Tension between a Virginia school board and members of the public was a match-stroke away from flames this week as parents lambasted the district administration for not doing enough to combat violent hate speech—which many considered to be an overt death threat.
Hundreds of people turned out for the heated three-hour meeting with the Powhatan County Public School Board, just outside of Richmond, on Monday. Roughly 50 people took to the dais to share their concerns about the inaction of district with regards to bullying, with the majority of the complaints focusing on blatant racism.
“Ever since I moved to Powhatan… I felt out of place because of the color of my skin. … Kids have said the N-word right to my face,” said Powhatan Middle School 8th grader Yasmine Smith, who is Black. “I feel as if I can’t report anything because y’all will keep it on the low, give it little investigation and consequences.”
Speakers who did not focus on racism within the district still addressed its pervasive bullying culture.
Richmond ABC affiliate WRIC reported that in February, a photo of a white student at Powhatan High School surfaced online. In the photo, “I KILL N—-R” is scribbled on the student’s arm. However, the mother of the Black student who took the photo said that the white student also wrote the phrase on another white classmate’s arm.
“Without this picture, we wouldn’t be here now because it would have been their word against [my son’s],” Miki Owens told WRIC. “So, I’m proud that he took the picture. I’m proud that he was brave enough to take the picture and come forward with it.”
Social media posts from members of the Powhatan community were livid that the white student in the photo allegedly only received three days’ suspension.
The Powhatan chapter of the NAACP organized a meeting with over a hundred attendees on March 7, WRIC reported. Powhatan Public Schools Superintendent Beth Teigen finally addressed the manner in an email to school district families on March 10.
“Hateful speech and actions will not be tolerated. Period,” Teigan wrote in the email.
The district planned a board meeting for March 12, but it was interrupted by the fire marshal who said the gathering was over capacity. The board rescheduled the meeting for March 18.
During Monday’s meeting, dozens of people addressed the incident and overall racist culture within the district.
Linda Carr Kraft, a woman who claimed to be a white descendent of President Thomas Jefferson, said she was a “concerned citizen, saddened and horrified by the recent incident.”
“Make no mistake: These were death threats, and they should’ve been treated as such,” Carr Kraft said. “Racial bullying has not been directed at me, but just because one does not experience something does not mean that it does not exist.
“Make no mistake: Racism is real,” she continued. “My ancestors included a president, governor, and statesman, but they were also something else: Enslavers. Every single one of them, and I refuse to be part of the great white silence. … This is your canary in the coal mine.”
But attendees didn’t just speak on the recent issue; they slammed the school board for ignoring other racist acts that have permeated the district.
Members of the public railed against the “all-white, cis-gendered, above 45 age-group” school board for its lack of diversity. Students who spoke shared their experiences seeing classmates wearing Confederate flag paraphernalia and bragging that they were members of the Ku Klux Klan. Plenty of parents shared stories from their children being called the N-word, monkey, and slave.
“We’ve failed to acknowledge that our school system reflects our community. This is not just a school problem; this is a county problem. This is a society problem. This is a Virginia problem. This is a United States problem,” said Rick Cole, a former Powhatan School Board member who acknowledged his own racial biases.
“Don’t stack committees with people who look just like you,” he directed the board.
Smith said she has begged her mother to let her be homeschooled in order to avoid “racially motivated jokes and comments,” like how she was allegedly told she should be picking cotton instead of learning, at school.
“I now have to take the time out of my day to ask adults to do their job,” Smith said with a wave of applause.
Powhatan School Board Chair Dr. James Taylor also had two attendees escorted out by police after they repeatedly accused the board of maintaining white supremacy.
Justin Frye, a Black father of students in the district, said he graduated from the district 20 years before and dealt with the same racist bullying that his kids endure now.
“Until you look like me and get dressed in the morning like me, wake up and wash your face and see that you’re Black…how you gotta move in public is different…you’re not going to understand what these people in here are arguing about,” Frye said. “You don’t move with caution like we do.
“Do your damn job!” he demanded the board.
The Original Black Panther Party in Powhatan County also made an appearance and explained to the board how they considered the threat to be a form of terrorism.
“This threat was to kill,” said Mike Payne, the general of the Black Panther Party. “When will you realize you have a gigantic racial problem in your school and community?… Those that don’t see it don’t want to see it.”
Neither the Powhatan Chapter of the NAACP nor administration from Powhatan Public Schools immediately returned requests for comment from The Daily Beast
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