ST. ALBANS — Racism was on full display at a rally Wednesday outside Bellows Free Academy high school to demonstrate against racial prejudice in Vermont’s schools.
A young man drove past the rally with a Confederate flag mounted to the bed of his pickup truck with his head lowered, not meeting the eyes of protestors.
Others drove past giving demonstrators the middle finger. A group of white students who gathered around another pickup truck pantomimed shooting guns at demonstrators.
One student pulled his pants down and mooned the protestors. That student, who said his name was Logan Luys, said he was not targeting the rally, but rather the television cameras (several TV news stations were present).
The 15-year-old sophomore said there is racism at Bellows Free Academy high school, but the rally was blowing things out of proportion. The problem, he said, was that “a few rednecks with their Confederate flags take things too far.”
A handful of students joined the rally of roughly two dozen people, holding signs and chanting “Black students matter.”
Ebony Nyoni, one of the rally’s organizers, said she has a nephew in the school system bud did not want to give specifics, because she was concerned for his privacy. She described “racial bullying and harassment,” with little support for the victims from school officials.
Nyoni said there were several instances where racial slurs were used in classrooms, and allegations that a teacher laughed when a student used one. There is also a student who insists on bringing a Confederate flag to “torment” and “harass” black students at the school, she said.
Chris Mosca, the principal of Bellows Free Academy, said he could not discuss specific situations of bullying or harassment, because of the need to protect students’ privacy. He would not confirm the allegations reported by Nyoni.
Mosca said his school takes bullying and harassment seriously, and that when it’s reported, they have a policy in place that is followed carefully. Racism in schools is a problem, he said, that needs to be addressed.
Shela Linton, another of the rally’s organizers, shouted into a bull horn that all too often the racial harassment experienced by minority students is ignored, or worse, abetted by school officials and other adults in positions of power.
Nyoni said she believes at Bellows Free Academy the problem is officials do not have a good understanding of racism and how it can manifest and “they weren’t able to really help and support the students who were harassed.”
“Some of the students who then retaliate or defend themselves end up being suspended and are the ones who are penalized,” she said.
Principal Mosca acknowledged that there is “research that supports the notion” that students of color and students with disabilities are suspended and expelled at disproportionate rates in Vermont. “Our job is continually do better,” he added.
The demonstrators said the higher rates of suspension and expulsion for students of color create a “school to prison pipeline” wherein young people whose education is limited or curtailed due to disciplinary actions have trouble landing good jobs and accessing the mainstream economy.
That is part of the reason that while only 1 percent of Vermont’s population is black, African-Americans make up 10 percent of those incarcerated by the state, they said.
An Agency of Education spokesman said she was not familiar with the details of what occurred at Bellows Free Academy. Agency officials said in a statement that they appreciate the protest for bringing attention to “racial inequities faced by students in Vermont and across the nation.”
“And although the race disparities in discipline are not so large in Vermont as in other states, we recommend schools engage in professional development around implicit bias recognition and culturally competent teaching,” state officials said.
Richard Miller, owner of Miller’s automotive located next door to Bellows Free Academy, had a very different assessment. Miller said a few days ago, a white student and his father had stopped by the shop and described an altercation with a black student.
The African-American student had knocked the white student down and kicked him, Miller maintained. When the white student responded with a racial slur, he was suspended, according to Miller, who thought that was inappropriate.
“I’m not a racist person, but the black man has brought a lot of his misery on himself,” Miller said. “They’ve got this big chip on their shoulder and they’re just daring someone to knock it off,” he said looking on in disgust at the protest from his garage window.
“I’ve got black friends,” Miller said. “You know what he would call them people? (N-word),” he railed, gesturing at the demonstrators across the street. “He’s a good guy, and he says, ‘I’ve got all kinds of white friends and I’ve never been called a (n-word). You know why? Because I don’t act like a (n-word).”
Miller said if you’re not a minority, it’s hard to make your voice heard, saying that white people are now the “lowest on the totem poll.”
Editor’s note: This post has been updated to remove racist slurs from a quote to be in line with VTDigger’s current editorial standards.
