Rampant racism at Montgomery Blair High School?

[Anonymous]

The article is based on one child's reported experience. It hardly seems proof of amything, in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are factual news stories about racism at Blair. To call it Blair bashing is a disservice to the courageous kids who wrote those pieces.

As for the principal's comment "Blair principal Renay Johnson considers racial profiling to be a relatively small issue at Blair. "What most people don’t realize," she says, "is that we have 908 Hispanic students, 780 African-Americans, 647 whites and 544 Asians. It’s hard to profile when the minority are the majority.""

Sounds like Renay has her head in the sand.

To be clear, I didn't call it Blair bashing. I was hoping it didn't turn into Blair bashing, or that weird anti-Renay Johnson stuff that goes on. I respect those kids. My kid is one of them.

What exactly happened to your kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The article is based on one child's reported experience. It hardly seems proof of amything, in my opinion.

Precisely. I'd like to hear from the rest of the students. Why not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The article is based on one child's reported experience. It hardly seems proof of amything, in my opinion.

Precisely. I'd like to hear from the rest of the students. Why not?

You would like to hear from other students... because the department of justice, department of education and NIH don't have enough credibility?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are factual news stories about racism at Blair. To call it Blair bashing is a disservice to the courageous kids who wrote those pieces.

As for the principal's comment "Blair principal Renay Johnson considers racial profiling to be a relatively small issue at Blair. "What most people don’t realize," she says, "is that we have 908 Hispanic students, 780 African-Americans, 647 whites and 544 Asians. It’s hard to profile when the minority are the majority.""

Sounds like Renay has her head in the sand.

To be clear, I didn't call it Blair bashing. I was hoping it didn't turn into Blair bashing, or that weird anti-Renay Johnson stuff that goes on. I respect those kids. My kid is one of them.

What exactly happened to your kid?

Sorry, I am being very unclear in my posts today! What I meant was that my kid works on the newspaper and they all do courageous reporting -- looking at controversial topics and not shying away from them because they might embarrass MCPS, etc. My kid has not been the subject of discrimination.

I do think one of the reaons Blair is so great is how balanced it is in terms of diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Recent stories in the school newspaper:

http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/12902
It took Dahal a relatively short time to notice a pattern with the class. He soon realized that he, among other non-white students in the class, was often ignored when he requested personal help or asked a question. "Of course teachers have favorites and tend to prefer those favorites," he says, "but the teacher in question had favorites based on the student's race."
And the bias wasn't just evident in providing assistance to students. Non-white kids who disturbed the classroom were often treated harshly and belligerently, while white students who created a disturbance were treated to a mild scolding or laugh. It happened so consistently that after a while, it began to have a significant effect on Dahal's education.
Blair principal Renay Johnson considers racial profiling to be a relatively small issue at Blair. "What most people don’t realize," she says, "is that we have 908 Hispanic students, 780 African-Americans, 647 whites and 544 Asians. It’s hard to profile when the minority are the majority."

http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/12972
These are familiar sentiments to black and Latin@ students in Blair's magnet programs—phrases sometimes spoken aloud, sometimes just implied. Phrases that they internalize. Phrases that make them feel that they aren't fit for Magnet Calculus or AP English. Phrases that nag at the backs of their minds, and tell them that they aren't good enough.

Unfortunately, this is factual about a lot of schools.

Proof?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2678799/

http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201401-title-vi.pdf

+1. Kudos to Blair students for writing about it. MCPS will never be able to close the equity gap without addressing this, but it will never be able to do so because it requires LOTS of teachers to acknowledge their own racism and change their own behavior. There has been some discussion at the national level about inequitable discipline outcomes, but the inequities run so much deeper than that.

Sadly, our DD (white) complains about similar treatment she sees of her non-white peers at her MS and HS (not Blair). She jokes, with a mordant sense of humor, that she is privileged to have the "white girl's hall pass," which means she can walk around school or be late without getting in trouble. There is one minority student that is maybe 3 seconds late to her class because he is standing in the hallway when the bell rings. He walks 10 feet to the classroom, and the teacher calls him late and demands that he go back to his prior class to get a "pass" from the previous period's teacher. Of course, since he wasn't late due to the previous teacher, what this really means is that this non-white child just wanders the hallways for awhile and forges a note so that he can get back in class. Tons of his educational time has been wasted by this teacher. Other white students are treated differently.

