A white supremacist has threatened to protest Montpelier High School’s decision to raise the Black Lives Matter flag on Thursday.
The school has received a wave of backlash since their Jan. 17 decision to fly the Black Lives Matter flag this February. Reactions have ranged from Montpelier citizens expressing their belief that the flag is anti-police to a spate of racially charged posts by white supremacy groups.
One email sent to many Montpelier school staff members by a person who calls himself Russell James said that he and others will protest at the school over what he said was a lack of “concern for the lives of White residents of Montpelier.”
James’ identity could not be independently verified.
Montpelier Public School Superintendent Brian Ricca said in an interview the backlash has subsided during the past few days but that he expects it to pick back up when the flag is raised on Thursday. He said he and Principal Mike McRaith have been the public points of contact over the past week.
The wave of reaction has not been confined to Vermont. Far-right news sites such as Breitbart News and RedState News have criticized the decision.
In addition, white supremacist groups from around the country have been flooding forums and chat rooms about the decision.
Some members of Stormfront, a forum site started by Ku Klux Klan leader Don Black, called Ricca and wrote letters to McRaith. The Stormfront site, whose logo includes the words “White Pride World Wide” and a banner that says “Every month is White history month,” is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
One of the letters sent to McRaith by someone with the forum name “Mr. K” said, “Until white people start getting the same equal rights as everyone else, including protected groups like BLM and LGBTQ, we will furiously continue to protest this blatant discrimination against our civil rights.”
Another user claimed to have sent McRaith an email with the message: “F. U.” That was followed by other messages cheering the post and thanking the user who wrote it.
Ricca said the letters and other statements have not contained personal threats and any “questionable” messages have been directed to Cpl. Matt Knisely, the school’s resource officer who is a member of the Montpelier police force.
The superintendent did say the positive emails have outnumbered the negative ones and that he has had a number of “peaceful conversations” with those who disagreed.
“I still remain fully committed to peaceful discussion,” he said.
Ricca mentioned one dissenting voice from a woman who has grandchildren in the district. She told him that the Black Lives Matter flag was “divisive” and said it was a sign of anti-police sentiment. Ricca said he pointed to the board members’ statement explaining their action and described the daily experiences of students of color at the school that led to the decision to raise the flag.
Others have called for McRaith and Ricca to be fired.
VTDigger’s Facebook page post sharing the initial story attracted more than 500 comments about the decision. A good number went beyond what some would call the polarized two-sided argument to a more nuanced interpretation of the movement.
One user, who said he believed in the statement “Black Lives Matter,” said he disagreed with the group’s views on globalization and argued the flag should not be put up for that reason.
“I’ll be over there supporting equality without supporting your globalist agenda,” commenter Robert Ross said. “Teach the principle of equality, do not enforce the teaching of globalism in our schools.”
Although some argued the action was a clear anti-police move, a greater number praised the decision and thanked Montpelier High School and its students.
Chloe White, policy director at the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said there has been some misunderstanding around the meaning of Black Lives Matter. It stands for eliminating racial profiling, excessive use of force against people of color and racial bias in the criminal justice system, she said, not for opposing law enforcement.
White said that in certain areas of society, black lives have not been as protected or valued as much as white lives and that’s what’s the behind the statement.
“You don’t go to a cancer rally and say, ‘but what about heart disease,’” she said.
Regardless of the varying perspectives, what it comes down to is students feeling protected at school, White said. “There is a real need to ensure kids are protected and that they feel secure within their school.”
In their letter to the board requesting that the flag be flown, the students said they repudiate any acts of violence that may have occurred under that banner and instead believe the message is essential to achieving equality at their school.
“We will raise the flag with love in our hearts and courage in our voices,” the letter said. “We reject any purported connections to violence or hate that may or may not have occurred under the Black Lives Matter flag. We recognize that all lives do matter, but in the same spirit not all lives are acknowledged for their equal importance until black lives have been.”
The board decided to raise the flag during a Jan. 17 meeting, after the student-led racial justice alliance asked them to.
Ricca said students within the group last year shared what he calls “very difficult things” about their experiences and what they had heard in the halls of the school. Since then, the students have been working with the board and school representatives to find ways to battle institutional racism within the school.
This is not the first time a Vermont school has come under fire for raising the Black Lives Matter flag. In October 2016, when the University of Vermont Student Government Association decided to fly the flag over the campus green, the student government president at the time received threats.
