Parents: South staff needs diversity training
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 2, 2009
By Sarah Nagem
snagem@salisburypost.com
An incident at South Rowan High School after Barack Obama won the presidential election last month has led Renay Caldwell and her teenage daughter, Alexandra, to call for more diversity awareness at the school.
The discussion that occurred during a class Nov. 5 wasn’t the first time the family has experienced racial issues at South, said the Caldwells, who are African-American.
On that day, Alexandra, a senior, went to art class, where talks turned to the recent election and race.
According to Alexandra, the teacher, who is white, said since America elected a black president, people can’t complain about slavery anymore.
“I was very upset,” Alexandra said. “I felt that her being a professional … she should not have given any input on her political opinions.”
Renay and Alexandra met with Dr. Don Knox, the principal at South, and the art teacher, to talk about what happened.
“I could tell (Knox) was really disturbed when I quoted what the teacher said,” Renay recalled.
And as for the teacher, Renay said, “She apologized. She apologized profusely.”
It is unclear if the art teacher faced any repercussions for the statement. The Rowan-Salisbury School System does not make public such personnel matters.
“At this point in time, we’re simply looking into it,” said Dr. Walter Hart, assistant superintendent for administration.
Renay said she wants the teachers at South to participate in diversity training. She addressed the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education about her wishes last month.
Alexandra said she wants the school to form a diversity or multi-cultural club at the school.
The staff at South has not had any diversity training this school year, Knox said.
The school system doesn’t automatically offer all its employees diversity training, said Dr. Rebecca Smith, assistant superintendent for curriculum. If school principals request training sessions for their staff, she said, the school system provides them.
Training sessions are also available online, Smith said.
Knox said he plans to work with South’s PTA about putting in place a diversity program. He has also talked to representatives from the N.C. Association of Educators, he said.
“It’s a real charged issue,” Knox said. “Luckily, we have a PTA that is a very eclectic group, racially and ethnically.”
The Caldwells said they are upset about events that happened at South on Nov. 5 before Alexandra’s art class.
To show her support for the presidential winner, Alexandra wrote “Obama ’08” in marker below her collar bone. During her advanced-placement statistics class, a teacher told her to wash off the writing or cover it up.
Alexandra contacted her mother, who went to the school to help her daughter deal with the situation.
“She felt that she had the right to show her support,” Renay said.
In the end, after the Caldwells talked to Knox, Alexandra decided to wear her coat throughout the rest of the school day instead of going to in-school suspension, they said.
The writing on Alexandra’s skin is partly what sparked the discussion about the election during art class, she said.
Alexandra said the teacher approached her and said some people might be offended by the writing.
What happened last month wasn’t the first time Alexandra says she has been offended at South because of racial reasons.
Last school year, she said, she noticed a student had painted a Confederate flag on the rock outside the school. She told an assistant principal about it and headed to dance practice, she said.
Alexandra had expected school staff to immediately paint over the controversial symbol.
“But sure enough, it was still there,” Renay said. “So we both had to paint the rock.”
Renay said her son, Bo, became upset during his junior year at South. Bo played on the basketball team, and someone put a T-shirt with a Confederate flag on it in his gym bag one day, Renay said.
Bo didn’t quit the basketball team.
“He went on,” Renay said. “That didn’t stop him from playing.”
Bo was the valedictorian at South last spring.
Hart said the school system needs to look into the Caldwells’ claims. But Hart and Knox both said the family’s concerns ó including those about confederate flag symbols ó aren’t isolated to South.
“I doubt there are any high schools in this region that don’t have some folks who have less-than-sensitive views when it comes to those issues,” Hart said.
Knox is in his first year at South, so he was not the principal when Alexandra complained about the school rock and someone put the T-shirt in Bo’s bag.
But he said he knows many people identify with the Confederate flag symbol.
“Unfortunately, that’s part of the culture of the South,” he said.
Renay, who has an African-American father and a Japanese mother, said she grew up in an environment where people were understanding of others’ differences.
She’s disappointed her children haven’t always had the same.
“They have experienced more racism at their age than I have,” Renay said.