The walkouts come after a group of students were heard yelling racial slurs and making monkey sounds toward a group of Black students. The incident happened earlier this month, but students, parents and district leaders say it’s not the first time racial slurs including the n-word have been used toward students and staff.
“I’ll be honest, I don’t know what happened to the consequences with those students, there’s just no transparency to what happened, we need to know if the students received the consequences. Students need to know if there’s a consequence for them,” said Randolph. Data presented by the district in 2021 showed Black students were being disproportionately disciplined. At a board meeting, Ritter said it was because they were being singled out because of implicit bias, not because they were doing more things wrong.
The Board of Education has an Equity Committee made up of two out of seven members. It was originally a committee of the whole, which meant a committee for all members, but was recently downsized. Members of the administration, including Ritter and District 219’s superintendent, declined a request for an interview.