Subject: Support needed for 5th grade student involved in a serious racial incident

Greetings...

Over the weekend I was alerted to a serious situation at a small Ohio public
school that involved a student stating to an entire class that if he could
go back in time, he would kill all the Indians. The teacher did nothing to
the child who made the horrible comment, but one student (known in the
school for his Choctaw and
Chickasaw heritage) was deeply offended by the comment and even said that
the boy should not be allowed to say such things. Another student joined the
offended boy, and the result of their protest was several days of
detentions. The 5th grade male who made the original comment received
nothing... and the teacher failed to even recognize the comment as
disparaging and inappropriate.

Below is a letter sent this morning to the Logan Central Intermediate school
personnel explaining the incident and requesting an immediate resolution. I
have also included the email addresses of several school officials, and the
snail mail address of the town newspaper.

And, FYI, the town is named Logan, after Chief Logan. The school mascot is
the Chieftains, and the town and school is literally covered in a
stereotypical image that looks much like a Plains Indian from the mid
1800's. The town is nearby (Ohio) and even the police cars and government
offices are covered with this image.

If you have a moment, please send a quick email to these folks letting them
know that no child should be permitted to stand in front of his class and
make a statement pertaining to his desire to murder.

If you receive a response, feel free to forward it to me. I'll keep you
posted on my end.

Cheers!

Terri Jean


[email protected] Colleen Pritchard, Principal
[email protected]    Laura Richards, the teacher in question
[email protected]  Edgar Penrod, on the Board of Education
[email protected]         Stephen Stirn, Superintendent
[email protected]       Debra Buck, school psychologist
[email protected]      Judy Wright, elementary counselor




The Logan Daily News
72 East Main Street PO Box 758 Logan, Ohio 43138

The Athens NEWS
14 N. Court St.,   Athens, Ohio 45701

Lancaster Eagle Gazette
P.O. Box 848
Lancaster, OH 43130-0848


========================================================

Greetings -

My name is Terri Jean and I am the director of a local advocacy group - The
 Red Roots Educational Project - an organization dedicated to building
positive relationships  between Native and non-Native people through-out the
United States.

A complaint involving one of your teachers was recently brought to my
attention. Allegedly, fifth grade teacher Laura Richards assigned her
classroom to write an essay on time travel. One particular student stood in
front of the classroom, making only a statement that he would go back in
time and "kill all the Indians." Ms Richards failed to react to this
child's  pejorative statement, rather, she punished the two students who
spoke out in offense, one of which is of known Native American Choctaw and
Chickasaw
heritage.

 The child's statement, the teacher's failure to respond, and the
 consequential punishment of the offended children are of great concern to
 our organization.

 * First of all, the statement itself is horribly disturbing. The 5th grade
student stated that if he could, he would go back in time and EXTERMINATE
an entire race of people. His statement was of violence, racism, and
complete cultural genocide. This should concern your entire institution.
A child made a comment about murder and nothing was done!

 * Second, I question whether this teacher would of tolerated any other race
 to be mentioned in such a manner. For example, if a child said they would
 travel back in time to participate in the extermination of the Jews, or to
 lynch African Americans - would the teacher brush it aside and then hand
out  detentions to those representative of said groups once they protested?
If  not, then why did she allow this statement to be used in reference to
Native  Americans?

 * Third, the statement was made to a mixed-cultural classroom. One student,
 age 11,  is of known Native American blood (known to both students and
 teachers - as well as outside of his public school). This humiliating
 incident was compounded by the teacher's failure to acknowledge and then
 correct the situation. She even further victimized him by assigning
 detentions for voicing his rightful offense.

 * Fourth - The statement should be considered an act of HATE SPEECH (speech
 that perpetuates a negative attitude or stereotype of an individual or
group  based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion,
disability,  political beliefs or affiliation with a student group). This
solitary
 expression advocated violence and annihilation towards an entire group of
 people. It is an act of Hate Speech, and such language is an act of racism.

 * Fifth - If Hate Speech is condoned in this classroom, and students get
the  message that there's nothing wrong with such statements, it could
potentially lead to other serious problems in the future. It should not be
acceptable in any classroom and educators who allow such incidents should
be  held accountable.

* Sixth - I was told by a witness that Ms Richards said the kids could not
write anything as long as it was not violent. Is there anything more violent
than murder?


At a time when schools are fighting a war against school violence, I am
amazed that Ms Richards would fail to react to a clear statement of
cultural  genocide. I am also amazed that the only people punished were the
two students who said what she should have - and one of which is of said
culture. It would be far more appropriate for Ms Richards and all other
educator's to encourage tolerance education to help children relate to
others from different cultures and backgrounds. Schools should strive to
promote awareness, understanding and appreciation of all people, and when
words of racism, hate and cultural stereotypes enter the classroom, drastic
steps should be taken to heal, support, educate, correct, and understand.

