Anonymous wrote:My white kid complains to me about the racist and anti-Semitic language at Thoreau. It’s frequent and pervasive. Parents whose kids are telling you that it’s the POC kids, your kids are lying to you. Apparently, they have discussions and warnings, but there don’t seem to be real consequences for racist or anti-Semitic behavior.

Our children had a horrible experience at Thoreau. In addition to the school not properly vetting hires and hiring a pedophile while my kids went to school there, there was a verbally abusive drama teacher who was there (and protected by the administration) for YEARS! Administration does not take action to protect kids - not at all surprised by the recent allegations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thoreau is a bit more diverse than Madison, but Madison is the whitest high school in FCPS. So it's unlikely that the Thoreau family is complaining about racist behavior by other Black kids.

DP with kids in this pyramid. It is most likely POC kids. I've witnessed it. That being said, it's usually a small group of kids that do this and cause most of the problems in the school doing stupid stuff and that group will be a couple of kids from different races including a few white kids. I've been surprised by how kind the majority of kids are to each other these days, but middle schoolers do some crazy stuff. The swastika stuff has been going on for years.

Did you watch the video? Every time someone brings up something, people always fall back to how black kids use the N word. First, I don't care one bit if some people get to say a word that is off limits for others. But regardless, that's not what this is. This is awful, and I would really like to understand how Thoreau is responding.

Two serious allegations here:
1. Racial slurs
2. Assault (pouring water on hair)

Question:
Did mom give names to principal? If yes, did principal address the perps?
If she did not give names, then why not?

I would also ask her if her son ever uses racial slurs regarding others. That does not excuse the behavior of others, but it could be a contributing factor.

What would she like the principal to do?

Pouring water on hair is not assault.

When you keep calling every bit of a$sholery something bigger like "assault" you trivialize and minimize actual assault.

The water thing is ignorant, rude and nasty, but it's not assault.

You don't know the definition of words it seems.

"Assault is generally defined as an intentional act that puts someone in reasonable fear or apprehension of immediate bodily harm."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Madison and I can’t tell you how many times I have heard them use the n word, make comments about the Jews, or other racist language between themselves or their friends. We don’t tolerate it at home but it is so pervasive in their peers I feel like I can’t stop it. From what I could gather it seems the kids are fed up with FCPS forcing them to accept everyone that it’s their way to push back. It’s awful, I hope this language and attitude doesn’t stay with them as adults. I’m not sure lessons at school about history and or acceptance will help, seems to push these kids more towards unacceptance.

Is this a troll post?

I’m sorry but if your kids are using racial slurs at school and you can’t stop it, you’ve failed at parenting.

PP didn’t say her kids were using racial slurs at school. It’s probably what she heard when kids are in her car or at home goofing around or gaming.

They literally wrote "My kids are at Madison and I can’t tell you how many times I have heard them use the n word"

Maybe they didn't mean to write that their own kids use the N word, but that's what they wrote.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know you're just a parent at the school. There's no need to make up a lie about wanting to buy a house in the area.

White people can be racist. Yes, absolutely.

ONLY white people can be racist.

Look, this is DEI 101. BIPOC peoples in America cannot, by definition, be racist. Not possible.

Thought everybody here knew this already.

Exactly.

The ways social systems, institutions, and power structures advantage one racial group and disadvantage others, is through racism. In the United States, because of historical and ongoing racial power dynamics, white people (as a group) have always held disproportionate institutional power since the arrival of the white man on this continent. So racism at the systemic level operates in ways that primarily benefit white people and harm racial minorities. Ergo, because they hold all the institutional power in the U.S., only white people can be racist.

Others, such as BIPOCS, may show prejudice, but not racism.

2 points:
A majority population = norms for that group are the norms for that nation.
The average person sees predjudice, bigotry, and racism as the same thing.

Further point:
Since whites are a minority under age 18, this changes things.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know you're just a parent at the school. There's no need to make up a lie about wanting to buy a house in the area.

White people can be racist. Yes, absolutely.

ONLY white people can be racist.

Look, this is DEI 101. BIPOC peoples in America cannot, by definition, be racist. Not possible.

Thought everybody here knew this already.

Exactly.

The ways social systems, institutions, and power structures advantage one racial group and disadvantage others, is through racism. In the United States, because of historical and ongoing racial power dynamics, white people (as a group) have always held disproportionate institutional power since the arrival of the white man on this continent. So racism at the systemic level operates in ways that primarily benefit white people and harm racial minorities. Ergo, because they hold all the institutional power in the U.S., only white people can be racist.

Others, such as BIPOCS, may show prejudice, but not racism.

Thank you! Without people like you, Trump would never be elected. On behalf of all of MAGA, thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Good grief. MAGA will seriously destroy the country to make themselves feel better about being terrible people. Please get a hold of your feelings and step back and look at the trainwreck that is the MAGA party.

My post is a sarcastic comment. I am liberal. We cannot taint an entire race as racist or even a large proportion of them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know you're just a parent at the school. There's no need to make up a lie about wanting to buy a house in the area.

