her to be suspended.

When my 12-year-old son was called that, he used diplomacy. He went into the principal’s office and he sat down and he talked about it. He couldn’t understand it because he’s been programmed Vermont’s way. Not that he accepts being called the N word, but he accepts the Vermont culture. He took it to another level and asked to have a meeting with the principal, and he did. The principal ironed it out with him and shoved it underneath the table. She asked that the person that called him this name do a paper on what an N word person was and asked that their parents be involved in this.

You’re always talking about children, but you have to hit the base. The base is home. Parents have their issues which are heard by these children in school. I suggest that you confront the parents first. When there’s an incident, you call in the parent of the perpetrator and describe the incident. The child did not just pick up the N word from out of the sky.

Mark Jr.; Brandon, and Philip Davis[11]
Incidents of racial harassment, Reactions of teachers to minority student concerns

MARK DAVIS JR.: I am 17 and currently attend a high school in Vermont. I’m sure I know a lot of you are aware of some of the problems I’ve encountered at the high school. First of all, I’ll start with the school officials. Every day they make it obvious that they don’t want me in school, they don’t want me anywhere in the city, including the football coach who told my brother that I wasn’t welcome to play on the team. Every day he gives me nasty looks when I’m walking through the hall. To me it’s pretty obvious they’re retaliating because of the civil rights suit I filed against them in ‘95. We moved out of State in July of last year. Since we arrived back in Vermont, in January 1997, my life has been pure misery while I attend school there. I experience harassment every day. I can’t even concentrate on school work. I’m doing pretty good so far. And I feel like the school is trying to get to my father through me. Just walking through the hall I can hear the N word from kids. Kids will stare at me and give me nasty looks. I can’t walk through the hall without the principal asking where I’m going, why I’m in the hall, etc. The superintendent will see me every once in a while in the hall. He’ll give me a dirty look but doesn’t speak to me.

Recently my mother reminded my father that we couldn’t attend a football game at school because of the no trespass order against him. And I was already mad that I couldn’t play in the game, and I became more angry for now I couldn’t even watch it.

MR. TUCKER: Were you told that you could not play football?

BRANDON DAVIS (Age 12): Yes. The head coach of the football team, I asked him if my brother was welcome to play for the team because he still wanted to play, and he said that he wasn’t welcome. It was obviously an excuse because he didn’t want him to play.

MR. CHENEY: Why couldn’t you play in the game?

MARK DAVIS JR.: The coach didn’t want me on the team. He didn’t give a reason; he just said I wasn’t welcome.

MR. TUCKER: You’re in the middle school. So he told your brother in middle school that you weren’t welcome to play on the high school football team? What’s your average?

MARK DAVIS JR.: B.

MR. TUCKER: So it’s not because of your marks?

MARK DAVIS JR.: No.

MR. TUCKER: Even if you pass, you can’t play. Is that what you were told?

MARK DAVIS JR.: Yes.

PHILIP DAVIS (Age 14): When I was in 5th grade, I was assaulted by a teacher. When I tried to report it, nobody believed me even though two other students came forward and said they saw the teacher do it. My parents tried to tell a school official what happened. They mentioned filing a complaint with the Department of Justice. The school official assaulted my mom with the door. When I was in the middle school, kids made fun of me all the time because I was in special education. They would get me in trouble all the time and the principal would always blame me. My parents would be asked to come to the school every time no matter how small the problem.

MR. TUCKER: How would you describe your experience in the school system?

BRANDON DAVIS: In Washington State we had a lot of black teachers and a lot of friends that were like us, and here they just aren’t, and they basically just make us feel uncomfortable because we’re different. And they just don’t want us here for some reason. I’d rather be in Seattle right now.

MARK DAVIS JR.: I feel the same way. In Washington State I had black teachers and pretty much all my friends were black. The school was a happy atmosphere. I could walk through the hall and teachers and kids would say hi to me. They made you feel like we were part of the community out there. Here we’re away from everybody. It wasn’t like that here in Vermont.

MR. TUCKER: Did you participate in sports in Washington State?

MARK DAVIS JR.: I was playing varsity football.

MR. TUCKER: But you can’t play it in Vermont.

BRANDON DAVIS: My teachers used to suggest which books I should read or write a report on. They were always usually about African Americans. During one of my classes we were talking about slavery and the teacher said, “Brandon, don’t you feel so lucky that you didn’t live during those days.” And all of the kids just stared at me the same way when we talk about something about African Americans. And one day the principal said to me that if I miss another day of school, that she would have a truant officer on me to talk to me. And I guess that she didn’t like me or something for whatever reason, that’s why she said that. And I’m in the middle school now, and the principal, the counselor, and some of the teachers make me feel uncomfortable because they know that I’m Mark’s brother and Mark Sr.’s son. The principal and the vice principal are usually just the same way to my mother as to me.

Joya and Mark Davis Sr. [12]

JOYA DAVIS: Whenever there’s a problem with one of the kids, I’m the one they call. They feel that because I’m white, they can deal with me since I’m going to understand the problem they are having with my child. I’ve had the principal say to whatever adult was present, “Oh, you can talk to her, she knows.”

MARK DAVIS SR.: I’m thankful of this Committee being here and having the opportunity, like other parents, to let you know what our children go through and what we expect to be a part of our kids’ education. This isn’t just Burlington that’s a problem. There’s a problem in other parts of Vermont. The type of mentality you’re dealing with is one of intimidation for speaking out.

