Paul Bass Photo
Amistad students demonstrating outside the school.
Administrators overseeing the Achievement First Amistad charter high school promised to “do better” Tuesday after hundreds of black and Latino students walked out in protest to air longstanding complaints about racial insensitivity.
The students massed on the football field of the Dixwell Avenue charter school after arriving on buses, then marched on the street chanting “What do we want? Diversity! When do we want it? Now! Now!”
Some 98 percent of the school’s 498 students are black or Latino, according to its website. Most of the teachers are white.
The school emphasizes that it grooms students to be leaders — and the students took them up on that mission at Tuesday’s orderly protest.
Principal Claire Polcrack, left, tells parent Valerie Boyd, right, that a reporter can’t accompany parents into a meeting with school officials.
They charged that a racially insensitive climate had led most of the black teachers to leave and to indiscriminate discipline.
The protests brought into the open complaints students and parents have had about the racial climate in the school.
“The school has young teachers that can’t handle the classroom,” said Kordell Green, one of the organizers.
“We had this organized two weeks ago.The idea was for everybody to wear white. All the leaders would wear black. To show there’s a lack of minority teachers in the school,” said sophomore Isis Anderson. “We want more diversity. We want more representation of our student body.”
“We’re trying to balance respect for student leadership and student voice against running a focused school where students learn a lot and have a productive day, especially with exams coming up,” said AF Regional Superintendent Jeff Sudmyer, as he monitored the protest from inside the school Tuesday morning. He said that AF, like all schools in Connecticut, wrestles with a low percentage of non-white teachers, and is working hard to diversify.
“That’s not to make an excuse. We work really hard to have a diverse staff,” he said.
Some 27 percent of Amistad High School “staff members identify as black, Latino or multi-racial,” reported AF spokeswoman Amanda Pinto. “This is an increase from 21 percent in 2013 – 14.”
Sudmyer said the school pursues a “justice, equality, access” mission.
“In the ideal, they see us as collaborators with them and giving them a voice,” he said. “We want them to be leaders.”
Students complained that a popular African-American front-office worker whom they trust is being pushed out of her job. Sudmyer said he can’t comment on that because “it’s a personnel issue. They perceive it a certain way,” but “it would be inappropriate and probably illegal if I were to comment on that.”.
Around 10 a.m. students assembled on Ford Street, at the side of the school, where student Messiah Gordon led them in a call-and-response first-person testimony.
“The student body should be reflected in the staff,” he said. “Diversity in the staff increases our sense of comfort and our ability to interact with confidence in our problems,” Gordon said.
“Growing up without a father figure, I always looked to find one inside the classroom. Unfortunately, not to sound rude, a Caucasian male would never be able to teach me how to live in a society that still looks down at the skin of my color.”
At 10:20, students who live in Bridgeport went inside after they were told they would not be allowed to board buses home if they didn’t.
Miquell Shaw addresses students at the moment of decision.
The other students gathered around protest leaders, Anderson and sophomore Miquell Shaw, both of whom are running for student president.
They reported that administrators had offered to meet with the protestors in the media room if they would agree to come inside.
“If they really wanted to listen to us, they would have been out here,” Anderson said.
So the crowd of students marched instead to the front of the building to protest, where pictures of African-American heroes like Barack Obama, Shirley Chisholm, and Thurgood Marshall, looked down from the top of the facade.
A call went to Achievement First offices in Hartford, and top system administrators were headed down to New Haven to meet with students.
Five student leaders were ushered in to speak with school officials while students held placards and waved to honking drivers passing by on Dixwell Avenue.
Melissa Jones helps arrange for transportation and water for the students.
Parents came to the scene, arranging for buses to take New Haven students home later in the day and bringing water and food to keep the protesters going.
“Guys, you’ve got to face the street and put your signs up! It looks like you’re going on a field trip. You haven’t won the battle!” advised Melissa Jones, “auntie” of an Amistad student.
“This is not a game. This is your civil rights. This is what your ancestors died for!” Sharmont “Influence” Little, parent of a sophomore, exhorted the protesting students.
“I’m happy they’re standing up for what they believe in,” he said afterwards.
“Demerits”
Aliyya Swaby Photo
Dominique Phillips, Green, T’onna Roselle, Moody, I’onna Roselle and Aida Barry at the rally.
While awaiting word from leaders meeting with administrators inside the building, students discussed some of their experiences at the school.
One sophomore said he got four days of in-school suspension several weeks ago for asking a teacher whether she was on her period. He asked the dean whether a girl would be suspended for saying the same thing, and was told it would be a different consequence, he said.
Students are also disciplined through a “merit system,” in which demerits start at a minimal Level 1 for small infractions and go to Level 3 for more serious ones. A second level demerit automatically gets a student detention. Three first level demerits send a student to detention.
The sophomore said teachers give students demerits whenever they want, often without good reason. He said students don’t feel listened to by teachers.
Students can now be suspended for playing cards during lunch, he said.
Amistad junior Denaja Green said the system worksthrough favoritism, with a select group of students never being disciplined for the same actions that get others suspension or detention.
When Lourdez Moody, I’onna Roselle, T’onna Roselle and a few other girls got into a verbal altercation with another student, they felt they were blamed for the incident — and the other student was not. Both parties have to go through mediation. And staff members are directed to observe them in the halls to make sure they do not continue to fight.
