U.S. schools battle to keep racism in check
Educators take tougher line as issues dividing society start appearing in classrooms
CHICAGO— Maryland students using their shirts to spell a racial slur used against black people at a rally. Pennsylvania students posing with swastika-carved pumpkins. A Montana student photographed with a gun accompanied with a racial epithet.
Racial incidents are appearing to pop up at an alarming rate in the United States’ public schools. There were roughly 80 incidents in October alone, by one expert’s count, including a Chicago-area student who was charged with a hate crime for racially charged posts on social media.
Many educators note a spike anecdotally and social media can give such incidents wider and faster exposure. But it’s far trickier to assess whether there’s an increase numerically, with no organization or agency consistently tracking the issue over time.
School officials acknowledge the incidents are more visible and brazen, fuelled by a polarizing presidential administration, divided public and “meme culture.” As a result, schools have responded more publicly and intensely than before.
“You have to be aware of it. You have to monitor it. You have to prevent it from escalating,” said Dan Domenech, head of the School Superintendents Association, who believes there is a spike this year.
Studies surveying schools and teachers during the 2016 presidential campaign noted an increase in anxiety and fear. Many traced it to fiery comments that then-Republican candidate Donald Trump made about immigrants, Blacks and Muslims.
High-profile incidents such as the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., that led to a woman’s death, and the spate of police shootings of blacks and other minorities can also accelerate racially charged reactions.
Teaching Tolerance, an anti-hate program, used to get requests from schools once a month for help. But since the election it’s been daily, according to Maureen Costello who runs the Southern Poverty Law Center program.
“Schools are looking for profession- al development. They’re looking for interventions,” she said. “There’s a sense of just really not knowing quite what to do.”
A look at the past few weeks shows the quick steps schools have taken.
In Virginia, a middle school forfeited the remainder of the football season after players made a Snapchat video showing simulated sex acts on Black peers and using racially charged language. A Utah school launched an investigation and disciplinary action after a group of white girls, including cheerleaders, circulated a video of themselves in a car chanting a racial slur used against Black people, even though it was filmed off campus. A South Dakota school forfeited its homecoming football game against a school from a nearby Native American reservation and cancelled its dance and parade after social media photos showed students destroying a car with “Go back to the Rez” painted on the side.
Still, there’s a lack of hard data on racial incidents in schools, making some experts cautious about reaching any conclusions.
Individual advocacy groups say they’ve documented a spike and want schools to do more. The AntiDefamation League’s count of antiSemitic harassment and vandalism in K-12 schools nearly doubled, from 130 in January to September of last year to 256 in the same period this year.
Yet, some administrators and counsellors say the increased response from schools over student conflicts dates back years to when they were reacting to school shootings with fresh security plans and safety exercises.
Other experts say another factor could be how students share information through social media, with more of an emphasis on getting attention. A taunt once isolated to a passed note is now disseminated widely because of “meme culture” requiring picture-ready and edgy posts.
Chicago high school senior Hira Zeeshan said she’s been affected personally by the rhetoric as a Pakistani Muslim immigrant and is pushing her racially diverse school to draft statements supporting immigrants.
But one of the hardest days was after Charlottesville. The issue came up in a class, but she wanted school-wide discussions.
“It was really disturbing the way people were just able to walk out on the street and show all this hatred and use Nazi symbols,” she said. “We just resumed our day like it was normal.”