Williamstown meeting: taking "a step for tolerance"

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Panelists and audience members at Monday’s forum in Williamstown on combating racism ranged through the specifics — the school’s handling of a racially-motivated assault at Mount Greylock Regional High School last month — to the general: the need to mobilize, individually and as a community, to try to achieve racial harmony. Some panelists lamented that the young ABC student, ninth grader De’Andre Tufts, who was the victim of the alleged assault, had finalized plans to return to his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, by the end of the day after it happened. “The saddest thing from the ABC perspective is that De’Andre Tufts was gone in a flash,” said Thomas Wintner, ABC co-president, one of the panelists at the forum held at the First Congregational Church. The ABC (A Better Chance) program is a national one that brings students of color from inner-city schools to preparatory or public schools with better academic offerings. And, both Wintner and Mount Greylock Principal Russell Norton said they had offered to pay for airplane tickets to fly both the young ABC student and his mother, back to the area to assure them that Mount Greylock is a safe place, but with no success. Norton said the student body was well aware that “I was extraordinarily angry” about the incident, saying “I have absolutely no tolerance for it.” “I think students expected me to do something and I did it,” he said. Norton, who began investigating the incident the following Monday, when he returned to school, said he wished he had been at the school the Friday that the young ABC student reported the assault, and said he believes he might have persuaded the young student not to leave. “One of the reasons I came to Mount Greylock was the ABC program here. I hate to lose one of the students.” And school adjustment counselor Constance West said she regrets that the school has lost two students — referring to both the ABC student and his alleged assailant — and expressed regret that she was not given the chance to mediate. Both Norton and West voiced the need to create wider channels of communication, so students can report incidents before they escalate. Norton said he mailed out a letter to parents last week, after much thought on its contents, and, in the event of an incident in the future, “I would send the letter a lot sooner.” Norton stressed his belief in the safety of the school, but said, “These [incidents] happen whether you like it or not,” and said perhaps it was simply the school’s time to have an incident. That remark drew strong criticism from Bennington, Vt., Congregation Beth El Rabbi Howard Cohen, who interpreted it as acceptance, an interpretation Norton strongly protested. The incident in question was investigated jointly by school administrators and the Williamstown Police Department, which was contacted by Tufts’ mother. Williamstown police arrested a 17-year-old ninth-grade classmate, Lee J. Baum of Elm Street, who is white and allegedly told both school officials and police that he attacked Tufts because he is black. In accounts of the incident, Baum was holding a metal pipe when he shoved Tufts, a 15-year-old, as Tufts walked down a school corridor. Baum, now enrolled at the North Adams alternative school, has been ordered to undergo a mental-competency examination and is scheduled for a Feb. 27 appearance in Northern Berkshire District Court. He faces charges of assault and battery, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery with intimidation on the basis of a person’s race, religion, national origin, color, sexual orientation or disability. Norton said he could not discuss the specifics of the incidents because it is now in the courts, but outlined the procedure the school follows when dealing with conflicts and incidents. Complaints presented to his office are heard, with both sides presenting their stories. Sometimes student mediation can resolve problems, but serious situations call for consequences, he said. When a student shows no remorse, Norton said, penalties can include detention, suspension, and — only under specific instances and by school committee vote — exclusion, which is the term now used for expulsion. Zach Bynoe, a Mount Greylock senior and ABC student from Brooklyn, recalled feeling shocked and saddened when he learned of the incident. “I didn’t think anything like that could happen in our school,” said Bynoe. He noted that adjustment can be difficult for freshmen, as Tufts was, because they have to leave their families and familiar surroundings behind. Both Norton and West noted that, despite the school’s concerted efforts, middle school is a time of “meanness,” often expressed in name-calling, while high school students confront feeling excluded or marginalized, with race being only one factor, and social class being another. Students can feel excluded because of, for example, where they live, which can be taken as an indicator of social standing. Selectman Daniel N. Gendron described the “current of racism and elitism” that affects students who are “from certain parts of town, or from North Adams, or Lanesborough. “It’s here, and it’s been here a long time. I had a most brutal existence as a child in the school system; growing up as a child off Cole Avenue on Linden Street was outrageous. “Somehow, we have to reach the people in the community who just don’t get it,” said Gendron. He recalled that the ABC students when he attended Mount Greylock in 1969-70 “made a difference in the way I thought about people and the world.” “I hope as a community we’ll get a little louder about how we feel about this,” he said. On the panel, Williamstown Elementary School Superintendent Rose Ellis outlined the school’s curriculum aimed at fostering a sense of respect and understanding of differences among children. The schoolwide Second Step program aims to foster empathy, impulse control, anger management and conflict resolution, and includes all staff — not only teachers, but bus drivers, cafeteria workers and support staff, said Ellis. Panel member and Lanesborough school counselor Jane Satullo Shiyah, said