PARENTS: ACTION LACKING AFTER RACIST INCIDENTS

Poway Unified official says ‘we must do better,’ change culture at schools

Thomas Smith said he was furious when his 11-year-old son came home and told him he was experiencing racism at his Poway middle school.

Smith, who is Black, contacted administrators at Meadowbrook Middle School, who told him they would launch an investigation into the matter, he said. Smith did not receive any updates about the incidents until several weeks later after the Feb. 9 Poway Unified School District board meeting, he said.

At the meeting, Smith and several other parents and members of the community made complaints about racism against Black students and an Asian student across the district. These students experienced verbal harassment, including being subjected to racial epithets and bullying, speakers said.

Smith said his son told him that students were pulling his hair and that there was a video of another student being pushed around and called racial slurs.

He told the school board that his son’s hair was pulled “because he looks different.” He said his son was sent racist cartoon memes and that students made derogatory comments about Black History Month.

These complaints are not new for the district, said Tasha Williamson, founder and president of the Exhaling Injustice group, who attended the meeting.

“I think that they have done resolutions and one-time trainings for different schools or staff, but they haven’t implemented things that would in essence change the culture,” Williamson said after the meeting. “This is something that must be continual because there is a culture shift that needs to happen.”

Williamson said she would like to see students participating in community service requirements