[BakerButlerMatters] Letter from Keith Hammon

[Thomas Pajewski]

Sept. 25, 2006
 
Dear Parents and Guardians,
 
Learning opportunities appear before us in a variety of forms. During the
weekend of Sept. 18, one of our schools experienced an incident that can
become a powerful learning opportunity for us as we work to build a more
culturally competent school community.
 
On September 18, Hollymead Elementary School staff arrived for work to find
vandalism and graffiti on campus. Most upsetting was a garbage can with a
racist slur spray-painted across it. The can had been moved to the edge of
campus and next to the road for people to see as they passed by the school.
Hollymead¹s staff was quick to report the offense to the Police Department,
remove the hurtful graffiti, and communicate about the incident with staff,
students, and parents.
 
When a racial slur is made on one of our school campuses ­ whether it
happens during school hours or not ­ it is not an insult to one person or
ethnic group, it is an insult to everyone in our School Division. Racism
will not be tolerated. It is a threat to our school system¹s vision,
mission, and values, and a roadblock to achieving our goals.
 
Although, to my knowledge, no Baker-Butler students were connected with the
incident, some may have heard about it. I have spoken to our students about
respecting one another and building a community of care and support for one
another. I talked about respecting one another¹s religion, race, and culture
and understanding the value each individual brings to our school. I also
took the opportunity to mention the fact to watch what we say to one another
as words can hurt and once said can never be taken back.
 
The Hollymead incident provides an opportunity to broaden our understanding
of the issues in our community surrounding diversity and use what we learn
to develop strategies to remove the roadblocks in our paths to achieving our
Strategic Plan Goals.  Goal 1 speaks to being a global community and Goal 2
focuses on eliminating the achievement gap between groups of students.  The
Community Engagement Office of our school system is working with principals
and parents in the Northern Feeder Pattern to create a forum for a community
conversation about racism, diversity, and equity in education.  The forum is
to take place on Oct. 9 at Sutherland Middle School. The forum will begin at
6:30 p.m. I hope that our Baker-Butler community will be well represented at
this meeting.
 
Sincerely,
 
Keith L. Hammon
Principal

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