By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — “Racism, acts of hate and hate speech will not be tolerated,” School Superintendent Doug Lyons told the School Committee last week after recounting several incidents that he said had occurred in the first few weeks of the new school year. School administrators detailed the response to to those episodes at last Thursday’s School Committee meeting.
According to Lyons, two of the incidents involved racial slurs carved into the walls of stall in a boys’ and a girls’ bathroom at the high school. In another incident, students at the Galvin Middle School were heard using racial slurs.
Lyons included in this discussion a report of a student wearing an Indian headdress to a recent Warrior football game.
Lyons said that the school administration had a responsibility to assign consequences for these actions.
“We also have a responsibility to teach students and to commit ourselves to restorative practices,” he said, “so that they are not forever judged for their mistakes, however egregious.”
Lyons reminded the School Committee of the schools’ ongoing work in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion, but said that COVID disruptions had “slowed that work down.”
Lyons turned to Wakefield Memorial High School Principal Amy McLeod for her perspective.
“Clearly there’s work to do in our schools and in our community,” McLeod said.
She cited the need to “have difficult discussions with our students” as well as the need to “work with adults in our community.”
McLeod talked about bringing in Raul Fernandez of Boston University, who she described as “an expert on diversity, equity and inclusion issues,” for professional development sessions with faculty and staff on “culturally responsive teaching.” She added that Fernandez has also been working with students in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Class.
She also discussed the need to “create safe spaces where students know they are supported and heard.”
McLeod commended the students from the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Class and the Black Student Union who immediately met to create a statement condemning the incidents.
Resources were provided for students who felt harmed or just wanted to learn more, McLeod said.
She added that the high school administration was working on ways to survey the students regarding “their perception of the climate in the building.”
Lyons reminded the School Committee that the new standards for history and social studies curriculum are specific about preparing students to participate in civic affairs at all levels.
Lyons concluded by saying that the behavior of students in the wake of the incidents has “created a path for us to move forward.” He said that students have expressed the opinion that the individuals who wrote those words in the bathrooms “need to be cared for and need to be educated.”
The superintendent said that he would be reporting more information “as we move forward.”
