Emily Hays Photo
Black Lives Matter New Haven Co-founder ala ochumare: The board chose white supremacy.
Thomas Breen photo
Mayoral challenger Karen DuBois-Walton (center): Roblee investigation must be transparent.
Parents, protesters, and political leaders called for a transparent investigation and a public apology from the former Brennan-Rogers School principal, one day after the Board of Education narrowly voted to demote her for using the “n‑word” in an antiracism workshop.
Those calls, and exclamations of hurt, sorrow, and anger, took place at two separate events Tuesday afternoon.
The first saw a dozen leaders from Black Lives Matter, Citywide Youth Coalition, and the Board of Alders gather outside of the New Haven Public Schools’ headquarters on Meadow Street to demonstrate how significant they consider this incident — and why they believe it necessitated a public apology and healing process.
The second was a campaign press conference organized by mayoral candidate Karen DuBois-Walton, who criticized incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker for not being transparent about the school district’s investigation and about his thoughts on the matter.
The events were in response to a 4 – 3 Monday night vote by the Board of Ed to demote Principal Laura Roblee to assistant principal and reassign her to a different school. Roblee used the “n‑word” during hypothethical statements at an anti-racism workshop. (Read a full story about that here.) The board investigated the incident before Monday night’s vote. It hasn’t released the results of the investigation.
Emily Hays Photo
Cajigas and ochumare.
One protester at the first rally was reminded of a time she was called the n‑word. Another remembered when a teacher’s racism went unchecked from administrators.
“It is time for city officials to make a decision. It’s 2021, and they are still choosing white oppression and white supremacy,” said Black Lives Matter New Haven Co-Founder ala ochumare.
Roblee was originally put on leave in late March. Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting revealed that Roblee had used the n‑word to describe her discomfort with an antiracist moderator use of “white privilege,” saying, “What if I started saying [n‑word] this, [n‑word] that?”
The board members who voted against Roblee’s reassignment asked for a public apology from Roblee and that the investigation into Roblee become public, as a starting point.
Those at Tuesday’s protest echoed these criticisms. Some, like City Wide Parent Team President Nijija-Ife Waters, suggested that all four board members who voted for the demotion should be replaced.
ochumare, who lives in New Haven, is the parent to a New Haven Public Schools student. She said she believes in transformative justice — the idea that someone can learn from and address their harmful behaviors through proper supports, rather than being thrown away or locked up. For example, she would have liked to hear Roblee apologize at Monday’s board meeting, she said. Staff members at Brennan-Rogers should also help determine what Roblee needs to do to address her action.
Many at the protest expressed concern about what Roblee saying the n‑word meant about her approach to her Black and Hispanic staff members and students. The Board of Education’s vote also undermined their stated commitment to racial justice, protesters said.
“They sent a loud and clear message that they could care less about Black and brown people,” said Citywide Youth Coalition Organizing Director and NHPS alumna Jahnice Cajigas.
The situation reminded Cajigas of her ninth grade English teacher. This teacher had said that some Black students were so dark he couldn’t see them in the sun, she said. He had also said that he would have shot teenager Trayvon Martin. Cajigas brought the situation to administrators, but they told her they couldn’t do much, she said.
“I’m not surprised. It’s well known to students that there are teachers and administrators who are loudly racist and some in ways that you can’t tell right away,” Cajigas said.
Cajigas asked to hear apologies from Superintendent Iline Tracey and the four majority Board of Education members for their role in the situation. She argued Roblee should be fired and the full investigation into her conduct released to the public.
Among attended at the Black Lives Matter protest were Board of Education member Darnell Goldson, Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow, and mayoral candidate DuBois-Walton. Goldson was among the three BOE members who voted against the demotion and denounced the secrecy behind the investigation into Roblee.
“I’m here today, because it’s really concerning that someone in the role of principal or higher administrator, who has so much influence over young people would be using those words. We have to continue to be mindful that we represent a wide range of young people, who are always listening to our words and watching our actions,” Walker-Myers said.
Walker-Myers pointed to how little Brennan-Rogers families know as another problem with the situation.