DD also sees plenty of racism in terms of low expectations by race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Recent stories in the school newspaper:

http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/12902
It took Dahal a relatively short time to notice a pattern with the class. He soon realized that he, among other non-white students in the class, was often ignored when he requested personal help or asked a question. "Of course teachers have favorites and tend to prefer those favorites," he says, "but the teacher in question had favorites based on the student's race."
And the bias wasn't just evident in providing assistance to students. Non-white kids who disturbed the classroom were often treated harshly and belligerently, while white students who created a disturbance were treated to a mild scolding or laugh. It happened so consistently that after a while, it began to have a significant effect on Dahal's education.
Blair principal Renay Johnson considers racial profiling to be a relatively small issue at Blair. "What most people don’t realize," she says, "is that we have 908 Hispanic students, 780 African-Americans, 647 whites and 544 Asians. It’s hard to profile when the minority are the majority."

http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/12972
These are familiar sentiments to black and Latin@ students in Blair's magnet programs—phrases sometimes spoken aloud, sometimes just implied. Phrases that they internalize. Phrases that make them feel that they aren't fit for Magnet Calculus or AP English. Phrases that nag at the backs of their minds, and tell them that they aren't good enough.

Unfortunately, this is factual about a lot of schools.

Proof?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2678799/

http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201401-title-vi.pdf

+1. Kudos to Blair students for writing about it. MCPS will never be able to close the equity gap without addressing this, but it will never be able to do so because it requires LOTS of teachers to acknowledge their own racism and change their own behavior. There has been some discussion at the national level about inequitable discipline outcomes, but the inequities run so much deeper than that.

Sadly, our DD (white) complains about similar treatment she sees of her non-white peers at her MS and HS (not Blair). She jokes, with a mordant sense of humor, that she is privileged to have the "white girl's hall pass," which means she can walk around school or be late without getting in trouble. There is one minority student that is maybe 3 seconds late to her class because he is standing in the hallway when the bell rings. He walks 10 feet to the classroom, and the teacher calls him late and demands that he go back to his prior class to get a "pass" from the previous period's teacher. Of course, since he wasn't late due to the previous teacher, what this really means is that this non-white child just wanders the hallways for awhile and forges a note so that he can get back in class. Tons of his educational time has been wasted by this teacher. Other white students are treated differently.

DD also sees plenty of racism in terms of low expectations by race.

My DD and her non-white friends joke about this too -- they are at BCC -- also in a mordant way. They all certainly see it.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I am being very unclear in my posts today! What I meant was that my kid works on the newspaper and they all do courageous reporting -- looking at controversial topics and not shying away from them because they might embarrass MCPS, etc. My kid has not been the subject of discrimination.

I do think one of the reaons Blair is so great is how balanced it is in terms of diversity.

There's nothing special about Blair w/o the magnet program.

[Anonymous]

Institutional racism, figuratively and literally. People who treat kids this way, are scum and shouldn't be allowed to teach. My child trusts his teacher more than me. Would I want these scumbags influencing them? . No way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Institutional racism, figuratively and literally. People who treat kids this way, are scum and shouldn't be allowed to teach. My child trusts his teacher more than me. Would I want these scumbags influencing them? . No way.

You plan to home school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Institutional racism, figuratively and literally. People who treat kids this way, are scum and shouldn't be allowed to teach. My child trusts his teacher more than me. Would I want these scumbags influencing them? . No way.

You plan to home school?

No I'll ensure the 20% are dealt with. 80% still have their hearts in the right place.

[Anonymous]

The core problem in MCPS is lack of leadership and management for its employees. This includes central office staff, principals and teachers. The entire chain of command fails to manage and take accountability. I'm amazed at how divorced and helpless the leadership in MCPS always acts in response to problems within in their organization.

MCPS only response to racism is usually reactionary and misguided because they avoid addressing the core problem. A good example is the changes that were made to the expulsion and suspension policy. The problem was that similar infractions did not receive consistent punishments with a racial bias showing in the data. MCPS changed the punishment guides to make it very difficult to suspend a student for even violent offenses. In their minds, this will make them look better on paper since the majority of students being suspended were minorities but it does NOTHING to address the actual racial bias present in their employees.

MCPS needs to stop being afraid of firing people and holding people accountable for their actions. Racism is a human behavior and you can only change human behavior by creating a consequence for it not skewing your data. MCPS should set a judicial review board to review and monitor schools' application of complaints, incidents and disciplinary procedures. Any principal that demonstrates a pattern of biased results after case review is terminated. This will change things super fast.

