Students work to get their school’s policy changed after racist incident
FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Ravenwood High School Senior Jadon Moore thought he was going to have a regular Monday on May 2. The 19-year-old ate breakfast, arrived at school and began prepping for the rest of the day in his first-period class, digital art and design.
Then, he opened his computer.
Another student had typed a racial slur in the username bar on the login screen, prominent so that Moore wouldn’t miss it.
“I was just shocked,” Moore, a member of Ravenwood’s Black Student Alliance (BSA), said. “I was really confused who would do this to me.”
He reported the incident to his teacher, who told him there were cameras in the classroom, and went to speak with his school’s student resource officers. The officers checked the footage, and according to Moore, the white student who typed the slur was identified by the end of the day.
Moore claims the student received three days of in-school suspension as disciplinary action. Some believed the punishment was too lenient and representative of a communitywide tendency to downplay the effects of racist behavior in Williamson County.
Members of BSA and allies acted to have the disciplinary policy for racial harassment amended. They organized a peaceful protest during a free period May 13.
“We saw that (the student) only got three days, so after that, we decided to go to our principal Dr. Pam Vaden and expressed that we weren’t happy with it, that we wanted it to change and our principal agreed with us, but we still wanted the word to get out that there is still racism in Williamson County,” Moore said.
Vaden approved the protest held in the school’s commons area, where supporters wore black and linked arms. Students spoke at the event, including Moore.
Community members voiced diversity and inclusion concerns during the Williamson County Schools Board of Education’s meeting and praised Vaden for working to revise the racial harassment policy with students. If approved, the revisions would change the punishment for racial harassment next year from seven days maximum of in-school suspension to 10 days, emphasize restorative justice if the victim chooses and educate the perpetrator on the effects of hate speech.
BSA co-Presidents Hanna Araya, Selah Bell and Mars Griffin helped Vaden write the new racial harassment disciplinary policy draft, Araya said. It will reportedly be sent to the WCS central office by the end of next week.
“The punishment just wasn’t fair in comparison to a lot of the things that have happened at school and punishments that people have gotten,”
Araya said. “When you do something at school like drinking or drugs, you’re impacting yourself, you’re making an impact on your life, but when you say something like that (slur) to other people, they will never forget that.
“Racial slurs, hate speech like that, it’s just never forgotten.”
According to multiple BSA members, while most students seemed to support the demonstration against racism, small groups wore all white head to toe in a counter-protest.
“Groups of students from all different grades decided amongst themselves to wear all white instead (of all black),” said JoJo Milien, the BSA treasurer. “Some of these cases (of those who wore white) were just a coincidence, whereas others I knew for a fact that they did it just to spite people.”
Some believe that the protest and Ravenwood’s racial harassment draft policy is a step toward more diversity, equity, inclusion and justice initiatives across WCS.
“I think the policies these students have pushed for, for accountability, for the (perpetrators) to have a longer in-school suspension and for there to be some restorative justice with that … that’s all we’ve been asking for,” said Revida Rahman, a parent and founder of One WillCo, an advocacy group founded to increase racial equality and equity in WCS. “I’m hoping that it will create a wave of change within our district, and I think that would not have taken place if those students had not acted the way that they did.”