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first public comment here at the cville school board meeting asks the board to ban confederate symbols in schools. they are implicit threats of violence. “these symbols send one message to black and brown people: you are not welcome here.”
he asks the city school board to “take a leadership role” on the issue — subtly hinting at the failure of albemarle county schools to take this step.
the second public commenter is a high school student speaking in behalf of the black student union. they support the dress code change to ban confederate symbols. “as a student at charlottesville high school, i really don’t want to see these symbols in my school.”
next is a parent, also speaking in favor of the ban.
this mother recalls seeing white supremacists marching here in charlottesville last year while carrying both confederate flags and flags with swastikas. there is no doubt these are images of hate.
next speaker is a former school board member. she says when they added sexual orientation to their anti discrimination policy in 2000, they were warned of lawsuits & backlash - which never materialized. she urges them to do the right thing with the dress code.
next speaker is a mother & local psychotherapist who works with children, also speaking in favor of the ban. these images make some students feel unsafe, our sense of safety affects our ability to learn.
next speaker is a mother & montessori teacher. she appreciates the city school board allowing community members to speak, in contrast with the violence we saw at the albemarle county school board meeting last week.
she points out that six school districts in north carolina that banned confederate imagery in their schools last year DID SO IN RESPONSE to the events of august 11th & 12th here in our streets.
next speaker is a parent, also in favor of the ban.
a board member says the superintendent met with members of the hate free schools coalition yesterday. they will be taking steps to move forward with the issue.
the charlottesville school board will be meeting with legislators next month and have invited local members of the hate free schools coalition, as well as the north carolina chapter, to join them.
the superintendent will be consulting with superintendents around the state on the issue.
“i believe that we all want the same thing,” he says. “i appreciate that dialogue and the ability to speak with those leaders.”
the charlottesville school board is MUCH more receptive than the albemarle county school board!
the charlottesville school board is MUCH more receptive than the albemarle county school board!
another school board member cites the “substantial threat” required by the tinker case, but asks us to look at when that case was decided. she says no one wants a threat against a student, says we need to take action PRIOR to acts of violence.
“people said it was absurd, that we couldn’t change the way things were,” but we “will continue to move forward and galvanize that change,” says a member of the school board of the civil rights movement in america.
vice chair kraft says, as a jewish person, she finds swastikas very upsetting & distracting - symbols have power.
another board member says this [the dress code change] is “just the beginning of the work we have to do.”
another board member says this [the dress code change] is “just the beginning of the work we have to do.”
a student representative on the school board reminds us that as much as we focus on preventing harm to the body, we need to keep in mind the impact of psychological harm, harm to our souls.
this is going a lot better than the last school board meeting i attended.
charlene green from the city’s office of human rights is now giving a presentation on the history of race and ethnicity in charlottesville.
honestly i cannot get over the enormous difference between albemarle county and charlottesville city school board meetings.
in the county last week, the local prosecutor watched five cops brutalize a teacher’s aide who spoke out against racist imagery.
tonight in the city, we’re watching a presentation about the history of race in our community.
tonight in the city, we’re watching a presentation about the history of race in our community.
it’s amazing — they didn’t bring a million cops and it turns out they didn’t need a million cops. they let us speak and snap our fingers and they listened to the public... and no one had to be handcuffed.
this is unfortunately a bar that has to be cleared. thank you, charlottesville city school board members for not mocking us by wearing a tie with a confederate flag on it when community members come to talk about the harm inflicted by those images.
charlene green reminds us that slaves were bought & sold in court square in downtown charlottesville. the only reminder now is a small plaque embedded in the sidewalk there.
i’m looking around me here in the audience and seeing many of the same faces i saw at the county school board meeting last week, including several of the people who were arrested. seems like these individuals aren’t the problem - @k12albemarle’s school board is.
we talk about the lee & jackson statues a lot, but don’t forget this piece of scrap metal out front of the albemarle county courthouse (the same park where the jackson statue stands, but technically on county proper
QC3v
QC3valbemarle county school board: panics, cancels meeting ten minutes in because a parent mentions existence of racism/has parents beaten & arrested for continuing to talk about racism
charlottesville city school board: 30+ minutes into a presentation on the history of racismccbW
charlottesville city school board: 30+ minutes into a presentation on the history of racism
ccbWthe only people of color depicted in statue form in charlottesville are the cowering sacajawea in the lewis & clark statue and the native americans being shot at in the george rogers clark statue. what message does that send?
a reminder that paul goodloe mcintire dedicated the statue of robert e. lee not to general lee or the memory of the war, but to his parents. so is it a “war memorial” or just a piece of art?
old cabell hall, the building at the far end of the UVA lawn, across from the rotunda, was built to keep UVA students from going down that hill into the black community below. white supremacy is woven into the fabric of this community.
