Springfield NAACP condemns bias incidents
The Greater Springfield NAACP condemned a “history of racial incidents” and lambasted a culture that must “be broken up” at a school committee meeting on Tuesday dominated by outrage over an online slave auction conducted last month by some Southwick Regional School students.
The committee chair opened the meeting by condemning the “unfortunate and appalling situation.”
“This is not behavior that is acceptable, nor will it be tolerated in the Southwick-TollandGranville Regional School District School Committee,” chair Robert Stevenson said during the meeting that was available to watch on Zoom. “Our district strives to create an environment where everyone is welcomed and treated with respect.”
Stevenson lamented that the district could not disclose the “actions or consequences” the students faced.
The “disrespectful and hurtful” Snapchat thread “that involved racial topics” occurred on the evening of Feb. 8, Stevenson said. An investigation was immediately launched and authorities were notified, Stevenson said.
The NAACP filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Problem Resolution System on Thursday, according to the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District’s superintendent’s office.
“We’re not here just to talk about Feb. 8,” Talbert W. Swan II, president of the Greater Springfield NAACP, told the committee. “We’re here to talk about a history of racial incidents that have happened in your school district for many years.”
Swan spoke of parents who had moved out of the school district because their children were “harassed and bullied,” teachers of color who have come forward about “racial discrimination” within the district, and school alumni who had also experienced racism and who had created a petition calling for accountability.
“We’re here not just to talk about the slave auction that was online,” Swan said. “We’re here to talk about Black students being call [the n-word] while they’re in school, a word that is steeped in racial history of slavery, of brutalization, of dehumanization.”
“We’re here to talk about a culture that exists in this sundown town. To say, that culture has to stop. It has to be broken up. It has to be dealt with.”
Allyson Lopez, whose daughter was subjected to the racial bullying, excoriated school officials for allowing eight of the 10 students who participated in the slave auction back in school too soon after the incident.
“Why are they back in school when my baby stayed home for three weeks?” Lopez asked.
“This is a calculated decision that they made to call Black lives low class, $2 to $4 a bid. And they did the wrong thing to put my baby on the bid,” Lopez said. “And you still don’t get it, because you’re looking at me spaced out, and you still don’t get it.”
Too much racism has happened “under your watch,” Lopez told the committee. “Make a change. If you want your job, make a change. It’s 2024. Do better.”
Southwick Regional School serves students in grades 7-12. Located in a small town west of Springfield on the Connecticut border, the school is 89 percent white, according to state data.
Parent Caroline Newman, whose son attends Southwick, said she was “absolutely appalled” by the online auction.
“It’s embarrassing,” said Newman, who is white. “We have a lot of work to do.”
Newman apologized to all those affected by the racism and implored parents to “speak to your children ... They need to know it’s not OK to be racist, to bully, to be homophobic — any of that stuff. It cannot be tolerated. It all starts at home.”
In a message sent to families last month, Southwick Regional School principal Serena M. Shorter apologized and said in addition to addressing the students when they returned from February vacation, counseling and support services would be made available and the school’s anti-bias programs and initiatives would be reviewed and evaluated.
On Feb. 26, school officials held grade-level assemblies and provided a forum for students to express their concerns.
A Southwick sophomore told the committee that students want true “accountability, and action, and changes,” and that the school assembly was lacking.
“Here are the words my peers and I could use to describe the less than 30 minutes we sat in that room,” the student said. “‘Immature, unprofessional, disturbing, a political PR stunt, defensive, unaccountable, major confusion.”
The students’ racist actions were “not out of the ordinary,” the student said. “It needs to stop today, and it needs to stop now.”
“We will not stay silent when injustice takes place,” he said.
Superintendent Jennifer C. Willard listed initiatives, curriculums, and programs the school has adopted in recent years to “understand all of the ‘isms’ that exist, and how to respond when ... confronted with unacceptable behaviors.”