History

History of our Committee, and Regional Issues

Regional precedents

We have always had racial and harassment incidents from time to time in southern Vermont of varied severity, in and out of schools. Brattleboro was forced to lead the regional effort to develop diversity awareness in schools because of a state legal mandate specifically for WSESU, in response to an incident in the late 1990s where a black effigy was hung at a homecoming bonfire by a group of students who sported Confederate flags on their vehicles and clothing. The state required WSESU to introduce mandatory diversity awareness curriculum, to hire staff at the high school to teach it, and to develop an active district diversity committee. Soon after its inception the town became locked in a couple of serious, controversial issues--a campaign against the southern plantation owner image of the Brattleboro Colonels led to dropping the stereotyped Colonel image, but keeping the name and the crossed swords image--also, a reactionary group at BUHS formed the N(word) Hating (aka Hanging) Redneck Association , which was associated with threatening incidents involving firearms in town, and a variety of hateful actions at the school--also in the community, graves were desecrated, swastikas painted, etc. There were responses to these actions, with some state intervention again. Also, the WSESU diversity committee collaborated with community organizers in Brattleboro to develop Diversity Day, the first Friday in May, where schools introduce special programs to promote diversity awareness, and hold a variety of community events at the Gallery Walk downtown, including diverting traffic through town so a street festival and tabling can be held. This whole process of developing awareness south of us has evolved for two decades. WNESU independently created a short-lived diversity committee in the early 2000s, led by then assistant superintendent Chris Kibbe, and when he became superintendent it disbanded and he said he hoped it would start again when an assistant superintendent was hired, which did not happen until 2018.

Development of WNESU Diversity Committee in 2018

During the spring semester of the 2018 when we hired a new superintendent, a number of staff and parents circulated a petition asking for the development of a district diversity committee. When the 18-19 school year began, the district responded with a survey of staff interest, and there was considerable support across the district. A committee was formed with Lynn Carey, the new assistant Superintendent, and Stuart Strothman, a Title 1 teacher at the middle school, as co-chairs.

In our first year, we developed our Vision and Mission Statement and began to consider how to introduce awareness of diversity issues in our district. We had representatives from all district schools except Grafton, which is the furthest away (we met in person at the district office). We studied data on students of color and from other protected categories (see harassment policy) in our district, using tools like the Vermont Health Initiative and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and tried find as much data as we could, while also asking the district to consider demographics when gathering data so we could be better informed. We reviewed existing curricula in the district, considered a variety of anti-bias curriculum options, and interviewed teachers from other districts (and within our own) to see what we could learn about how to introduce and develop awareness within WNESU. Finally, we reviewed our harassment policies within the district so we could better understand the law and our own responsibilities, and consider whether students were being educated on harassment policy. For the most part, we determined that harassment policy is not taught to students in the district, except being included in the student handbooks, which is required by law. Outcomes for the year were varied--the district curricula choices at the end of the year only considered anti-bias issues within the context of Restorative Practices, and we made an effort to embrace RP as the vehicle for our training efforts. With support of Deb Witkus from the Greater Falls Partnership, we determined there were indeed many issues of inequity in the community, based on our studies and a presentation given to us at the end of the year by 8th grader Hannah Neff, who focused on LGBT issues, but was able to determine (along with other members of the committee) that within both Vermont and our district, students who identified as biracial, indigenous, and LGBTQ were at much greater risk of lacking basic needs at home, and of feeling unsupported in the community.

