Spirit Week controversy
School board hears from upset parents
ROYERSFORD » The political and racial divisions that are currently evident in the country made a dramatic appearance in SpringFord Area High School.
The occasion was “USA Day,” part of Spirit Week, during which students were expected to wear patriotic colors. Despite guidelines being issued ahead of time about what was appropriate and what wasn’t, some decided to use the occasion to make political statements.
During Monday night’s school board meeting, Superintendent Robert Rizzo confirmed social media claims that some students wore Trump banners, “some wore all black. There were certainly Trump shirts, there were Biden shirts, there were Obama shirts.”
One board member said “I think the most offensive one was the one that said ‘build the wall.’”
“Some of the dress codes were violated,” Rizzo told the school board after board member Clinton Jackson prompted the discussion.
“Some of the props and banners should not have been in school and we did not do what we needed to do to remove them from the environment,” said Rizzo. “Spirit Week is supposed to be about promoting unity and togetherness and positive culture, and some walked around school not feeling that.”
“In letters sent to 9th- through 12th-grade students, Dr. Weidenbaugh and Dr. Colyer detailed guidelines relevant to the high school’s spirit week,” Rizzo wrote in an email sent to parents the next day, “including expectations that outfits and props deemed disruptive to the educational process would be prohibited or confiscated.”
“Hearing from students and parents, some felt that the use of props, flags and banners in the school was disruptive to the educational process,” Rizzo wrote. “As a district, we feel students should feel safe and welcome at school. As a community, we must ask what message we want to send in our schools and what message we want to represent SpringFord.”
During the meeting’s public comment period, Nya Rollins noted that several weeks prior, a parent had complained about a Black Lives Matter sticker being displayed in one of the school buildings, and “parents were complaining that politics should have no place in schools.”
The board subsequently made it clear that no political propaganda belonged in school. During the following meeting, Rizzo confirmed that the sticker had been removed.
Rollins said “and then then they wear Trump apparel, which
is political, and an email is sent and all it says is we should talk about these kind of things with our children,” she added. “I just find it interesting that when its issues where Black people are involved it’s always political and should not be allowed, but Trump apparel is allowed. I’m just wondering why, now, it’s an issue because it was never talked about before, and that’s political attire.”
But Spring-Ford Solicitor Mark Fitzgerald noted the two instances were not comparable because there are different legal precedents. “What a student may wear is different than are the rights and expectations for employees. That matter (the BLM sticker) as I recall was an employee issue. I understand the desire to compare apples to apples, but it was a different issue.”
“I think her reference really is fairness,” Jackson said of Rollins’ comments. “She’s looking for fairness, and I don’t think that needs to be done by the board, it needs to be done by the administration at the high school.”
School Board President Colleen Zasowski agreed, and added, “the board has to make sure that whatever is out there is consistent across the board. And, as Mr. Rizzo has just said, maybe there needs to be a little more attention. Maybe the belt needs to be tightened a little bit; maybe some stricter guidelines, and that’s what needs to happen.”
“I have been made aware that because of that issue, some of the students want to leave Spring-Ford, said board member Diane Sullivan. “They do not want to continue going to school here, because of that. I think we need to keep a real tight lid on this, and take care of it, so we don’t have any incidents again.”
Resident Christian Kengor told the board “there is a huge difference between what a teacher, or faculty member is promoting, versus what a student is promoting. I think these kids all need to learn to tolerate and respect each
other. Unity is a very big goal that we don’t see at all across the country. It’s a very divided country and we should expect the same in our classrooms. If one’s wearing something BLM, and another is wearing something Obama, or Trump, the kids need to learn to tolerate that and respect that and get along with each other.”
“While students do have rights,” said Ann Marie Holstein, “the Constitution has allowed courts to regulate this, which is why we tell students what they can and cannot wear with dress codes. It is not a Constitutional right of theirs to wear ‘Build the Wall’ flags to school, which can be seen as intimidating their fellow students.”
She thanked the administration for its swift action and added “we all want equity and fairness and we all want students to feel safe in our school buildings.”
“I saw multiple pictures circulating about what happened and I was horrified by them,” said resident Theresa Westwood. “I have to ask myself how are those children allowed to even walk through the doors dressed in such a way? What is the accountability going to be for the staff that was overseeing those students?’
Added Westwood, “we need really clear accountability, not just nice messaging.”
The controversy comes amid the context of a long-running discussion in Spring-Ford about the course of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee in exploring district policy. During recent meetings, some residents have told the board that those discussions are the beginning
of teaching “critical race theory” in Spring-Ford Schools.
More than 40 years old, “critical race theory” has become a focal point of political debate in recent months in front of school boards across the country.