You have seen the letter my wife sent you regarding the boy saying something to my son and I called the school. I didn’t make a threat or anything. It’s really sad that it’s that easy for a parent to call a school and to try to have a conversation about the conduct of another student and they can completely take what they feel I said and misguide it and have the police charge you with something that you never even said.

Currently I have a no trespassing charge on me prohibiting me from entering school grounds, because of a football coach that perceived that my words were threatening. How can one perceive threatening when you call somebody and ask to discuss my concerns about one other student using filthy language to my child? I don’t think that’s threatening whatsoever. The proof is right here in the letter that the school sent me. What bothers me is that the assistant principal, principal, superintendent, didn’t have the decency to spell out the word that this student said.

Discussion

MR. TUCKER: Were you given a hearing about this no trespass warning?

MR. DAVIS SR.: No. They served it by certified mail. This was the second trespassing charge against me.

MR. TUCKER: What you’re saying to me is that an arm of the law served you with a notice that said you were not allowed on school grounds, but you never had a hearing?

MR. DAVIS SR.: Yes. The letter says you may not enter on school property except to pick up and drop off your sons, and you must stay in your vehicle at all times.

MR. TUCKER: When’s the last time Mark Jr. participated in any sports in Vermont? Did he play ball?

MRS. DAVIS: About 9 seconds.

MR. TUCKER: So he hasn’t been allowed to play since he’s been at the high school, but he made varsity in Seattle where the competition is really hard.

MR. DAVIS SR.: In Seattle he played with some of kids that now are in the top 10 colleges in the Nation. I’m hurt for my son because this is about retaliation. This summer we were driving by, and we drove up onto the school and I said to Brandon, “Go down to the football field and ask the coach is Mark welcome to play.” And this particular coach told Brandon, no, he wasn’t welcome. The reason why is because we’ve got too many kids as it is. And that was it.

MRS. DAVIS: In April of 1996 they issued him a no trespass then, which didn’t even allow him to drop or pick up the kids and prohibited him from school property. We were told by the police that it expires a year later. When we moved back here, it had been over a year, so I called up the school and I asked if it was still in force. And they said, no. Bygones were bygones and everything was all set. And this letter is dated the very next day. It’s disturbing the fact we didn’t say or do anything wrong. I did what any parent would do, which is call up and let them know I had some concerns about another student’s language. I think the best bet is this: Leave Vermont. We are desperately trying to leave as soon as we can and never return. If we were to stay here, I’d ask the mayor of Burlington if we would be welcomed in his city. We’ve only lived in one location in Vermont and we have always had problems there. Now when my son went down to the football field this summer, spoke with the coach and the players, the atmosphere was just so normal. The coach and kids were extremely nice to us.

I was talking to the investigator at the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights who’s going to be handling the retaliation complaint that we filed, and he just couldn’t seem to get off the subject. He kept asking me if my husband was big because I guess when the people were here from the Office of Civil Rights, they went back and told them my husband is a big guy. He kept bringing it up. Finally, I said to him, “Do you mind if I ask you what your race is?” He told me that he was white. I said, “What you keep asking me makes sense to me now.” Ever since I got married that’s been his biggest problem. Because he’s big and black, he’s a threat to people. I question how can these people help us if they’ve never met us and just talk to me on the phone.

Ayana Al-Faruk [13]
Existence of racism in public schools, Racial slurs directed at minority students

I want to thank the Advisory Committee for coming; however, I have mixed feelings. The fact that you have to come is quite insulting to me. The fact that we’re still dredging this issue is very insulting. In 1997 African Americans and other people of color are still having to beg for what the Constitution said every American had, and that’s inalienable rights, and peace and justice for all. That’s still not true when it comes to people of color.

Listening to prior speakers has me very disturbed about what’s going on with children of color in schools. You say that you have heard comments that made you realize that racism is alive and well in Vermont schools. Yes, it’s very much alive and well, and I am not particularly sure that the school districts are willing to admit how alive and well it is. Or if they even understand that racism is entrenched in the school system here. It’s been my experience that when you challenge people on it they oftentimes don’t even know what you’re talking about. It makes me realize that they’re so entrenched in it that they don’t even understand it. And to me that’s more dangerous than someone who’s being racist straight out. I don’t think that the people who are being racist realize that racism affects everybody. It just doesn’t affect the children of color. Ultimately it’s going to affect this entire country. In the 21st and 22nd century, we’re not going to be where we need to be because we’re so busy trying to keep other people down.

I have four sons that go to school in Burlington. The first day in school, girls were throwing their phone numbers at them which really unnerved them because they haven’t experienced that before. It was as if the girls tried to make them not human, putting them into an alien kind of category, exoticizing them. I don’t think people realize that doing that is totally racist.

I have a 16-year-old son who attended Edmunds Middle School. He had the experience of going to a track meet last May or June at U-32 High School in Montpelier. And as he was getting ready for a run, there were two or three high school students milling around. One of his teammates heard someone call him a nigger, and she said, “Muji, I think he just called you a name.” What he had said to my son was, “run, nigger, run.” After that the entire Edmunds Middle School track team went to their coach to tell him what had just happened. The coach, in turn, went to an administrator at U-32 who came out to my son and challenged him like he was the perpetrator. My son told her that she needed to get her facts straight and find out exactly who was the victim and who was the perpetrator. U-32 ultimately made the boys write letters of apology, which were not sincere. The school ultimately wrote a letter of apology to Edmunds Middle School. What I’m saying is that this can happen so easily because it’s gone on so long unchecked.

