Community tells district officials 'bigotry will not be tolerated'
Thursday, March 16, 2006
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Manuel Guillen/The Madera Tribune |
Community leaders and parents met in the Thomas Jefferson Middle School gymnasium Wednesday night to give school district officials a clear message: racism and bigotry will not be tolerated.
Parents were upset and filed a complaint to the district mid-February after a teacher made an alleged racist comment in a classroom at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.
Michelle Alexander, the parent who filed the complaint, told the district the teacher said, "You colored kids and you dark skinned kids should be bussed to the south campus because you do not have work ethic or want to be educated."
District officials met with parents March 1 to discuss the incident and met again Wednesday to discuss the complaint procedure.
Jerry Stehman, director of human resources and district compliance officer, admitted the complaint process is not "user friendly."
Under the district's uniform complaint procedure, the district has 60 days to conduct an investigation and respond to the complaint. The person who filed the complaint, if unsatisfied with the results, may appeal the decision.
The teacher accused of making the remark has been assigned a position within the district outside of a school site at least until June 2. The district has an outside person conducting an investigation. The investigator will make a recommendation once the investigation is completed and a decision will be made.
Gloria Brown expressed frustration that the district could only tell parents "disciplinary action has been taken against the teacher."
"We deserve to know what happened," Brown said. "This child is hurt, the pain is still there. It's truly gotta stop. He might be outside the classroom, but the pain he caused is inside the classroom."
Rev. Floyd Harris of the National Action Network, a human rights organization, asked the district what action would be taken if the investigation shows the teacher did make the racial slurs.
"Parents want to know why this is happening," Harris said. "There should be zero tolerance if a teacher made racial slurs. There should be no tolerance of bigotry in any form. If you have to make an example out of a teacher, it shouldn't matter if he has tenure. This family is hurt and the community is hurt."
Stehman told the parents and concerned citizens the district is bound by confidentiality laws and cannot, by law, discuss what the action against the teacher will be.
However, Dr. Mike Young, chief academic officer for grades 7-12, assured parents that while the district cannot discuss disciplinary action, there is no tolerance for bigotry.
"Any issues of bigotry or belittling affect all students," Young said. "There is no room in our business for belittling kids."
Stehman said the district reacts to complaints "in a very strong manner."
"Principals know the rules, we don't tolerate bigotry," Stehman said. "We react and take care of it as soon as we here about it."
Both Young and Stehman discussed actions that can be taken to prevent things like this from happening in the future.
Suggestions included diversity training, hiring more minorities as teachers and administrators, multi-cultural awareness and developing a human relations council to make sure these things happen.
"It is certainly a goal of ours to have role models that represent the demographic of the location," Young said.
Luther Slack, president of the Madera chapter of the NAACP, said he wants the human relations council to get started right away.
"I certainly welcome that," Slack said. "I hope whatever recommendation the council makes will be considered."
O.J. Brown, a youth member of the Madera NAACP, said he hopes board policy and procedures will protect minorities from being threatened.
"Minorities are often spoken to in a way that is offensive and disrespectful," he said. "It is not okay for anyone to threaten us, and it is not okay for teachers to make decisions about our futures."