Olentangy students tell of racism in schools

The presentation was not the kind that high school students should have to spend weeks preparing.

But the topic — racism — was something the students say they face, and they felt compelled to unleash on the Olentangy school board Thursday night.

About 20 black students, many with their parents, showed up at Thursday night’s board meeting to talk of taunts about their skin color and teachers who dismissed them when they complain. They talked about crying alone in a bathroom stall.

Students told the board of being called a derogatory racial name, and of being laughed at.

“Imagine that this is your child,” Jade Davis, a sophomore at Olentangy Liberty High School implored. “Going to school to learn, yet they come home and tell you that they just can’t do this any more.”

“Well this child is me ... imagine how my parents felt.”

Davis told the board about racial epithets on bathroom walls and hearing someone say “Donald Trump needs to send you back to Africa.”

“This is what is going on in your school district,” she told the board.

Mia Lapointe, a junior at Olentangy Orange High School, recalled working on a program for a Black History Month assembly and being warned by an administrator that the program with music and dance would “make students feel uncomfortable.”

“What about me? What about every student of color? When can we not feel uncomfortable?”

After the meeting, which also dealt with school safety and mental health counseling, board President Mindy Patrick was shaken.

“I’m disappointed and saddened that we have students like this that are struggling in our schools.”

“I do think that it’s a heated time and people are just struggling,” she said of hostile opinions that may originate with parents. “It shouldn’t be tolerated.”

Olentangy has about 6,800 students in its three high schools, and is one Ohio’s most affluent, highest scoring and fastest growing school districts.

The student body is about 75 percent white, 12.6 percent Asian, 4.2 percent African-American, 3.4 percent Hispanic and 4.4 percent multiracial.

Superintendent Mark Raiff said earlier in the week that racial incidents, including offensive graffiti, do occur. But he pointed to the formation of diversity clubs and liaison programs, which have helped.

“It’s an ongoing fact of life throughout society,” Raiff said.

Patrick said the district will review the policy handbook language and “talk about the ramifications of changing it.” Cedric Ball hopes for change. His daughter, Olivia, told the board “there are those who view us as uneducated, poor, dirty ... or undeserving of human rights.”