I think that the Burlington school system and Vermont generally likes to pride itself on being liberal and progressive. Being progressive, however, does not mean anti-racist. My question is how do you treat African Americans and other people of color in the school system? What I want to know is how my children are going to be treated, and I’m not happy with how they have been treated already.

The white community is very invested in maintaining their children’s emotional well-being. But these are the same people who do racist things to African American kids. What about their emotional well-being? I don’t think the school systems see that as a priority.

Leslie McCrorey Wells [14]
Use of curriculum materials promoting racial stereotypes

I have a 9-year-old daughter. Several weeks ago she approached me with a book that she was to read for her 4th grade reading class. She asked me just to read the back cover. She said it didn’t sit well with her because of the way that it talked about, quote “the Indian and how this young white boy and his grandmother were trying desperately to escape from him by taking a raft down river.” I praised her for noticing the negative images and for bringing it to my attention.

After reading the first two chapters, I spoke with my daughter’s teacher to ask what she hoped the children would gain from this book they were reading, a book that I perceived as extremely racist. She informed me that they were doing a unit on Native Americans and that the aim of this particular book was to get the children to understand the American grit of the boy and his grandmother. After a brief discussion, she told me that if the children don’t bring up the issue of the negative images, she would in their discussions.

I finished reading the book and realized that the image of the Indian remained constant throughout the book with phrases such as, “they got animal noses, they can smell you out” and “there is never just one Indian,” and “you don’t see them until it’s too late” and then culminating in a final chapter which depicted how seven Indians were caught after they burned out and murdered several of the good white settlers. Needless to say, there wasn’t any other message in the book except that Native Americans were savages.

The following letter was sent to the school by my daughter’s father:

I am writing in regard to the curriculum in my daughter’s reading class, specifically the book in which the class is now required to read, Trouble River, by Betsy Byars. I find the depiction of Native Americans quite troubling indeed. Describing Native Americans as savages with animal noses perpetuates stereotypic lies, and the presentation of their culture as solely bent on the stalking and murder of white women and children is reprehensible. The Native American culture is so rich and so fulfilling, how could anyone stand by and let their children read such lies? It is to my daughter’s credit that she was able to recognize these stereotypes for what they were and bring it to our attention. Leslie and I have discussed the issue and are in agreement that if the book is to be read in class, [our daughter] will be allowed to leave the room and read a book in the learning center. While Leslie and I do not and should not have control over the curriculum, I urge the faculty to be critical thinkers and to constantly re-evaluate the curriculum. A book written in 1969 should be carefully evaluated for stereotypic and racist depictions regardless of how many awards it has received. At any age, people are inclined to believe what is written in books, but young readers are particularly susceptible. It is up to the educators to evaluate the reading material carefully so that harmful stereotypes are not perpetuated through yet another generation.

This letter prompted a meeting with the principal and the teacher. I was particularly disheartened with the meeting, but the most significant part for me was when my daughter’s teacher told me that she was embarrassed for having missed the stereotypes. But she had realized that it was because she doesn’t notice stereotypes. Now I’m not here to say this is a bad person; I am saying that she is a part of an institution that is not fit to teach my child or any of our children. I am fully aware that she does not stand alone.

This is a perfect example of the American educational system. I am here to say that this type of education is absolutely unacceptable. When a 9-year-old stands alone not only identifying but articulating the stereotypes within the literature that has been endorsed and legitimized by her teacher, then I say this is unacceptable and the educational system and society that allow it to continue are morally and ethically vacant.

It is unacceptable that I have to choose between taking my child out of a class and risk her feeling that she did something wrong or leaving her in a class with a teacher that doesn’t recognize the existence of a problem with depicting Native Americans as savages. The book is still being read in the class.

For those who read this report, I urge you to please develop a sense of urgency about racism within our schools. All of our children are being diminished. If you are in a position to receive this report, you are most likely in a position to do something about it. You have an obligation to all children to be a catalyst for change. Don’t allow the legacy that parents of children of color have had to pass on to each generation continue, the legacy of picking our children up at 2:30 and attempting to repair the damage that has been done to them during their school day. Racism is not a problem or an issue; it’s a way of life.

Leigh Lamphere [15]
Systemwide approach to curriculum selection

I’m a public school teacher and the parent of two biracial sons who go to the school where I teach. One is in kindergarten and one is in 1st grade. As a family we haven’t personally encountered strong acts of racial harassment, so it would be easy to say that that term doesn’t apply to my family and children, but I think it does.

Last year my son was standing in the hallway at People’s Academy in Morrisville; he’s a kindergartner, and the kindergarten is housed in the high school. A junior high school girl walked by and spit her gum in his face. Was that racial harassment? It felt like it. There wasn’t any exchange of words. It’s sometimes hard to know if that was a racially motivated act or just pure crassness and stupidity.

I’d like to speak about the lack of an enlightened approach in the school curriculum. I teach music in the school where my sons go, and I’m careful to bring a lot of music from a lot of different cultures. As far as the rest of the curriculum goes, it disturbs me that it is primarily my sons’ kindergarten and first grade classrooms that have picture books with children of color. The reason they have these materials is because I’ve provided them for those teachers. It disturbs me that if you happen to get the right teacher and it’s February, black history month, you might get to learn about Rosa Parks or maybe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and maybe not if you’re in other classrooms. That’s probably the most that you’re ever going to learn about the civil rights movement. When you get to 6th grade, you’re going to learn a little bit about the Civil War and you’re going to talk about slavery, but you won’t talk about the real issues.

