Targeted Racism Continues

Even In Schools

Adverse incidents and troublesome situations related to family and community engagement and social justice continue to erupt throughout the United States. In fact, the saddest reality is that they keep taking place in our schools.

As a professional writer and author of the book “Repair the Broken Pieces: A System to Awaken Positive Relations Between the Family and Educational Provider Through Engagement Fusion”, I am diligently working to establish a sustainable platform to raise awareness about the benefit and power of family engagement in education as I emphasize the interconnection of social justice during this process. Ultimately, I am dedicated to changing the behaviors of educators and those who are vital key stakeholders in schools as well as parents in these critical areas for the benefit of increased levels of student achievement, growth, development, and the overall success of learners. In doing so, I literally cannot keep up with the articles that feel compelled to write and publish because I must provide my perspective in response to the number of prominent and questionable school related situations. My sincere goal is to help educators and parents.

A Summary of the Latest Incident of Racism

The situation that I will describe took place within the Penn Trafford School District in Harrison City, Pennsylvania, a suburban district located outside of the city limits of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While many media outlets provided information on the incident, I will focus on what news reporter Brenda Waters from KDKA TV, a CBS affiliate in Southwestern Pennsylvania, recounted on May 15, 2019.

According to what was reported, students enrolled in an audio visual class were recently given the responsibility of producing an active shooter training video to be used for an educator training session. A student actor in the video who played the role of the active shooter wore a head covering and appeared to resemble an individual who was Muslim. While the video was exclusively developed for training purposes, it was posted on Facebook by a student enrolled at the school. Because others viewed the video on social media, the school district was publicly criticized for the racist portrayal of a Muslim actively engaged in the shooting scenario.

Ms. Waters stated that the Penn Trafford School District would not grant permission for the video to be used during her televised report.

The reporter interviewed three White members of the community, who represent the dominant racial group in that region, on camera regarding the incident. Here is an overview of each conversation.

1. After being shown the video on the reporters’ cellphone, the first respondent, a woman, said that “it does not offend me personally” even though she further stated that she does “not know what to think about that”.
2. When asked by the reporter if the image on the video bothered the next community member, who was an elderly man, he stated that it did “a little…they shouldn’t be profiling somebody like that”.
3. The final respondent, an eleventh grade girl enrolled at the high school acknowledged that she was aware of the situation and said “they could have done a normal person without offending anyone…”.

The Penn Trafford School District released part of the following statement to the media in response to the incident:

“…the active shooter drill conducted at PT did not intend to represent any particular culture or religion as the shooter. The individual wore a long blond wig with a scarf around his head and a paintball/tactical mask over his face.”

Ms. Brenda Waters stated that a similar communication was sent home to parents.

A Deep Analysis of the School Incident

No matter how the active shooting scenario has been explained to the public and portrayed as an innocent occurrence because students produced the training video, it was still racist.

The dramatic characterization of the individual who assumed the identity of a terrorist who actively shot innocent victims in a school, a precious institution in our society, wore a head covering to resemble a Muslim. This was a blatant representation of:

bigotry, discrimination, prejudice, bias, oppression, unfairness, hatred, profiling, injustice, segregation, and stereotyping.

There are several troubling realities about this entire scenario.

1. As a highly experienced and former teacher and school administrator, I do not understand why students were given what appears to be complete autonomy to produce an active shooting video for their teachers. The teacher who taught the class should have closely monitored the students as they created the video due to sensitive and disturbing nature of the theme that encompassed the production process. If the students were adequately supervised by a responsible adult who was attuned to the social ills that continue to permeate the media and our global society, including all of the seemingly constant acts of racism, the character dressed as a Muslim would not have been permitted to appear in the video. Additionally, if the video was to be utilized during a training session with educators, I also do not understand why school and district administration did not preview it and prevent the Muslim character from being the represented. I wholeheartedly fault the teacher and administrators for allowing the video to be created and used.
2. Invisibility is a characteristic of racism. This refers to the belief that derogatory racially charged events do not really occur because those involved in the events choose to deny the existence of these acts. Ultimately, individuals refuse to see racism for what it really is. The school district has refused to accept any responsibility for the offense perpetrated against the Muslim community by unfairly labeling all of them as them as terrorists. Instead, they responded to the backlash with a spirit of defiance as they worked to justify the actions of the student participant. The district made a terrible mistake. Owning their error by offering a sincere acknowledgement along with an apology to the Muslim community and making a commitment to become more culturally sensitive would have relieved the racial tension that now exists.
3. To me, the lack of transparency translates into the fear of discovery. Even though the video in question was posted in a public social media domain, the school district refused to allow the news reporter to use it for her story. It is now concluded that the institutional racism that permeates the district needs to be hidden and protected within this school district instead of being confronted and dealt with aggressively.
4. I believe that work needs to be done within that school district to help students and the adults that work their build their acceptance and respect for diverse members of our world. I also believe that efforts should extent into the local community as well. My belief is affirmed by the student who was briefly interviewed during the interview who said the students should have featured a “normal person” as the active shooter. To me and many others who truly understand what racism is, what was actually meant was that anyone who is not like the majority population, like someone who is Muslim, is abnormal. I believe there is much room for growth in the areas of cultural relevance and cultural competency.
5. Sometimes racism manifests through the spirit of indifference. Some people who are not directly impacted by racism simply do not care. Such people lack the capacity to empathize with the plight of people who are oppressed. For these uncaring people, compassion in this area is nonexistent. An example of this was displayed by the first woman who was quickly interviewed and stated that “it does not offend me personally”. The reality is that the incident did offend Muslims and other diverse individuals. It also offended people who sincerely care about other human beings victimized by racism.

Implications On Family Engagement

Even though racism in schools has absolutely devastating effect on students, as an advocate of family engagement in education, I will explain the impact that is has in effort to strengthen family engagement exclusively.

Racism blocks any opportunity for families from diverse backgrounds to be able to develop positive relations with the educational providers of their children. In this context, racism that permeates a school district causes the following harmful effects to multicultural parents:

1. Any form of social justice will never prevail for these parents because their voices will remain suppressed. They will remain powerless in any effort to collaborate with educators for the benefit of their children in a manner that reflect fairness and equality.
2. Educators will tolerate these parents as they refuse to accept them just as they are or respect them by holding them in high esteem or by having a high opinion of them. The nonverbal cues and gestures of teachers along with verbal indicators that accentuate their dominance like speaking to parents in a demeaning manner, causes parents to the realize that those who educate their children merely put up with them.
3. The singular perspective of the educators will prevail as the viewpoint of diverse parents will be disregarded.
4. While previously stated, this deserves to be repeated. The authentic relationships between educators and teachers that leads to parental involvement and family engagement throughout the learning process of their children will never develop.

Racism must be eradicated in schools so that liberty and justice prevails for all, including Muslims.

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Dr. Deborah M. Vereen is a retired Teacher and School Administrator. Her website is www.Drdeborahmvereen.com and her YouTube Channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS1DPhBeA29UlybU9jzDkdQ.