White people can be racist. Yes, absolutely.

ONLY white people can be racist.

Look, this is DEI 101. BIPOC peoples in America cannot, by definition, be racist. Not possible.

Thought everybody here knew this already.

Exactly.

The ways social systems, institutions, and power structures advantage one racial group and disadvantage others, is through racism. In the United States, because of historical and ongoing racial power dynamics, white people (as a group) have always held disproportionate institutional power since the arrival of the white man on this continent. So racism at the systemic level operates in ways that primarily benefit white people and harm racial minorities. Ergo, because they hold all the institutional power in the U.S., only white people can be racist.

Others, such as BIPOCS, may show prejudice, but not racism.

Nope, it's actually racism. But thanks for playing!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thoreau is a bit more diverse than Madison, but Madison is the whitest high school in FCPS. So it's unlikely that the Thoreau family is complaining about racist behavior by other Black kids.

DP with kids in this pyramid. It is most likely POC kids. I've witnessed it. That being said, it's usually a small group of kids that do this and cause most of the problems in the school doing stupid stuff and that group will be a couple of kids from different races including a few white kids. I've been surprised by how kind the majority of kids are to each other these days, but middle schoolers do some crazy stuff. The swastika stuff has been going on for years.

Did you watch the video? Every time someone brings up something, people always fall back to how black kids use the N word. First, I don't care one bit if some people get to say a word that is off limits for others. But regardless, that's not what this is. This is awful, and I would really like to understand how Thoreau is responding.

Two serious allegations here:
1. Racial slurs
2. Assault (pouring water on hair)

Question:
Did mom give names to principal? If yes, did principal address the perps?
If she did not give names, then why not?

I would also ask her if her son ever uses racial slurs regarding others. That does not excuse the behavior of others, but it could be a contributing factor.

What would she like the principal to do?

Pouring water on hair is not assault.

When you keep calling every bit of a$sholery something bigger like "assault" you trivialize and minimize actual assault.

The water thing is ignorant, rude and nasty, but it's not assault.

It most definitely is assault. And the underlying racial connotation is huge.
The kids that did this should be seriously punished. The school needs to send a message that this type of behavior is serious and unacceptable.

Question--again: were names given to the authorities? Principal, counselor, etc? Were there witnesses?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thoreau is a bit more diverse than Madison, but Madison is the whitest high school in FCPS. So it's unlikely that the Thoreau family is complaining about racist behavior by other Black kids.

DP with kids in this pyramid. It is most likely POC kids. I've witnessed it. That being said, it's usually a small group of kids that do this and cause most of the problems in the school doing stupid stuff and that group will be a couple of kids from different races including a few white kids. I've been surprised by how kind the majority of kids are to each other these days, but middle schoolers do some crazy stuff. The swastika stuff has been going on for years.

Did you watch the video? Every time someone brings up something, people always fall back to how black kids use the N word. First, I don't care one bit if some people get to say a word that is off limits for others. But regardless, that's not what this is. This is awful, and I would really like to understand how Thoreau is responding.

Two serious allegations here:
1. Racial slurs
2. Assault (pouring water on hair)

Question:
Did mom give names to principal? If yes, did principal address the perps?
If she did not give names, then why not?

I would also ask her if her son ever uses racial slurs regarding others. That does not excuse the behavior of others, but it could be a contributing factor.

What would she like the principal to do?

Pouring water on hair is not assault.

When you keep calling every bit of a$sholery something bigger like "assault" you trivialize and minimize actual assault.

The water thing is ignorant, rude and nasty, but it's not assault.

It most definitely is assault. And the underlying racial connotation is huge.
The kids that did this should be seriously punished. The school needs to send a message that this type of behavior is serious and unacceptable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thoreau is a bit more diverse than Madison, but Madison is the whitest high school in FCPS. So it's unlikely that the Thoreau family is complaining about racist behavior by other Black kids.

DP with kids in this pyramid. It is most likely POC kids. I've witnessed it. That being said, it's usually a small group of kids that do this and cause most of the problems in the school doing stupid stuff and that group will be a couple of kids from different races including a few white kids. I've been surprised by how kind the majority of kids are to each other these days, but middle schoolers do some crazy stuff. The swastika stuff has been going on for years.

Did you watch the video? Every time someone brings up something, people always fall back to how black kids use the N word. First, I don't care one bit if some people get to say a word that is off limits for others. But regardless, that's not what this is. This is awful, and I would really like to understand how Thoreau is responding.

Two serious allegations here:
1. Racial slurs
2. Assault (pouring water on hair)

Question:
Did mom give names to principal? If yes, did principal address the perps?
If she did not give names, then why not?

I would also ask her if her son ever uses racial slurs regarding others. That does not excuse the behavior of others, but it could be a contributing factor.

What would she like the principal to do?

Pouring water on hair is not assault.

When you keep calling every bit of a$sholery something bigger like "assault" you trivialize and minimize actual assault.

The water thing is ignorant, rude and nasty, but it's not assault.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thoreau is a bit more diverse than Madison, but Madison is the whitest high school in FCPS. So it's unlikely that the Thoreau family is complaining about racist behavior by other Black kids.

