The Mount Ascutney School District board has voted to place the Windsor school principal on paid administrative leave following her “ignorant” Facebook post regarding the Black Lives Matter movement.
The board voted unanimously at an emergency meeting Friday afternoon to place Principal Tiffany Riley on leave until negotiations for her permanent departure have concluded.
“We do not intend to hire her back,” board Chair Elizabeth Burrows said. “We wanted to make sure we acted as quickly as we possibly could.”
Riley was placed on leave the day after she posted a statement on her personal Facebook page. She said she wanted to support Black Lives Matter but doesn’t think “people should be made to feel they have to choose black race over human race.”
“While I understand the urgency to feel compelled to advocate for black lives, what about our fellow law enforcement? What about all others who advocate for and demand equity for all?” Riley wrote. “Just because I don’t walk around with a BLM sign should not mean I am a racist.”
The post was quickly reposted and widely circulated within the school and wider community.
“It was a terrible misjudgement on her part to have posted that at all — that’s what we were responding to besides our individual feelings about the nature of the post,” Burrows said.
Belle Moulton, the valedictorian of the class of 2020, said she woke up to a series of text messages from concerned friends who saw the post. Moulton sent an email to the board on Thursday, which she and 11 other students signed.
“Mrs. Riley holds a position of leadership in our town,” Moulton wrote. “We have entrusted her with the job to teach and guide our youth. How should we put our trust in her to teach and guide if she is so insensitive to the current issues in our nation?”
Amanda Smith, a mother and member of the Windsor Selectboard, told the school board at its Friday meeting that there was a breakdown in trust following Riley’s comments.
“This is an extremely problematic statement that not only speaks to her ignorance on the movement and the struggles of people of color but also on the changes that need to be implemented,” Smith said, adding that her comments did nothing to assure parents that their students were safe at school.
The board issued a statement Friday night.
“The ignorance, prejudice, and lack of judgement in these statements are utterly contrary to the values we espouse as a school board and district,” the statement said.
Riley was an assistant principal in Windsor before becoming acting principal and then principal in 2016. She oversaw Windsor students in grades K-12 and received an annual salary around $110,000.
Superintendent David Baker said he was made aware of Riley’s Facebook post through a series of emails from parents the next morning.
“When the first parent sent me her FB post I thought her account had been hacked because the post was so insensitive to the recent plight of our minority community,” Baker said. “I called her and was shocked to hear that it was actually her post.”
Baker said he asked Riley multiple times to take down the post and offered to help craft an apology and retraction.
“She did not do that right away and instead, without my input, posted another comment that the board felt did not retract the first and missed the whole point,” Baker said.
In the second post, Riley said she “unintentionally offended” people.
“I understand the struggles of the black lives community and stand with them in their fight against racism,” Riley wrote.
Riley’s response was quickly criticized as insufficient.
“It showed no assurances to African American families — black families—that their children could feel safe — that they are cherished and loved,” Burrows, the board chair, said in a phone interview.
After the incident, Riley wrote an email to school board leaders and the superintendent, explaining her Facebook post had been “twisted” and “taken completely out of context.”
Riley, who is part of the Vermont Equity Practitioners Network, which helps Vermont educators create equity literacy to confront racism and other forms of oppression, said she was “insulted” after reading emails from parents.
“It is disheartening to constantly be under scrutiny by certain families in the Windsor community,” Riley said.
Attempts to reach Riley for comment were not successful.
The controversy started when Riley was asked by a former student to remove an American flag that was painted on a hillside for Windsor High School’s graduation ceremony on June 5. Riley explained in an email to the school board that the American flag was there as a symbol of unity amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The former student then asked her to place a Black Lives Matter flag at the graduation ceremony.
Erin Rockwood, a parent who has hosted the former student in her home, said in a phone interview that Riley expressed interest in honoring the request to hoist a Black Lives Matter flag at first.
Riley reached out to Rockwood to see if she had a flag. Rockwood told Riley she did not but then suggested that a Black Lives Matter flag be painted on a hillside beside the American flag.
Rockwood, who also works as a behavioral analyst for the supervisory union, said she never heard back from Riley.
Riley told the board in her email that she discussed painting the Black Lives Matter flag with the buildings and grounds supervisor but they decided not to.
Riley told the board she received follow-up emails accusing her of not supporting people of color and doing nothing to address racism.
“I have been accused of being racist for not hoisting a BLM flag, ridiculed for not attending a BLM rally that the Rockwoods organized last Sunday and accused of being a poor leader and role model,” Riley said in the email.
There were mixed reactions from parents and community members following the board’s decision.
Jared Carter, a Vermont Law School professor who teaches constitutional rights, said putting the principal on leave for political comments violates the First Amendment.
“I think there are serious concerns when the state takes action against somebody for what is essentially political commentary and political speech in the context of what’s obviously a contemporary political issue,” Carter said.
Chris Todd, a parent, wrote an email to the board on Friday night saying Riley shouldn’t be punished for expressing her opinion.
“I realize Vermont is a very liberal state, but we conservatives have a point of view as well,” Todd said. “Paid admin leave for having her own opinion is a vile attempt to censor conservatives and in violation of her first amendment rights!”
Ben Percy, who’s also a parent, said he was disappointed by the board’s decision.
“What an amazingly poor decision on your part,” Percy wrote to the board on Friday night. “The impulsiveness to penalize someone for their thoughts rather than engage in a conversation and attempt to understand one’s point of view is disappointing, especially from an institution that should be educating, not indoctrinating, students,” Percy wrote to the board.
But other parents said they didn’t feel safe with their children at Windsor High School under Riley’s leadership.
“I am embarrassed and appalled at such an expression of ignorance and hate coming from someone who represents our SU, let alone a person in such a powerful position as principal,” Heather Pogue, the mother of black children, wrote to the school board.
Anne Marie Kelly, another parent, thanked the board.
“Despite this post, my son (newly graduated) can be proud of where he comes from and the School Board who helped him take the next steps into a caring and compassionate future,” Kelly said in an email. “This is a decisive and bold move you all have taken, and it took courage.”
Earlier in the week, the school board was discussing actions to take to address inclusivity in the school. The board created a task force to address racism, for the staff to have training and to develop an ethinic studies curriculum. Burrows, the school board chair, said those discussions would continue next week.
The last day of school for students is June 15. Burrows said the board would appoint an interim principal until hiring a new person to fill the role.