We don’t have a national or statewide curriculum. I don’t want to have to be the one that provides that education for my children exclusively, because it’s not just my children that need that education. And I don’t want to have to enlighten every teacher that my children are going to have and provide books in the classroom so that children are exposed to all the things that they should be exposed to. I would like to know that my children and all of the children in my school are going to get a comprehensive education which is not strictly Eurocentric.

It’s November and so we’re going into a unit on Native Americans, and you might be in the classroom where the teacher actually calls the Native American a Native American instead of Indian, but you’re going to sit around and make headdresses and pretend that you’re in a powwow. What little bit is touched on in the curriculum is very often sort of tokenism or a kind of tourist approach. I respect my colleagues and I don’t feel that most of them are blatantly racist. I think that they don’t really get it; they don’t understand. They say, “But in February we talked about Rosa Parks,” and they just don’t get that that’s all that they did and that’s all that my children will ever know about their heritage.

Discussion

MR. CHENEY: Do you know if there’s been any systematic review of the curriculum at People’s Academy with a view to this?

MS. LAMPHERE: I’m certain that there has not. I’m at the elementary school, but I can speak for our school, absolutely not.

MR. CHENEY: The textbooks that are in your school, are they all of the type you described where it’s pretty much all white?

MS. LAMPHERE: No. You’re not going to buy a language arts book that doesn’t have cartoon pictures of people of all different races. Is African American history or any people of colors’ history really talked about in the schools? Not really.

Mary Allen McMaster [16]
Teachers, staff, and administrators modeling unequal treatment toward minority students

I teach African history at Castleton State College. I came to Vermont in 1988 because I thought it would be a good place to raise a child. I didn’t realize that I was making the biggest mistake of my life. Within the first day my child was already in danger. When my son walked up to get the mail, he noticed that the next door neighbor’s post and holder for newspaper had fallen into the road. He tried to repair the box because he thought it could cause an accident. A man in a truck pulled over, opened the right-hand door screaming at him jumping to the conclusion that he was a vandal. The swinging door caused my little boy to have to throw himself into the ditch to keep from being hit.

The first time my son walked down the hall at Castleton Elementary School, a child reached over and knuckled his hair. That was the beginning, and it never stopped. After a week at Castleton my son had really changed his identity because in preschool in California he came home one day saying, “You know, Mom, there’s so much talk about black and white. But look at me, I’m not black. I’m certainly not pink like you. Would beige be a good way to describe me?” After a week at Castleton he was black, and I think this was extremely healthy. He chose to identify himself as black because the other students were brutalizing him for being black. I knew of another little boy around 5 or 6 years of age who came home before the end of his first week and screamed at his mother, “I’m not African, I’m not black; I’m white, you’re not my mother, and I hate you.”

In the 3rd grade at Castleton Elementary School, my son came home and said after one day of school, “They won’t keep their hands off me.” I went to the principal and I pointed out that the psychologically sound way was to empower him to allow him to raise his voice in the hallway so that a teacher could overhear him saying, “Get your hands off me.” They told me he would be punished for raising his voice and that he was to sneak when nobody was looking and tell a teacher what had happened. I said, “I’m not going to have you turn my child into an informer.” So they instituted a policy whereby both students were considered equally responsible whenever there was physical contact. When another boy wrapped his legs around my son’s legs, my son was the one punished.

Within a few weeks I was going in regularly to see what was happening in the schools, and at lunch there were probably 150 2nd and 3rd graders. They were allowed to talk, so there was sort of a gentle roar. All of a sudden the teacher in charge of the lunchroom descended on my child grabbing him and shaking him and shrieking, “You’re the cause of all the noise.” Every kid in that school knew it was illegal for her to lay hands on him, so every student was shown the rules don’t apply. You have a problem and you can work it out on the dark kid, and that’s exactly the message that is coming down from the highest quarters.

It’s not only emotionally exhausting for these students, it becomes physically dangerous. It’s the comfort level of the teachers, the employees, the administrators in the school system. If my son were retarded, they would be very comfortable with him. They would be very gently patronizing, but at Castleton Elementary School it became apparent probably within the first week that he was the brightest kid in the school, and that’s what the problem is. The abuse was systematic and pervasive. They tried to lower his performance to the level of their racist comfort. I took him out of Fair Haven High School in November of 1994, and he started his senior year in a high school last September outside the State.

Discussion

MR. HOFF: Did he have any friends?

MS. McMASTER: He was very popular his first year at Fair Haven. In his freshman year, I made the mistake of going to a counselor and explaining that because the verbal abuse was so pervasive, my son’s way of dealing with it was to take a day off now and then. And I suggested they tell his teachers that his absences are not frivolous, explain that it is due to the racial harassment, and to do some consciousness raising so that teachers and administrators will be on the lookout because he cannot and will not implicate the perpetrators. I learned from one of the teachers that the counselor told his teachers that he had psychological problems.

MR. CHENEY: You described this discipline policy that’s so obviously unfair that the victim gets the same treatment as the perpetrator, but did you try to pursue that with the authorities?