DP with kids in this pyramid. It is most likely POC kids. I've witnessed it. That being said, it's usually a small group of kids that do this and cause most of the problems in the school doing stupid stuff and that group will be a couple of kids from different races including a few white kids. I've been surprised by how kind the majority of kids are to each other these days, but middle schoolers do some crazy stuff. The swastika stuff has been going on for years.

Keep telling yourself that. It's not just one race of kids, it's basically a huge number of middle school boys of any race. I think we can all agree that middle school boys in general don't make good choices. Even yours.

Middle school girls are a million times worse than middle school boys in their treatment of other people.

--middle school teacher

My child is biracial and attends Thoreau. They haven’t experienced any sort of racial harassment or bullying, though I understand that can vary based on what group of kids they hang out with. However, when we had an issue where we felt the administration made a misstep that was culturally insensitive, and we contacted them about it, they handled it swiftly and competently, and made it clear they were really listening to us. So, I think this incident, while upsetting, doesn’t tell the entire story of POC’s experiences at Thoreau. It’s a great school that is dealing with a very small group of problematic kids, who learned bad behavior at home, and I’m not sure what the the solution is, but painting the entire school as racist isn’t actually helpful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know you're just a parent at the school. There's no need to make up a lie about wanting to buy a house in the area.

White people can be racist. Yes, absolutely.

ONLY white people can be racist.

Look, this is DEI 101. BIPOC peoples in America cannot, by definition, be racist. Not possible.

Thought everybody here knew this already.

Exactly.

The ways social systems, institutions, and power structures advantage one racial group and disadvantage others, is through racism. In the United States, because of historical and ongoing racial power dynamics, white people (as a group) have always held disproportionate institutional power since the arrival of the white man on this continent. So racism at the systemic level operates in ways that primarily benefit white people and harm racial minorities. Ergo, because they hold all the institutional power in the U.S., only white people can be racist.

Others, such as BIPOCS, may show prejudice, but not racism.

Thank you! Without people like you, Trump would never be elected. On behalf of all of MAGA, thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Good grief. MAGA will seriously destroy the country to make themselves feel better about being terrible people. Please get a hold of your feelings and step back and look at the trainwreck that is the MAGA party.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know you're just a parent at the school. There's no need to make up a lie about wanting to buy a house in the area.

White people can be racist. Yes, absolutely.

ONLY white people can be racist.

Look, this is DEI 101. BIPOC peoples in America cannot, by definition, be racist. Not possible.

Thought everybody here knew this already.

Exactly.

The ways social systems, institutions, and power structures advantage one racial group and disadvantage others, is through racism. In the United States, because of historical and ongoing racial power dynamics, white people (as a group) have always held disproportionate institutional power since the arrival of the white man on this continent. So racism at the systemic level operates in ways that primarily benefit white people and harm racial minorities. Ergo, because they hold all the institutional power in the U.S., only white people can be racist.

Others, such as BIPOCS, may show prejudice, but not racism.

Thank you! Without people like you, Trump would never be elected. On behalf of all of MAGA, thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know you're just a parent at the school. There's no need to make up a lie about wanting to buy a house in the area.

White people can be racist. Yes, absolutely.

ONLY white people can be racist.

Look, this is DEI 101. BIPOC peoples in America cannot, by definition, be racist. Not possible.

Thought everybody here knew this already.

Exactly.

The ways social systems, institutions, and power structures advantage one racial group and disadvantage others, is through racism. In the United States, because of historical and ongoing racial power dynamics, white people (as a group) have always held disproportionate institutional power since the arrival of the white man on this continent. So racism at the systemic level operates in ways that primarily benefit white people and harm racial minorities. Ergo, because they hold all the institutional power in the U.S., only white people can be racist.

Others, such as BIPOCS, may show prejudice, but not racism.

Surely you jest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know you're just a parent at the school. There's no need to make up a lie about wanting to buy a house in the area.

White people can be racist. Yes, absolutely.

ONLY white people can be racist.

Look, this is DEI 101. BIPOC peoples in America cannot, by definition, be racist. Not possible.

Thought everybody here knew this already.

Exactly.

The ways social systems, institutions, and power structures advantage one racial group and disadvantage others, is through racism. In the United States, because of historical and ongoing racial power dynamics, white people (as a group) have always held disproportionate institutional power since the arrival of the white man on this continent. So racism at the systemic level operates in ways that primarily benefit white people and harm racial minorities. Ergo, because they hold all the institutional power in the U.S., only white people can be racist.

Others, such as BIPOCS, may show prejudice, but not racism.

It's really a pedantic exercise to make this argument here. What ought to concern people is kids disrespecting and/or disparaging other kids, regardless of whether you label it racist, prejudiced, bigoted, or simply cruel.

When we lived in Vienna, the most blatantly disrespectful comments we ever heard were from Asian families commenting on the Black and Hispanic kids at a public school - not Thoreau or Madison - that some Vienna kids attended.