Our second year saw reduced membership in the committee--in part, we attributed this to the difficulty we had in promoting anti-bias curriculum and training. We worked within the committee to resolve philosophical differences, and to embrace restorative practices as an approach to anti-bias awareness. We spearheaded an effort to address the use of the N word at the high school--there have been incidents of students using this term toward others in both derogatory and familiar ways (particularly imitating the use of the term in popular music culture) as well as graffiti, both at the middle and high school levels. We spent the early months actively seeking a speaker particularly for the high school, and also seeking to broaden our membership and gather experience and leadership from outside our community, reaching out to the Keene State multicultural center, the Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, and the recently developed chapter of the NAACP in Brattleboro. We had little response from any of these sources, which was frustrating. We began to prepare our first major community event, a diversity-related art display from district schools, displayed in downtown businesses in BF, originally intended for May 2020. We were also working with the high school principal and were about to release our initial questionnaire to the students when COVID began, and that changed the rest of our year. However, by the end of the school year national events particularly the killing of George Floyd led to new responses and interest among staff across the district, especially at the high school where some staff pushed for a message to be sent from the district in support of anti-racist practices. A letter was sent which reflected developing state-level views on the topic, and a more specific letter from the high school was collaboratively crafted and sent out to the entire high school community. At this time we had begun to prepare documents intended for all staff across the district, to increase their awareness of day-to-day teaching issues relating to institutional racism, and also wrote a letter to the district asking what hiring practices are currently used which could lead to greater representation of BIPOC among district staff, reflective at least of diverse populations within the schools.

Our third year saw an impressive increase in participation across the district, perhaps in response the national issue of race relations which became prominent over the summer. Two recently graduated BFUHS students organized a Black Lives Matter march over the summer which had over 300 local people in attendance, and much support in the community. When the year began we quickly organized representation from all schools, facilitated by online meetings, and the co-chair/district administrative liason changed to Chris Hodsden, principal of the high school. From the beginning of the year we began a variety of new actions--releasing the letter asking about hiring, approving the documents for educating district staff, re-committing to introducing teacher training and possible curriculum, and seeking speakers on issues of equity. We reviewed other district contract policies on holidays and began to discuss the issue of representation of holidays within our schools, and by the middle of the year we had a few new committee representatives of color from within the district and community including a student. With support of the BF Downtown Development Alliance, we held a diversity art show at Village Square Booksellers with work from AP high school students and independent studies. At present we have many efforts underway--introducing anti-bias training for teachers, incorporating diversity and anti-bias awareness in our RP programs, developing community connections, reviewing textual materials through the district for institutional bias, creating equity for staff and students representing other religions, promoting diversity in hiring, and more--see our action plan or recent committee minutes for more detailed understanding of our activities.

Regional developments

While comparison to other districts is often not appropriate (witness the very different history at WSESU, for example), it is worth noting that beginning efforts have been made across Vermont--a handful of schools have now held public ceremonies to announce and fly Black Lives Matter flags, including Burlington, Montpelier, and Brattleboro high schools--also, the state of Vermont has developed a mandate for schools to teach diversity awareness and anti-bias curriculum which has only recently been released, and which Vermont schools are just beginning to consider. In this regard, we are a few years ahead of most other state schools in preparing for this complex effort. There have been other important developments as well--since the fall some towns have had internal debates on institutional racism, and some like Putney have painted Black Lives Matter on town streets, as has been done in Washington DC, New York CIty, and elsewhere. Also notable are the racial responses to these efforts, including painting nooses and other hate graffiti in towns across Vermont. Some other issues worth discussion include the 2019 white supremacist persecution of Vermont's first black state representative, Kiah Morris of Bennington, who received multiple death threats and other harassment which led to her resignation from office for fear of her family's safety. This incident is not isolated--for example, a local teacher who is Chinese was verbally abused with her son recently at the Bennington War Memorial--rather, it is merely representative of the kind of reactive, sometimes violent behaviors which crop up in towns across Vermont when people want to (usually anonymously) resist anti-racist community statements and awareness.

It is also worth noting that currently (January 2021) there is a threat of increased white supremacist activity, not just at the capitol buildings for the inauguration, but as a social and social media phenomena. We must continue to be vigilant with regard to any developments in our own community, and proactive with inclusive values and diversity education.

WNESU Diversity Committee Action Plan