MS. McMASTER: My son made me promise that I would not do anything to make it impossible for him to continue in school. I spent part of every day week after week with this principal. And when my son was punished equally, I just came and had lunch with him every day. I got an ally in the school counselor so that when my son would come home in a rage because of something that had happened, the school counselor would go and check it out. Before my son entered the 4th grade in 1989, I told the principal he could either do what was sensible, look at my son’s test scores, look at his grades, watch him on the athletic field, or take the easy way out and promote him or you can put him in that room with the woman who attacked him savagely. This principal had a habit of refusing to speak to me. I once sat for half an hour after asking him a question; he just sat there. And a week later I got a call saying, well, he could have a 6-week trial in the 5th grade and then never heard anything else about it. One day my son came home and was fused with rage. It seemed that in phys-ed there was a game where the teacher was supposed to throw the ball underhanded. Instead, he threw it overhand at his head. So I went to my next door neighbor who was the counselor at the school and checked it out. He said, “You’re absolutely right.” And when asked why he said, “Oh, well, your son is so physically gifted I have to challenge him.” The other phys-ed teacher had found another way to challenge him, and this would make him a pariah because kids are very competitive. It was a team sport, and whatever team my son was on, if it was ahead, the teacher would come in on the other side. So whatever team my son was on was never allowed to win.

MR. CHENEY: We’ve heard testimony regarding the futility of making complaints, but some people know the Human Rights Commission exists, actually had some good results. Did you try to complain to the Attorney General?

MS. McMASTER: My son made me promise not to do any of this, and then he just one day said, “All right, mom, take me out.” He explained that a student who has had severe learning problems, who had been mainstreamed at Fair Haven High School because he was a good football player, would harass him. I asked, “How often does this happen?” He explained that every single day that he has been at school that year, the student would come over, sit down, grab what food he wants off my son’s tray, throw garbage and then say, “Dump it, slave.” The last day my son was there, the assistant principal was present while this football player went through this routine. The assistant principal just sat there talking with the football player while this was happening. It was at that point, my son said, “It’s over.”

RABBI KITTY: Was your son ever assaulted on the way to or from school ?

MS. McMASTER: The school bus stops at our driveway, and regularly she would go by and leave him. She could see him before she made her turn back up in the driveway, but if he weren’t standing at the edge of the road, she would speed up. He had to be very careful on the school bus because if somebody grabbed him there, he could have been off the bus.

MS. SAUDEK: Did your son participate in school sports?

MS. McMASTER: Yes. And I was really stunned when I saw that coaches would rather lose than play him. My son spent a lot of time perfecting his soccer skills. He was the second or third best soccer player on the 9th grade team at Fair Haven. When it came time to substitute a player, the young coach of the team could not leave the black kid in and he took him out and, of course, the goal was scored right where my son had kept this area covered. I realized, my God, this young man doesn’t know why he couldn’t honor my son by saying he’s one of the top eight or ten players on the field. You had to take him out and degrade him even if it meant losing the game.

The week before I took my son out of Fair Haven, parents of three other students came to me and said, “You must get him out, he’s in physical danger.” One person’s daughter saw my son pinned against a corridor wall by five or six larger students who were fronting him. Of course, if he reached out to try to push his way out, he would have been guilty of making contact. The girl very quickly walked over, took my son’s hand and led him away from the other students. When she later came home, she was almost hysterical. She said that her mother was one of the people that came and said, “You must get him out.”

MR. TUCKER: A lot of people called the Human Rights Commission and are told you can file a complaint but there’s a big backlog. They’re not very encouraging about taking legitimate complaints. A number of us are looking for alternatives, and one is to just take a class action suit against the State.

MS. McMASTER: May I say I think that’s the only thing that’s going to work unless we get the United States Attorney General to send Federal investigators in.

MR. TUCKER: This is one of numerous complaints that you will hear from Afro-Americans and other groups who want to use that office only to be told there is a big backlog. So that’s already setting up a climate of “We don’t want to hear this and we don’t want to respond.” I don’t know how I could be a State official or a person in office and not be appalled.

MS. McMASTER: I think they’re selling the citizens of this State short. What we have here is a conspiracy of silence. I know a number of people who will give you testimony if their names are never published. The Office of Civil Rights enforcement of the Vermont Attorney General has not enforced the law. As a matter of fact, when I called wanting to know when this meeting was and its location and time, I had a call waiting for me yesterday saying they couldn’t tell me.

Barbara Linton [17]
Racial harassment incidents throughout primary and secondary school system, Investigations by Human Rights Commission

I’m in an interracial marriage and have two children, Sheila Marie, who is 19 and out of high school, and a son, David Andrew, who is 22. We’ve lived in Vermont for more than 20 years, and my children attended schools in southern Vermont. My children were in the school system from 1984 to 1996.

One of the things I was hoping when I first moved here was that I wouldn’t have to have another generation of black children growing up with prejudice and bigotry always at their shoulder. We have five generations of black men and women in my family who have faced prejudice in everyday life such as someone following us in a store because they think that something is going to get stolen, or attending a school function and having some little kid call you Aunt Jemima and nigger. The violence and the verbiage no doubt followed my kids back to the house. It was very difficult at times for my husband and I to deal with what was just them and what was really happening to them. My son’s experience was a little bit harder, not to say that hers wasn’t. Hers, being a second child, I knew a little bit better about how to protect her and how to be in the classroom ahead of the teacher.

My son has dysgraphia and some reading problems. When he was in 1st grade, he had a teacher who kept telling me that he had a behavioral problem. The teacher kept labeling him as disobedient and disruptive. So I went to this teacher and asked to have my son tested; however, she disagreed and thought he was merely disruptive and disobedient.

MR. CHENEY: I’ve heard from other witnesses that, like your son, said that he was disruptive or disobedient and that somehow the kid deserves what he’s getting from the other kids because he’s that kind of a kid and the school tended to blame him rather than seeing that maybe he’s disruptive or disobedient because of things that are being done to him. Do you see that kind of scenario going on?