According toa May 18 article in Education Week magazine, “the core idea (of critical race theory) is that racism is a social construct, and that it is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.”
In the Education Week article, author Stephen Sawchuk wrote: “a good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas. Today, those same patterns of discrimination live on through facially race-blind policies, like single-family zoning that prevents the building of affordable housing in advantaged, majority-white neighborhoods and, thus, stymies racial desegregation efforts.”
“Critics charge that the theory leads to negative dynamics, such as a focus on group identity over universal, shared traits; divides people into ‘oppressed’ and ‘oppressor’ groups; and urges intolerance,” wrote Sawchuk.
Stephen Fry told the board that teachers unions have undue influence over what is taught in schools, “including critical race theory” and said it is something the board should discuss.
Resident John Yonchuck
connected the USA Day incident and the EDI discussions in his comments.
“For the better part of this summer, the board has spent quite a lot of time and energy debating the usefulness of the EDI committee. You did have a Black Lives Matter sticker removed at a white constituent’s request and then you did little when one of your students of color was told to go back where they came from right in this very room. This board has consistently signaled over this summer, with its debate and its actions, that it does not value all of it’s Spring-Ford constituents. These actions blew up during USA Day,” he said.
Then “not only was a student permitted to bring a racist flag that denigrates immigrants into the building, but, permitted to parade it in front of classroom,” said Yonchuck. “It was clear there would be no consequences for violating these rules, which has been par for the course for this board for some time. It is now clear that racism is alive and well here in Spring-Ford, and the board will do little to counteract it. This shameful behavior is another example of your failed board leadership.”
“EDI is not only race-related. A Trump flag does not equal racism. That’s a leap in people’s minds for their opinions,” said resident Mary Jo McNamara. “We have to be really careful about this. It’s great that you want to implement a dress code, but a dress code doesn’t get rid of it. This is a space where we have to implement standards from our whole student body and there needs to be a grievance process related to it. People are uncomfortable
if someone brings a flag in, if flags were allowed, they need to take it up with the grievance process, not put ‘I want to kill myself’ on social media. It’s nonsense. The underlying keyboard bullying that went on with picture is horrendous,” she said.
“The whole incident was horrendous. We didn’t do our due diligence with following protocols for the whole week. Kids were bringing in props all week long. Kids had BLM shirts on USA Day,” McNamara said. “It was wonderful to see the kids don’t always equate red white and blue to USA anymore. That’s the way it should be. That’s the way our world is. We have to address this from a diversity and inclusivity perspective.”
Roland Olsen told the board “we have people in our school district who will always look to bring Spring-Ford down to their level. They think small, they hide behind aliases on social media to personally attack our board members. They send anonymous emails. They take pictures of our kids and use them as weapons to destroy the great programs we have here at Spring-Ford.”
“Currently,” Olsen said, “Spirit Week and youth sports are on their hit list. They promote negativity and divisiveness, but they have no solutions. They haven’t got a single thing right in the last 20 months, and I think you should keep that in mind every time you get an email from them, or a nasty-gram, and every time they step to this podium, to pronounce their hatred of Spring-Ford, do the opposite.”
He concluded “we have problems in this district,
and people who are causing them, and it’s not the people who are sitting at this table, and its not the good people of Spring-Ford.”
“All this arguing over T-shirts is just ridiculous, and it’s a distraction,” James Troutman told the school board. “It’s American freedom. Wear whatever you want. Who cares?”
One resident said “kids who just wore red, white and blue on Thursday, they got harassed. That’s horrible. And it goes both ways. I saw pictures of people wearing the rainbow flag. Were they harassed?”
Resident Preston Luitweiler told the board “I can’t think of a more cogent example of why this school district needs to be embarking on a EDI program. I understand there’s been a lot of discussion about there’s no racism in Spring-Ford. There are no problems in Spring-Ford. You can’t say that after what happened on Thursday, I’m sorry.”
“No one’s ever said there are no problems in SpringFord. We’ve asked what are the problems? And we’ve all supported moving forward with the EDI program,” said Zasowski. “We have that, we’re embracing that, and we’re looking forward to getting the results and addressing the needs that we have.”
“We get accused of a lot of things and I ask a lot of questions because I too am looking for the advancement of the programs,” said board member Tom DiBello. “No one sat at this table has said we don’t have issues in the district. We sat at this table and said we want to know what the issues are. It’s been going on for multiple years and we’re trying to get some steps forward and say what’s going on? What do we need to address?”
He added, “we probably also need to have a policy that says there are no flags, there are no banners, so we don’t run across this again. But we also have to have some leeway that allows students to express their feelings, their beliefs.”
“I think Dr. Colyer needs to get his arms around the high school,” said Jackson, “or we need to put somebody there who will. Simple as that.”