As for this particular situation, given the seriousness of the statement,
the failed actions of the teacher, and the consequences of the victims, we
suggest that something should be done IMMEDIATELY. Our suggestion would be
to pull a counselor into the classroom to explain the seriousness of the
statement, why it's wrong, and what should have happened when it was said.
We also recommend releasing the offended children from their punishment and
rather than punishing the child who made the comment, using this time to
educate him on the implications of hate speech and school violence. We also
suggest contacting the parents of the entire classroom, offering an apology
for failing to react accordingly, and listing your school anti-racism
policy  so parent and child can review it together. A separate letter of
apology should be sent to the children who were rightfully offended, and
then
punished for speaking up, and Ms Richards should personally apologize to
the children and the parents who were offended, and to the boy who made the
statement and was not properly corrected.

 If  handled properly, this incident could serve as an example to both
 students and faculty as to how to handle racism in the classroom.

Considering the serious nature of this complaint, it is imperative you take
action immediately.

 Thank you for your time.

 Sincerely,

 Terri Jean
 Director of the Red Roots Educational Project
 740-664-3030
[email protected]
www.terrijean.com


PLEASE NOTE: Last fall, the National Center for Education Statistics
released Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2004. Among the key
findings: nearly 1 in 8 students reported that someone at school had used
hate-related words against them.

 ===============================================
HATE SPEECH LEAVES MARK ON STUDENTS
By Ruth-Ellen Cohen, Of the NEWS Staff

ORONO - He would hear it dozens of times a day, but its ability to hurt
never abated. "The word 'faggot,"' said the high school senior, "rotted me
out inside." The high school student, who is gay, was one of three Maine
students who on Thursday told a youth violence summit at the University of
Maine that hateful, cruel words pack as much of a wallop as a fist.

A black college student and a Jewish high school freshman also bared their
souls as they recalled the terror and anger they experienced when assailed
with hurtful language and racial slurs.

Threatening words almost always are the precursor to violent acts, Stephen
Wessler of the Attorney General's Office said during the conference, which
focused on preventing violence by confronting harassment and hate language.

"Violence doesn't explode in a vacuum," Wessler told more than 200 teachers,
administrators, law enforcement officials and students. "There's a history
before the [violent incident] - months of hateful language and racial slurs
that haven't been addressed."

The event was designed not so much to offer solutions for eliminating
harassment, but to encourage participants to develop violence-prevention
plans in their own school systems. It was sponsored by the Maine Leadership
Consortium, an organization of state-level educational leaders, along with
the Maine Attorney General's Office and the Maine Department of Education.

Tolerating disrespectful language creates an environment in which students
conclude they can take their harassment one step further and commit a
violent act, Wessler said.

But harassment does its dirty work even before it explodes into violence,
according to Wessler, who lamented its effect on students' "self-esteem and
sense of worth."

Students who were physically assaulted during a hate crime may not be able
to remember their wounds or the number of stitches they received, but "they
can tell us every word said to them," Wessler said. "That language robs
their soul."

Hate crimes against African-Americans, gays, lesbians and Jews represent 75
percent of civil rights cases, according to Wessler, one of a number of
attorneys who volunteer to handle the civil rights enforcement along with
their other duties.

The perpetrators of hate crimes are getting younger each year, and now
involve elementary school pupils, said Wessler.

Most of the crimes take place in school or are school-related between
children who know each other, he said, adding that "the violence is equally
distributed around the state, and is a sign that there's a lot underneath
that we need to deal with."

Meanwhile, Betsy Sweet, a social worker who facilitates diversity training,
told the group that adults should chastise students who routinely toss
disrespectful words at each other, even if the insults are meant in jest.
Homosexual students who hear others laughingly use the word "fag" without
anyone intervening, could think, "these people loathe me and it's OK with
the teacher," she said.

By stopping the hateful language, even if it's only to say, "'Hey, we don't
talk like that around here,' you can't imagine the power and joy it gives to
someone in a targeted group," said Sweet.

The room grew silent as Wessler shared examples of hate letters that have
crossed his desk while he has been involved in advocating for civil rights.

One read, "You Jews better get out of Maine before we blow you up."

Another, found nailed to the front door of a home belonging to an
African-American man, showed a hooded member of the Ku Klux Klan with the
words "We're back" underneath.

Wessler reminded the crowd that Maine has an "ugly history of the KKK." In
the 1920s and 1930s, Maine's membership was the largest of any state outside
the south, he said, adding that the group's focus was on French Catholics as
well as blacks and Jews.

The students on the panel, who declined to give their last names, spoke
eloquently about how their experiences affected them.

Wil, a student at Bowdoin College who grew up in the South, told the group
that although he could deal with overt hostility, it was the "subtle racism"
in Maine that "cut me deeper."

As a basketball coach to 15 boys "who were like my own sons," the young man
overheard one of the boys use the word "wigger," a term that denotes whites
who identify with black culture.

"To hear one of my own use the term so loosely without considering its
effect on me, hurt me much deeper than a punch," said the young man.

Seth, one of five Jewish students in his school, recalled a swastika that
another student drew on a piece of paper and presented to him.

"It was shocking and incredibly scary," said the youth.

Source:
Bangor Daily News
October 2, 1998
Box 1329, Bangor, ME, 04402-1329
Fax: 207-941-9476
E-MAIL: [email protected]
www.bangornews.com
==================================
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/magazine/features.jsp?p=0&is=36&ar=579
Website offers a curriculum entitled "The Power of Words" to help students
make informed choices about the use of slurs, epithets and labels.