MS. LINTON: It’s true, but you have to understand we’re talking about white adults who want to keep the status quo, and the only way that they’re going to be able to do that, either through color, race, or economic lines, is to separate our people and our children.

We used to have to walk our children back and forth to school because they used to get beat up on the way home. One day my sister went in to pick up my son and apparently one of the students had said a racial epithet to him. My sister immediately told the teachers that they shouldn’t have corrected the child. Later I received a call from an administrator who told me that my sister’s banned from the school because she was violent. Rather than cause problems, my sister stood outside. They were so indignant at the fact that there would be a black aunt or mother who would actually say to a white child, “Don’t do this.”

MR. TUCKER: They didn’t like being confronted. What would they consider someone who is black that confronts them?

MS. LINTON: Violent. So every day I was up there in my son’s classroom making sure that his teacher did her job. And I was told that I wanted special privileges for my children. I never asked for it, never got it, but nevertheless, people think I got special privileges. There were a lot of children and parents in Brattleboro who suffered in silence. I know of approximately 50 parents of color who had children in school who were being harassed over the years, but it’s more now than before because Brattleboro is an exploding population of children of color.

In 1994 the Inuits came to my children’s school to raise money for a dam being built in Quebec. My children were on a panel of students who were hosting them as guests. They were taking them into the gym to have a cultural talk about what was happening in relationship to these indigenous people. The white children expected these people to have teepees and wearing war paint. It got so bad that the people left and all the children went back to their classrooms. There was not one teacher or counselor who apologized to those people. It was left up to the children of color (my daughter and my son) who stood up for them in that gym.

MR. TUCKER: In your travels through the community in ‘96 and ‘97, what have you heard parents of color talking about? Is it on the grapevine that there’s still problems in the Brattleboro school?

MS. LINTON: Yes. Most definitely. There are racial harassment policies in effect now, but from what I understand, they are not enforced. There are still incidents that are happening to children that people try to explain away.

MR. TUCKER: When you say “explain away,” what do you mean?

MS. LINTON: When two kids are fighting, the only child that gets taken away by the police is the black child to court to face assault. But what’s so sad about it is these teachers are still teaching and they’re still doing the same thing to other kids that they did to my son and daughter. When my son was in the 3rd grade he came home one day and said, “Ma, cut my hair.” Every day this child was in distress. One day his teacher was telling him that he was going to take a lawn mower to his head unless he cut his hair. And so this poor child was in such emotional distress. And he said, “The kids in the classroom make fun of me all the time because the teacher says that and then they repeat it.” So I called the teacher up and he admitted saying it but claimed it was a joke. I told him that when you joke with an 8 year old and tell him to destroy a part of what his heritage is, how can you have those white boys and girls teasing and laughing at him in your class? Later he told me since the principal was away that day I was not allowed in the school anymore. I called a couple of friends of mine, made a couple of signs, and stood in front of that school all day. I had about 10–15 people standing in front talking about racism. And I had the teacher’s name plastered all over those placards. The school did not fire the teacher, so we picketed again the next week.An 8-year-old boy who comes home hysterical because he thinks he’s going to lose what is his biological heritage, his hair. He can’t do anything about his facial features, his skin color, or his hair. That is his heritage, that is who he is, and for somebody who believes he’s not of color to say that he’s going to destroy—that meant that he was trying to destroy my son.

Now I’m going to tell you my son is going to be 23 in March 1998. This man has never apologized to my son for what he did to him. When he met him again when he was dean of students at the high school, he tried to mess with my son then, but my son was older and able to defend himself. He couldn’t say the same things to my son that he could say to him when he was 8. We just made sure that he didn’t have anything to do with my son, didn’t teach in any classes my son was taking, or have any decision power over my son.

DR. JOHNSON: You mentioned that several parents ask you, “Barbara, what should I do?” Is it useful to do something in a written form so that parents can have ideas about strategies of what to do regarding teachers? Your son helped teach you for your daughter, but there are many parents who are going into this for the first time. How can we help more parents be stronger in dealing with the school?

MS. LINTON: Take that law into every school district and sit down with the superintendent and all the principals. Command them to come to a meeting and then invite parents. If this Committee went to every school district and offered to take the complaints back to Federal authorities, we could initiate a class action suit on behalf of all the students of color in Vermont. This would make them do what they need to do. What would really help would be if this Committee were to issue a Federal mandate that the State of Vermont and its school districts do not receive money until they clear up these problems they’re having.

There’s so much injustice and there’s so much grief and pain children are being scarred every day. And there’s nothing that can be done to help those parents in that way. If we’re talking about parents being more politically active in their school district, I think that parents already are because they’re speaking up. It’s not a question that they don’t know how to do it or won’t do it; it’s because they feel it would be of no use.

DR. HAND: You spoke about your protest and how it seemed to have little negative impact on it. I’m interested in what the systemic reaction was. Obviously, the system promoted this man.

MS. LINTON: By the time he was dean of students, my children were almost out of high school. We were embroiled in a bitter case with the Human Rights Commission and were trying to settle issues of discrimination and racism in the district. So his becoming dean of students was not on my priority list other than keeping him away from my children. But he’s still dean of students.

RABBI KITTY: When you called around to your friends to protest, was it only black families that came to your aid or did you find that you had more general community support?

MS. LINTON: I have friends in the community who will do things at the drop of a hat and are not afraid to do it. Some are afraid to do that.

RABBI KITTY: My question was to gather a sense of how alone or how supported you felt in the community. There’s a sense that parents of black children are alone, that no matter where you go you’re stymied because no one will support you in supporting the law.