students in schools such as Lanesborough see little diversity, and urged bringing individuals from diverse groups into the schools. Williams College Black Student Union president Darren Schluter said BSU members mentor ABC students, who unburden their problems more easily with other African-American students — someone with a similar experience. “We can talk to the kids,” said Schluter. “How can we come to you? What do you need to hear to help them?” Marcela Villada-Peacock, who heads the Williams College Multicultural Center, urged giving the school and the community more information about the ABC students. Cohen described the New England brand of “subtle intolerance” characterized, he said, by an attitude that “I will tolerate you as long as what you want doesn’t interfere with me.” “God forbid in New England people should be racist, but we follow people of color around in stores,” he said. “Kids learn to hide differences really well,” he said. “What we think is tolerance is ‘tolerance if you’re like me.’ ” Dr. Michael Payne, a local gastroenterologist who is African-American, said he grew up in a household involved in the struggle for civil rights, said school programs are simply not enough to combat racism, which he likened to cancer. “How do you cure cancer? One patient at a time.” And, said Payne, had he been the ABC student’s parent he would have done just what she did, bring her son home. Joseph Ebiware, a professor at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, and a member of the Northern Berkshire Human Rights and Relations Task Force, said school programs are commendable, but said, “little kids are like an echo from their homes.” And he asked, “What can we do creatively to bring parents to a workshop?” Several speakers called the forum a matter of “preaching to the choir.” School administrators moved swiftly to speak to minority students, prompted, they said, by concerns that they might also have encountered intimidation. But some parents of minority students said their children felt singled out by being taken out of class for these sessions. And some parents said their minority children had encountered racial slurs at various times throughout their school days. Keith Davis, who teaches at Drury High School, said he had been jolted into action by hearing an “incredibly inappropriate comment” in that school’s hallways. He turned in the only student he could identify, but started on what he called “a crusade.” “There are things not only the community, but we as individuals, can do,” said Davis. When hearing slurs or the like, “say ’Wait a minute, watch your mouth,’ ” he said. “If anything is going to change everybody has to try to do something about it.” Darius Jonathan, a native of Sudan who teaches at the Berkshire Farm in Canaan, N.Y. — and whose wife Carrie Baill is pastor of First Church — volunteered to visit the school to meet with students. “I’m ready to come to your school,” said Jonathan. “It’s wonderful when kids see you in person.” MCLA history professor Frances Jones-Sneed, who is African-American, also said, “I want to be a resource,” and termed the forum “a wonderful start.” Although Norton had made a deliberate decision not to address the entire student body in an assembly following the incident, some speakers — both parents and children — questioned that decision. Even if students don’t want to listen in an assembly, they said, the gathering of students together and being addressed underlines the gravity of the situation, they said. Forum moderator Select Board Chair Margaret Johnson Ware, in closing, recalled that “Dan [Gendron] was very angry and wanted us [the board] to make a statement. It was never clear what would be helpful. All of us should have shared more with the community.” While some students said they felt they were not given enough information at the time, administrators said they could not discuss specifics because of confidentiality. Said Ware, “By your very presence you have taken a step for tolerance.” After the forum, a fast-paced three hours long, Norton said, “I feel a lot of support for doing strong things in this area. We may not agree on how we do them.” Peacock said those attending were drawn together by hurt. “It was a good initiative to inform people,” she said. “It happened in this community. I hope everybody came in order to do something.” And Bynoe likewise said the forum indicates that people are “really interested. I really agree we need to teach kids what’s right and what’s wrong.”
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RFP Ready for North County High School Study

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The working group for the Northern Berkshire Educational Collaborative last week approved a request for proposals to study secondary education regional models.
 
The members on Tuesday fine-tuned the RFP and set a date of Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 4 p.m. to submit bids. The bids must be paper documents and will be accepted at the Northern Berkshire School Union offices on Union Street.
 
Some members had penned in the first week of January but Timothy Callahan, superintendent for the North Adams schools, thought that wasn't enough time, especially over the holidays.
 
"I think that's too short of a window if you really want bids," he said. "This is a pretty substantial topic."
 
That topic is to look at the high school education models in North County and make recommendations to a collaboration between Hoosac Valley Regional and Mount Greylock Regional School Districts, the North Adams Public Schools and the town school districts making up the Northern Berkshire School Union. 
 
The study is being driven by rising costs and dropping enrollment among the three high schools. NBSU's elementary schools go up to Grade 6 or 8 and tuition their students into the local high schools. 
 
The feasibility study of a possible consolidation or collaboration in Grades 7 through 12 is being funded through a $100,000 earmark from the Fair Share Act and is expected to look at academics, faculty, transportation, legal and governance issues, and finances, among other areas. 
 
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