“In a city this diverse, we cannot afford to step backwards from progress. This was a step backwards,” Furlow said.
DuBois-Walton: Where’s The Transparency, Now?
Thomas Breen photo
DuBois-Walton picked up on that line of criticism later Tuesday afternoon during a separate, campaign press conference held outside of Wilbur Cross High School on Mitchell Drive in East Rock.
DuBois-Walton is challenging first-term incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker, who has a seat on the Board of Education, for the Democratic nomination for mayor.
Backed by a dozen public school parents and teachers supporting her campaign, DuBois-Walton laid into Mayor Elicker for saying little at Monday night’s public conversation and debate on the incident.
“In an hour of passionate debate and conversation, we heard two words from the mayor,” she said. “Two ‘yes’ votes to move the conversation along. No details, no justification for his votes, no questions. Nothing.”
She said that the mayor’s lack of substantive participation in the public portion of Monday night’s meeting, and the dearth of public details on the city school district’s investigation into Roblee’s comments, go against the “transparency” that Elicker frequently touts as a key asset of his administration.
“The mayor likes to talk about transparency, likes to give out his phone number and respond to emails from constituents,” DuBois-Walton said. “But what good is contact information if we don’t get anything of substance back?”
When asked earlier in the day for his thoughts on the Roblee incident, Elicker said, “I found the remarks very, very concerning. I trust Dr. Tracey’s ability to make the right decision.” He said Tracey “had consultations with the union and legal counsel.”
DuBois-Walton and her supporters did not call for the firing of Roblee during Tuesday’s campaign presser. They did speak about how serious a white principal’s use of the n‑word is — and disagreed with Superintendent Tracey’s description of the incident as a “slip of the tongue.”
“It is not a slip,” said Teresa Johnson (pictured), whose youngest daughter is a rising senior at Career High School and whose grandchild is a first grader at Beecher. “It is what she said before, and is obviously comfortable saying. The slip was that she got caught.”
There should be consequences, “extreme consequences,” Johnson said, for principals and other public leaders who “are failing us and our children.”
Fellow public school parent Tagan Engel (pictured) agreed.
“When a white person compares the use of terms like ‘white supremacy’ and ‘white privilege’ to the use of the n‑word, as the former principal of Brennan-Rogers did,” she said, “this is not a slip of the tongue. This is a window into her mindset and the lack of understanding about systemic racism that she holds.”
The city school district must “publicly investigate this incident, repair the harm that has happened to the students, staff and families in our school community, and hold this leader accountable for demonstrating deep, transformational learning and practice before she is allowed to lead in any school.”
This is not about destroying the life of someone who said something wrong in private, Engel said. “This is about holding a community leader accountable for their power and their impact on children, staff and families.”
What would DuBois-Walton have said or done differently if she were sitting in the mayor’s seat on the Board of Education Monday night?
“I would have been one who found moments where we could do a reset” when the conversation got heated, she said. “Ultimately, I would have had much more transparency around this. People are wondering what exactly was in this report? What exactly was found? What are the next steps? How is she being integrated into another school?” Why is she being assigned to another school at all?
Would she have pushed for the firing of Roblee, rather than her demotion?
DuBois-Walton said that, if mayor, she would have advocated for Roblee’s placement elsewhere in the district only after “a period of restorative practice work,” only after there were “opportunities for healing in the community,” only after Roblee “demonstrated some remorse, some learning, some opportunity to grow. The same thing we would expect of our students.”
And how did she, as a New Haven resident and a Black woman, feel when she found out that a white public school principal used the n‑word in the context of an anti-racism workshop?
“I felt angry, very frustrated, but not necessarily surprised.” She said that leadership in the city school district — including the mayor — needs to create opportunities for teachers and other school leaders to grow.
But, she said, “when there’s no signs of remorse, no signs of growth” after an incident as troubling as the use of the n‑word by a principal, then district leaders also have to be able to say to those educators: “This isn’t the place for you.”
Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch DuBois-Walton’s full press conference.
If elected officials, community leaders, police administrators, etc showed half this urgency when addressing inner city crime and gun violence our cities would be much safer.