A survey with real questions, not carefully questioned designed not to allow the respondent to find any problem with MCPS, should be given to parents and students with specific questions about the racial bias experienced at their school. The results of this survey should directly effect the principal's performance review. This will change this fast too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Recent stories in the school newspaper:

http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/12902
It took Dahal a relatively short time to notice a pattern with the class. He soon realized that he, among other non-white students in the class, was often ignored when he requested personal help or asked a question. "Of course teachers have favorites and tend to prefer those favorites," he says, "but the teacher in question had favorites based on the student's race."
And the bias wasn't just evident in providing assistance to students. Non-white kids who disturbed the classroom were often treated harshly and belligerently, while white students who created a disturbance were treated to a mild scolding or laugh. It happened so consistently that after a while, it began to have a significant effect on Dahal's education.
Blair principal Renay Johnson considers racial profiling to be a relatively small issue at Blair. "What most people don’t realize," she says, "is that we have 908 Hispanic students, 780 African-Americans, 647 whites and 544 Asians. It’s hard to profile when the minority are the majority."

http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/12972
These are familiar sentiments to black and Latin@ students in Blair's magnet programs—phrases sometimes spoken aloud, sometimes just implied. Phrases that they internalize. Phrases that make them feel that they aren't fit for Magnet Calculus or AP English. Phrases that nag at the backs of their minds, and tell them that they aren't good enough.

Unfortunately, this is factual about a lot of schools.

Proof?

NP here who is very white and really you actually don't believe that a white teacher could make a judgement about students based on race? Why not? Of course things like this absolutely happen. Don't be so silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Recent stories in the school newspaper:

http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/12902
It took Dahal a relatively short time to notice a pattern with the class. He soon realized that he, among other non-white students in the class, was often ignored when he requested personal help or asked a question. "Of course teachers have favorites and tend to prefer those favorites," he says, "but the teacher in question had favorites based on the student's race."
And the bias wasn't just evident in providing assistance to students. Non-white kids who disturbed the classroom were often treated harshly and belligerently, while white students who created a disturbance were treated to a mild scolding or laugh. It happened so consistently that after a while, it began to have a significant effect on Dahal's education.
Blair principal Renay Johnson considers racial profiling to be a relatively small issue at Blair. "What most people don’t realize," she says, "is that we have 908 Hispanic students, 780 African-Americans, 647 whites and 544 Asians. It’s hard to profile when the minority are the majority."

http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/12972
These are familiar sentiments to black and Latin@ students in Blair's magnet programs—phrases sometimes spoken aloud, sometimes just implied. Phrases that they internalize. Phrases that make them feel that they aren't fit for Magnet Calculus or AP English. Phrases that nag at the backs of their minds, and tell them that they aren't good enough.

Unfortunately, this is factual about a lot of schools.

Proof?

NP here who is very white and really you actually don't believe that a white teacher could make a judgement about students based on race? Why not? Of course things like this absolutely happen. Don't be so silly.

Thanks pp. appalled at folks who question the existence of racism. Just because it isn't your reality, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Recent stories in the school newspaper:

http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/12902
It took Dahal a relatively short time to notice a pattern with the class. He soon realized that he, among other non-white students in the class, was often ignored when he requested personal help or asked a question. "Of course teachers have favorites and tend to prefer those favorites," he says, "but the teacher in question had favorites based on the student's race."
And the bias wasn't just evident in providing assistance to students. Non-white kids who disturbed the classroom were often treated harshly and belligerently, while white students who created a disturbance were treated to a mild scolding or laugh. It happened so consistently that after a while, it began to have a significant effect on Dahal's education.
Blair principal Renay Johnson considers racial profiling to be a relatively small issue at Blair. "What most people don’t realize," she says, "is that we have 908 Hispanic students, 780 African-Americans, 647 whites and 544 Asians. It’s hard to profile when the minority are the majority."

http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/12972
These are familiar sentiments to black and Latin@ students in Blair's magnet programs—phrases sometimes spoken aloud, sometimes just implied. Phrases that they internalize. Phrases that make them feel that they aren't fit for Magnet Calculus or AP English. Phrases that nag at the backs of their minds, and tell them that they aren't good enough.

Unfortunately, this is factual about a lot of schools.

Proof?

NP here who is very white and really you actually don't believe that a white teacher could make a judgement about students based on race? Why not? Of course things like this absolutely happen. Don't be so silly.

Thanks pp. appalled at folks who question the existence of racism. Just because it isn't your reality, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Talk of racism is annoying and boring to the ignorant.