South Middle School

The local chapter of the NAACP is now criticizing the Lawrence school district’s handling of an alleged racial incident at South Middle School, and has begun questioning how the district investigated the matter.

In a letter to district officials, the president of the Lawrence branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said she was extremely disappointed that school board members last month agreed to accept the resignation of a teacher without publicly naming the teacher. It is believed the teacher is the same South Middle School social studies teacher who was under investigation for allegedly making racist comments to his students. The school board broke from its past practice of naming individuals who resign from the district’s employment.

In addition, the NAACP letter alleges that district officials failed to adequately notify parents that their students were being interviewed as part of an investigation into the alleged racist comments.

In her letter, NAACP president Ursula Minor alleged that “at the outset, parents were not informed about the investigatory processes involving their children in this matter, or extended the opportunity to provide consent or even be present when their children were being interviewed.”

Minor wrote that NAACP members found it “disturbing” that the district’s written response to earlier communication with the organization did not, according to Minor’s letter, “recognize this oversight as an error on your part.”

“Aside from what official policy might allow regarding parent consent when interviewing subjects, the appropriate measure on such a sensitive and potentially volatile matter would have been to inform and include parents in a transparent investigatory process,” Minor continued.

District officials on Monday declined to comment on the NAACP’s allegations about the investigation.

The letter also makes clear the NAACP’s position on the school board’s decision on Nov. 28 to allow the employee to resign without releasing that employee’s name. If the South teacher who had been under investigation this semester, had, in fact, made racist remarks in class, that teacher, Minor wrote, “will have the opportunity to seek employment in another school district without having to account for his actions.” Minor and the Lawrence NAACP chapter believe, based on accounts from several South parents, that the South teacher did engage in “racist classroom conduct” while instructing students.

“We are deeply concerned that one of the district’s teachers at South Middle School … is resigning without any public recognition on your part of the harm that he did to the students who were the targets of racist speech in this particular incident,” Minor wrote, referring to the employee who many have speculated is the teacher who had been under investigation this semester. “This is to say nothing of the innumerable other students who possibly also experienced racist comments and/or other inappropriate actions” at the hands of that teacher, she added.

The Journal-World on Monday reached out to district officials about the letter. Though the district declined to comment on specific questions, including those regarding the extent to which parents were notified of their children’s participation in the investigation process at South, it did release the following statement from Superintendent Kyle Hayden:

“The Lawrence school district continues to be committed to addressing institutionalized racism and providing learning environments free from harassment and discrimination. We want and appreciate the NAACP’s partnership in these efforts.”

The district also confirmed that Hayden and Marcel Harmon, president of the Lawrence school board, did meet with NAACP leaders on Nov. 17 to discuss “mutual goals of providing safe and effective learning environments for all children.

“We plan to continue this dialogue, discuss concerns and engage the organization’s members in helping the district in its ongoing work to achieve our equity goals and improve support for all students,” Hayden said.

The statement also said that Hayden and Harmon have invited the NAACP to meet again regarding these issues, and Minor, on Monday, said that she and other NAACP members plan to “sit down with them soon.”