Jorda Daigneault is a longtime nurse practitioner in the area and has worked as the school nurse at Leland & Gray for the past 5½ years. She submits this piece in her personal capacity, not representing her employer. “I am writing this viewpoint as a mom who watched my children navigate the complexities of racism and discrimination throughout their lives, and the racism and discrimination continues to this day,” she says.
BROOKLINE-I am in a fighting mood. The recent articles reporting on the settlement of a lawsuit that accused Leland & Gray Union High and Middle School of condoning racism, harassment, and hazing have got my ire up: Holding schools accountable for societal issues is beyond the pale.
I am a mother of three African American sons, two of whom attended Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School. Both of them experienced racial slurs and discrimination by a few ignorant students there.
I never blamed the school for the behavior. Teachers at Leland & Gray addressed the racism when it was reported to them. I know the hate was learned at home or by peers.
And after hearing Leland & Gray is being held responsible for the racist behavior, I write to ask: When are we going to address the root cause of all this nonsense?
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The ills of society are front and center. The president of the United States has made it perfectly acceptable to utter disgusting venom and racial slurs, to attack those with disabilities, and to simply articulate hate toward fellow humans. He has no accountability.
People who previously harbored those racist, abhorrent thoughts generally kept them at bay until this imbecile started spewing his hateful rhetoric. Our country has turned back generations of progress on civil rights and equality since his first term.
For people to hold Leland & Gray responsible for lessons learned off campus is unfair and detrimental to the health and well-being of our school and greater community.
VTDigger’s recent article, republished in The Commons [“Windham Central settles suits over student racial discrimination,” News, Dec. 17], quoted Mary Gannon, an educational consultant and vice president of Windham County NAACP: “So, no, you didn’t do the best you could, and that’s been an issue at Leland & Gray for a very long time, as it is with other schools that we are talking with, some of which have cases in front of the Human Rights Commission.”
I find this hyperbolic comment distasteful, bordering on slander, inflammatory, and extremely divisive. This isn’t leadership, and it is not helpful to addressing a ubiquitous issue that permeates our whole society — not just Leland & Gray.
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In our current messy educational system, schools are being asked to do so much more than educate our youth.
Teachers and staff are asked to change diapers and potty train kindergarten and first graders (and sometimes older students). They are asked to manage terrible behavior from some students — behavior that includes racism, discrimination, harassment, and hazing, behavior that interferes with other students’ ability to access their education.
They are asked to educate students on social and emotional learning, to assist with personal hygiene, to feed and clothe students, and to attempt to address a broad continuum of learning needs in one classroom.
All this and more, on top of teaching academics, must be overwhelming for teachers and students.
Moreover, staff must address harassment, hazing, and bullying (HHB) reports, conduct behavioral threat assessments, prevent students from vaping and substance use, and teach children basic kindness, respect, and human decency.
Leland & Gray is not a silo — this occurs in most every school in Vermont and the U.S., as described in “Breaking the Cycle of Bad Behavior,” an article that appeared in NEAToday, Aug. 6, 2024.
Students do not learn to be a racist or discriminate at school. They mostly learn it at home, watching some television shows, social media, and other sources.
We, as a society, must all address these issues. We know through research that changing culture is a slow, long-term process, one that takes years to correct.
The problem has already been identified — now we need to apply strategies to affect the change we seek.
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Some solutions to ameliorate societal dysfunction are simple.
• We must hold anyone who regurgitates loathsome speech accountable. Call them out on their language. Simply state, “That language is not OK.” Report the individual to appropriate authorities.
• Instead of in-school suspension or out-of-school suspension, have the student responsible for the hostile behavior attend mandatory classes on racism and discrimination. Then have the student conduct a community presentation — including parents and family members — about what they learned about how their behavior affects the students they victimized by presenting to a group of people.
• Have the parties involved participate in social justice. The NAACP, along with other entities, could team up and hold community meetings and activities to build community rather than divide it in order to help combat the learned behavior.
• Research shows how cell phones negatively affect children and that some children become addicted to using these devices. Cyberbullying, name calling, and other distasteful discourse takes place among peers using electronic devices.
To protect students, Leland & Gray instituted no cell phones or electronic devices (except for Chromebooks used for academics) from bell to bell. This policy could go further if parents or guardians limit or prohibit their children from using these devices until they are mature and have learned how to use them properly.
• Substance use, caffeine, and vaping all contribute to anxiety and behavior issues, and they negatively affect brain development and learning, among other effects. Parents and guardians should not purchase any of these substances for children.
• Simply modeling the behavior of being open-minded, non-racist, kind, and accepting of others’ differences is a big step toward changing societal culture.
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Then, of course, there are more-complex issues that have greater, more-difficult solutions that are being worked on at the local, regional, state, and federal levels: homelessness, substance abuse, hunger, poverty, mental health crises, and access to health care, just to name a few.
Some parents or guardians are not able to meet the needs of their children, so the school steps up to the plate to assist the student in accessing their education.
Leland & Gray supports students in need by providing clothing, hygiene supplies, food throughout the year, mental health support, substance abuse counseling, gas cards, and transportation to and from school.
Resources are limited, but Leland & Gray does the best it can to help students.
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I am passionate about this issue because I have lived with racism and discrimination through my boys for almost 35 years. I detest it and want this nonsense to stop.
But Leland & Gray is being held responsible for the racism and discrimination in its halls today, even though Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Malcolm X, Sojourner Truth, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Rosa Parks and others who advanced civil rights couldn’t eradicate racism and discrimination in our country.
This issue is so much deeper than blaming any school for lessons kids learned at home. This is gaslighting at its worst. And what is the agenda of the media in focusing on Leland & Gray, when this issue is omnipresent throughout society?
We can all do better, and I hope everyone will call anyone out on racist and discriminatory language and behavior.
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at voices@commonsnews.org.