MS. LINTON: Nobody. That’s true. It still exists like that today. My son’s physical education teacher once claimed that my son was insubordinate and tried to have him suspended. They were playing tennis and my son hit the ball and it went out. Now he didn’t hit it purposely, but the teacher said, “Okay, I want you to go out there and get it.” He didn’t send anyone else outside the gate to get balls, but he told my son to get it. My son was old enough to tell him, “If you want those balls, you’re going to have to go get them.” Every time he was in gym he would make a comment about how he wasn’t doing something or claimed he didn’t have coordination. I think they take a look at him and know he’s one strong black man, one more, and they don’t want to have that. They want to destroy his life, to take his sense of self-esteem, and destroy the very essence of who he is by making him less than a person in the eyes of his peers and other adults regardless of what color they may be. These people shouldn’t be teaching anymore. They should lose their jobs.

The counselor that my son reported all his feelings to in private admitted that my son wasn’t the only one. One particular teacher liked to pick on children who were overweight, children who were of color, children who had disabilities. You name it, he was abusive. And all these children were coming to this particular counselor and telling him. I urged this counselor to report this to the principal and superintendent. “You’re trying to put words in my mouth,” was the first thing that he said to me. I said, “Do you realize what you’re doing? You’re telling me that you’re hearing that these children are being abused, that these children are reporting to the school doctor what’s happening to them, their parents are telling you, I’m telling you.” This man is still teaching. This man is still being complained about in the newspaper as of a month ago regarding this abuse.

MR. TUCKER: You’re saying that 8 years ago he received complaints from you and 8 years later he’s still being complained about in the newspapers?

MS. LINTON: Right. And others.

MR. DIAMOND: Do you perceive white parents who had children of color as being treated the same way you were treated and in your judgment had any more success in dealing with the school administrative structure?

MS. LINTON: I don’t think so. I think people are just as bold to white women and white men who have children of color. They’re perceived as parents of black children and children of color.

MS. SAUDEK: From news stories I’ve seen and heard, I have the sense that black kids in this State have even more difficulties when they participate in interscholastic sports. Did your kids participate in sports?

MS. LINTON: Yes. There might have been some incidents, but their teammates usually took care of it quickly, and they had good coaches. I can’t address what’s happening in other parts of the State where there might be more isolation of students of color. My son and daughter were integrated in the school system for a long time until they reached junior high and high school, and then there were more students of color.

There have been hundreds of incidents that I have reported to the Human Rights Commission. Two incidents I will describe happened to my daughter:

While in the 7th or 8th grade, they had elections for class presidents. Everybody would give a speech before the class and then students would vote. And they had the right to make up flyers and post their positions in school. My daughter did that, but then when she came back to school none of her posters were up. Everyone else’s posters were up, not hers. This happened for a couple days in a row until she caught a kid taking them down. And he said to her, “You’re not going to get elected; niggers don’t get elected anyway.” Needless to say that my daughter was not elected, nor was there a student of color elected that year. But because of the continuing effort, the next year a student of color was elected. White students have their own little cliques. They leave students of color out of simple things such as voting on class presidents, choosing the king and queen at the prom, etc., because they’re not the image that they wish to present.

Also in 7th grade or 8th grade, my daughter had a substitute for art class, and the rule was that if you needed to go to the bathroom, you took a tag off the wall and went downstairs to the bathroom. And because I frequently go into the school, I noticed kids walking the corridors, going back and forth to the bathroom, and peeking into other classrooms and saying hello to their friends. Well, my daughter just happened to do it that particular day and she asked the substitute if she could use the bathroom, and she proceeded downstairs to the bathroom. All of a sudden the substitute teacher is screaming at the top of her lungs for my daughter to come back. The principal hears a teacher calling my daughter’s name. He wanted her to go back upstairs and answer her teacher. He stood in front of her and grabbed her and tried to stop her and force her to go back upstairs. She had to run from that principal (who’s still principal of that school) out the front door, around the back of the school, with him and another teacher chasing her so she could go to the bathroom on the other side of the building, urinating in her pants in the process. I received a phone call from the principal who claimed my daughter was insubordinate, and that he was going to suspend her. In the 10 minutes it took me to get to that school, they had the assistant superintendent and a police officer there to deal with me. When my daughter came home the next day she had bruises on her arm where he put his hands on her. Nothing happened to this man nor to the teacher who chased her and violated her privacy.

All the times that my children were walking back and forth to grade school and junior high school, all the times that students used to follow them home, call them every kind of racial epithet in the book, throw stones and rocks at them, physically beat them, tear their clothes off their bodies not one police officer could ever get to that school to get those children who were in those classrooms who were doing it. No one could ever knock on these parents’ doors. No one understood the meaning of racism. And these people are still teaching these children.

MS. ELMER: You’ve mentioned a number of times you filed complaints with the Human Rights Commission. Was that an effective system for you?

MS. LINTON: Sometimes it was and sometimes it wasn’t. Sometimes you can get a phone call and people straighten themselves out, but for the most part, no. It’s very hard to prove and they can always explain something away. It wasn’t right what happened to her, it was a misunderstanding, but nobody could explain away those bruises.

MS. ELMER: What recommendations can you make to the Human Rights Commission or other State agencies?

MS. LINTON: Teachers who do this should be fired immediately and something placed permanently on their record if they want to be able to work in another school district again in the State.

