RUTLAND — With racial issues on the rise in Rutland, a Black Lives Matter flag will be flown in front of Rutland High School this spring at the request of students.
The Rutland Public Schools board voted unanimously to fly the flag for 400 consecutive days starting April 12 — the 158th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.
“I give you my full support,” Commissioner Dena Goldberg told students as the room exploded in applause following a lengthy, and at times, emotional discussion.
Students, who said they are racially targeted every day, cried and hugged as a crowd of about 100 people continued to applaud behind them.
“I’m overwhelmed by the support,” student Noah White, 18, said.
White and three other students from the school’s diversity club called New Neighbors first requested the flag be flown at a March 12 meeting, but were taken aback when they received pushback from the board.
Rutland City school board member Michael Blow told students he was a “(n-word) lover” at the March 12 meeting.
Blow said he grew up in Burlington and lived across the street from a black family. Blow explained he understood racism because his mother was Irish and his two brothers grew up in New York City.
“I think Black Lives Matter has become a group that’s become really political now,” he said at the previous meeting. “I think all lives matter.”
Tabitha Pohl-Moore, who is president of the Rutland area chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, slammed Blow for his comments on Tuesday.
She questioned Blow’s claim that he understood racism when he chose to use the slur — a word she said is so full of hate she said she doesn’t use it — in front of students.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Pohl-Moore asked on Tuesday. “You know what (that word) means to us, but it was said anyway.”
Community members, students and faculty, filled the small meeting room on Tuesday and stood shoulder-to-shoulder to support the students. Some wore Black Lives Matter T-shirts. Others held banners and signs.
Arantha Farrow, who attended Rutland City schools through ninth grade, held back tears as she stood in front of the room and explained that during a middle school science class, a boy she thought was a friend drew a picture of a machine to kill all black people. In the drawing, black people walked off a plank and fell into the machine to have their bodies eaten and torn up, Farrow said.
“This is just a small fraction of the type of things I would experience daily in the Rutland public school system,” said Farrow, who has since moved away from the area and the “nasty” school environment because she didn’t feel welcome.
Arianna Kelley, a junior at Rutland High School, told the board she missed three days of school last year because she feared for her life.
Kelley said a student told her class he hated black people and “basically told us he wanted to kill us,” she said. “I don’t think it’s fair I had to miss school.”
Teachers and students say racism in the Rutland community is pervasive.
The day after the March 12 meeting, the Peace and Justice Center held a planned three-day diversity training for about 500 Rutland faculty and staff.
During one of the seminars, a handful of Rutland school staff members wore Trump 2020 hats in protest. The people refused to remove their hats when asked and then left the building while directing derogatory remarks to two black Peace and Justice staff workers, said Peace and Justice Center Executive Director Rachel Siegel.
Siegel said in an interview that some of the adult faculty who remained for the presentation rolled their eyes, groaned and sighed or refused to participate.
“I had never encountered that much direct hostility,” Siegel said. “It was scary. I felt responsible for bringing people of color in a space that wasn’t safe.”
Assistant Superintendent Rob Bliss, who organized the presentation, said the group that protested the seminar thought they were being exposed to a political action.
“I felt for our presenters,” he said. “I wanted this to be a learning experience.”
Montpelier High School became the first public school in the country to raise a Black Lives Matter flag last year. Since then, South Burlington, Essex, U-32 and Brattleboro schools have followed.
At the Tuesday meeting, Rutland Public Schools Commissioner Ann Dages said she was concerned the flag and the Black Lives Matter movement had become political.
“Schools are not a place for politics,” she said before the vote.
In 2018, Montpelier High School flew the Black Lives Matter flag and several other schools followed, including high schools in Burlington and Brattleboro, as well as UVM.
About 16 people spoke during the Rutland meeting. Pohl-Moore addressed controversial comments Superintendent Adam Taylor made at a Castleton University presentation in February.
During the presentation, Taylor compared teachers to pimps and pedophiles and said he was “mad” Rutland wasn’t more welcoming to the Syrian refugees. Some called for Taylor’s resignation at the time.
“Where are those people now?” Pohl-Moore asked as she challenged any school commissioner to resign if they didn’t understand why the request for diversity was so important.
“If we don’t make (black lives) matter no one else will,” she said.
Teachers said they were proud of students for taking a stand despite the controversy and difficult discussions.
“Being black myself I understand exactly what they’re talking about,” said Superintendent Taylor in an interview following the meeting. “It’s a great thing. It’s a great thing for the community.”
The flag will be flown for 400 days to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the start of slavery in America.
Jennie Gartner, the teacher adviser to the student-led group, hugged students following the meeting.
“I am euphoric,” Gartner said as she stood outside with students Tuesday night. She said the flag is the start to creating a more welcoming community.
“This is one step, and we have a million steps,” she said.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Michael Blow as the Rutland City school director. He is a city school board member.
Editor’s note: This post has been updated to remove a racist slur from a quote to be in line with VTDigger’s current editorial standards.