Alvarado showed a “hallway support heat map” he found on the floor that listed all the students involved in that altercation, along with their lockers and schedules.
First Meeting With Students
Student leaders Shaw and Gordon reappeared at around 12:40 from their meeting with administrators. They told students gathered that they would get transportation home. Administrators had also agreed to allow students into the building to use the bathroom and eat lunch. Afterward, they could go to class or head home.
That evening at 5 p.m., students would meet with administrators and teachers, they reported. Achievement First CEO Dacia Toll would join them for a meeting in the next week, they were told.
Shaw said the meeting went well. He argued that Amistad needed to build a culture that made teachers of color feel welcome enough to keep working there, in order to attract more to start. And administrators agreed with students that “some students may get suspended for things that are of a secondary nature.”
He said teachers understood the cause and were willing to compromise.
Not all student leaders were as optimistic about the outcome.
Gordon said later that administrators were “listening, but I don’t think they were actually hearing what we were saying.” He said he didn’t trust Sudmyer, when he expressed displeasure about the rally, but also said he was proud of them for protesting.
Students had had many prior meetings about their concerns with school leaders over this past year. But nothing happened as a result. They rallied “when we didn’t feel our voices were being heard,” he said.
Though the rally was over, student leader Nia Anderson said the fight was still ongoing. “Today was a success,” she said. It will be a “long process of getting stuff done.”
2nd Meeting, With Alders & Parents
Aliyya Swaby Photo
Foskey-Cyrus, Clyburn with Sudmyer.
Newhallville Alders Brenda Foskey-Cyrus and Delphine Clyburn arrived at the rally at 12:45 p.m. just as it began to die down, and headed straight to the main office. They requested a meeting with the principal, but was told she was in a meeting.
Instead, they were ushered into a room with Sudmyer. (A reporter was allowed to be present.)
They reminded him that including diverse staff was part of the agreement community members and alders had with Achievement First when deciding whether they could build Amistad on Dixwell Avenue. The full Board of Alders unanimously agreed to sell the abandoned Martin Luther King School to Achievement First for $1.5 million, so it could raise and build a new home for Amistad.
The community benefits agreement included points such as recruiting minority teachers, partnering with New Haven Works job pipeline agency to get New Haveners into jobs at the school, and allowing community access to the school’s athletic field and gym for free.
Alicia Jones, parent of I’onna and T’onna Roselle, joined the alders in the meeting. She said the school was failing the students by not hiring more teachers of color. The only staff of color in the school are behavioral managers, not teachers, she said.
“I don’t completely disagree with you,” Sudmyer responded. “We need to do a better job.”
He said students needed consequences for walking out because he was also “running a school” and students need to be in class.
Jones asked why a white teacher was allowed to stay at Amistad after calling a black secretary a “nigger.” Many students and parents had brought up that story throughout the day to describe the atmosphere in the school for people of color.
Sudmyer said that story wasn’t true. “I’m sorry you don’t trust us,” he said. “Each of these incidents was investigated very thoroughly.”
“You have to hold your staff accountable,” Jones said. “They’re very rude and nasty to our students.”
“I don’t want staff to be rude and nasty to the kids,” Sudmyer responded. “Come around and take a look at the classes.”
“They’re not going to do it when you’re there,” Jones snapped back.
AF Co-CEO and President Dacia Toll issued this statement at 1:17 p.m.: “We are a school that focuses on developing student leaders, and today’s rally is an example of their leadership – we are proud of our students for their activism, advocacy and voice. Network leaders are meeting with students and families later today, and we’re looking forward to discussing their concerns. Staff diversity is a priority at AF Amistad High and across Achievement First, and we are proud of the progress we’ve made. We are also proud of our students and of our school.”
Amistad High is changing its principal at the end of the school, from Claire Polcrack to Morgan Barth.
Text Of Letter To Protesters
Inside the school Tuesday.
The administration distributed the following note to the protesters Tuesday morning:
Rally Participants:
We want to start by recognizing your leadership and want to recognize that your message has been heard. We look forward to meeting this afternoon with Ms. Polcrack, the principal, Mr. Sudmyer, the superintendent, Ms. Toll, the co-CEO of Achievement First, and other network representatives to further hear your concerns and comments.
We all come here each day to learn. You are here to learn, and IAs are approaching. Many of you need to get your GPA’s as high as possible. Classes are still going on today and important work is being missed.
Scholars who come to classes by 9:30 am will have minimal consequences.
If you choose to stay out after 9:30am the consequences will be more significant and can include up to:
• a tardy or absence to school (absence after 10:30am)
• unexcused missed work that may not be made up
• non-participating with any school activities
If you choose to stay out after 10:30am it is an absence of school. Therefore you will not be eligible for privileges of attending school to include:
• access to the building
• lunch
• bussing
• no participating with after-school activities (including athletics)
Thank you for making your voices heard and to make sure you are ready to learn today.
Please check back later for updates and a fuller story with student interviews and video.
What they should also be protesting is the de facto segregation that still exists in Connecticut's public schools.
We're supposed to be moving fully into the 21st century, and a time when the color of your skin matters less and less. Hard to do that given racially segregated schools...