My son had an art class when he was 12 or 13 and there were 15 to 17 kids in that class. And the teacher purported herself to being a woman who understood diversity. And there were three boys in this class who used to taunt my son on a daily basis by calling him a monkey, telling him that his eyes looked like girls, or his hair looked like he had put his hands in sockets, or push him around. So my son exploded in class one day and beat them up. The principal and the teacher who said she didn’t hear anything had my son taken out of the school and down to the police station. No administrator called me and told me that’s what happened to my son. My son was in the police station for 2½ hours. They had charged him with aggravated assault, disorderly conduct, assault on a police officer, etc. The State’s Attorney wanted to take my son out of my home, put him in a juvenile facility as a—behavioral problem. My son’s lawyer went to the district court and argued that this was a racial attack. All of a sudden everything went away, the assault on the police officer, the aggravated assault on three kids. And they said, “Well, your son was a little aggressive. We’ll just give him disorderly conduct and he can go to diversion for that so that he can manage his anger.” And I asked, “What happens to the other students involved?” Nothing. So if it wasn’t for the fact that I was his mother, my son would have had a police record and removed from my home as a juvenile offender, for what? because he didn’t want to be called monkey or nigger, have his facial features be made fun of, or jeered and taunted in the classroom?

MR. CHENEY: Did the Human Rights Commission get involved in that case?

MS. LINTON: Yes. They did find sufficient grounds regarding the incident. On that particular case the school settled. The Human Rights Commission filed a court case, and the school district had to face the fact that there was racial harassment and that what they did was wrong.

There are just too many incidents. I can’t tell you the numerous times that my husband and I had to sit down as a family and try to figure out how we were going to keep our children safe and to make sure that when they got older they could walk to school together with their friends. Maybe two or three times a week I walked into that school. I couldn’t sit in the cafeteria without some 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grader calling me, “Nigger, Aunt Jemima, jigaboo,” or walk on the playground without some kid throwing a rock at me. When my children got to be in 6th grade, kids from the junior high school and high school used to come down, and when the children of color were outside playing they used to be along the fence saying that they were going to get him. I had one kid that I had to chase with a baseball bat out of my doorway where he had followed my son home and was beating him. The Human Rights Commission was faithful enough to take the report and investigate, but for the most part they did not find grounds to support the charge.

MR. TUCKER: Have you had any instances where you filed with the Human Rights Commission or with the Attorney General’s Office for Civil Rights that were not pursued?

MS. LINTON: I can’t tell you how many. Every week my children were in school I filed with the Human Rights Commission.

MR. TUCKER: I would like to have some estimate. Would you say 20 times in your life that you filed over 20 reports with the Human Rights Commission? And how many were acted upon?

MS. LINTON: More than 20 reports were filed. One was acted upon.

MS. SAUDEK: The others were investigated?

MS. LINTON: They were. I’m not saying that they didn’t investigate and make phone calls. There were some complaints that they didn’t follow up on because they were not sufficient grounds for them to be able to act. Then there were others when they did not find sufficient evidence of discrimination. There was only one that they acted on and settled with the school district.

In one case when my daughter was in junior high school, a female art teacher put her hands on her and threw her up against the wall. I sued her myself because no lawyer and the Human Rights wouldn’t take the case.

MR. TUCKER: You’re telling me that you had evidence that a teacher abused your child physically and that the Human Rights Commission didn’t take it?

MS. LINTON: That’s right.

MR. TUCKER: The State Commission on Civil Rights didn’t act on this either?

MS. LINTON: No.

MR. TUCKER: When you exhausted those, did you go to any government agency?

MS. LINTON: I called Boston, the Office of Civil Rights and Department of Education and they didn’t act on it.

MR. TUCKER: And you sued?

MS. LINTON: Yes. I filed the case in Newfane Superior Court and claimed a violation of the State Civil Rights Act and Public Accommodations Law.

MR. TUCKER: What happened with the case? What did they decide?

MS. LINTON: Nothing happened with the case. They didn’t find for my daughter.

 Lyndia Cobbett [18]
Climate of racism in the State, Actions by administrators in response to racial harassment incidents

I’m from a biracial relationship, and I have two school-aged children, one of whom attends Rutland High School. Mr. Herrington [see presentation below] is the decent side of what these people aren’t. His summation of what Rutland schools are like is a fallacy. None of these people serve in the interest of our children. We have to go there and act belligerent and defend our children for the little sick things that we know shouldn’t be in schools.

Recently my daughter was chased by a group of those people reported to be gang members. My daughter is picked on. She’s having blatant things said to her such as slut, whore, etc.

Discussion

MR. TUCKER: Are you saying your daughter is picked on in school and the school has done nothing about it?

MS. COBBETT: They didn’t. I thought the guy escalated the situation. He had tried to make my daughter responsible for what other kids would say, all the instigators, the kids in the school that knew this girl was after my daughter, make my daughter responsible for whatever the hearsay was coming from these other students. In other words, my daughter had no choice but to keep quiet. We discussed yesterday, “Why didn’t you go to the principal?” She didn’t want to be a snitch. This is what I’ve been telling her to do, go to the principal. Let them resolve it.

This is going on right under her teacher’s nose, and she’s worried about what the other students are going say. My daughter’s refusing to go to the appropriate people to let them know about it simply because she doesn’t want her peers to think that and make the situation worse by that girl getting more ammo and her allies calling my daughter a snitch and having to go to the police and others just to defend herself.

I think all of it is racially motivated and comes from within the community. We’re just being a family picked on. And they’re doing it through a child, and they’re using this child to try to bring conflict on a family. They’re using my daughter as another way of showi