Despite what he described as a legal need for the district to keep a lid on details, Wilton Public Schools Superintendent Kevin Smith said Thursday night, April 25, that the district is taking significant measures to investigate and deal with escalating incidents of hate-speech at Wilton High School, including a recent social media post utilizing racial slurs.
“Well, the meeting we’re gonna have is not the meeting I thought we were gonna have on Monday,” Smith told the Board of Education at its Thursday night meeting. “Many of you are aware of a social media student issue that came to light on Tuesday. Since then the high school administration has been engaged in an investigation of this incredibly serious matter.”
His remarks came two days after a video became public showing an extensive social media text exchange between multiple WHS students using race-based hate speech, slurs and bullying language, all seemingly directed at primarily one student. News about the video spread quickly among the students and the video was widely shared outside the school community.
“I want to acknowledge that the issue has significantly impacted our school community,” he said, “and for reasons related to federal student privacy laws, we cannot provide details about the incident or the investigation.”
Smith said he had had a lengthy conversation with the school’s attorney, who drove home the point that details could not be shared, somewhat impeding public discussion of the response.
“For many, this is a position that’s really unsatisfactory and I struggle with it myself,” he said.
Smith took time, however, to review some details on various school policies in place to combat such incidents, including those on Bullying Prevention and Intervention, Non-Discrimination, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Hate-Based Conduct.
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“Our commitment as a district has not changed,” he said. “In fact, after this week it’s only intensified.”
‘We’ll be using the events of this week to really re-double our efforts,” he said.
Sharing during public comment, Wilton High School senior Eli Patania described seeing the video at school on Tuesday, and thanked the school administration for its quick response.
Patania said that the secrecy and anonymity the perpetrators believed they had when committing these actions was at the heart of their behavior, but also noted this should be an opportunity for them to learn from this event rather than just be expelled.
“These [students] should have to face the consequences of their actions in a more literal way than just a regular punishment, and should have the opportunity to feel the harm they caused and to learn from it,” he said.
Likewise, Smith and other BOE members agreed that school officials should ultimately explore learning opportunities with regard to the incident.
“At the end of the day we’re also an educational institution, so we have to foster the opportunities for children to learn from their mistakes,” Smith said.
He noted that while this had to include care and sensitivity toward all involved, it was part of their obligation as a school district to try.
“The ultimate goal is to change the behavior and then to understand the behavior,” BOE member Pamela Ely said. “We cannot just punish and then not do the other piece.”
BOE Chair Ruth DeLuca was in agreement, provided those families involved were ready to take these steps.
“We can both hold accountability for when bad things happen and then also find the grace and the space to allow for there to be restitution,” she said.
DeLuca said this would require that the families of all involved “to feel they’re supported by both sides … I think that opens up a greater willingness for those families to be involved in those teachable moments.”
Michael Gordon, is a Middlebrook School music teacher, A Better Chance of Wilton resident house parent, and the Instructional Leader for Equity and Inclusion in the school district. He’s also a parent of a student in the district, and said he was speaking in that capacity when he offered the BOE members some concrete ideas during public comment, including hiring a dedicated district-wide administrator for equity and inclusion.
“There should be a district equity and inclusion director, or coordinator, in central office,” he said. “It’s a full-time job, so that this person will devote their full attention to proactive guidance and proactive programming.”
Gordon also described how another district with which he was in contact uses high school students of color as mentors for younger students at the middle school.
“But they also engage all students at the middle school so that way every student is impacted in a positive way by interacting with someone who doesn’t look like them or sound like them,” he said.
Gordon also said the African and Latin American Studies course at Wilton High School should be a requirement for all students and suggested the district add an advanced placement-level subject course to the class offerings as well.
“Our students lack that understanding of a different perspective,” he said.
Personally, Gordon said he had “a range of feelings and emotions going on right now” following news of this latest incident. He said he was not feeling welcome or valued, also pointing out that some students of color in the district were not feeling safe.
Digging Down into Policy
Smith, meanwhile, outlined a four-step process that administrators take following these kinds of incidents, including verifying safety measures immediately in place for protection, an identification of procedures, an investigation into the incident, and ultimately a judgment about the event and a subsequent course of action.
“This is work that we take seriously,” he said. “There are laws that express in our policies that fairly heavily describe how we do things.”
“The policy very clearly describes what we can and cannot talk about and it makes any conversation around the student incident that happened earlier this week exceptionally challenging for me or my administrative team to discuss,” Smith said, citing the requirement to protect identification of the students.
“We have to take those responsibilities seriously and so … the district does not disclose to parents or guardians the names, disciplinary outcomes, or other personally identifiable information of other students,” Smith said.
Board member Patrick Pearson suggested making school policies surrounding specific consequences and steps the district can take more detailed and concrete even if the district can’t share particular information surrounding an individual incident.
“The regulation on suspension expulsion removed from class gives very detailed definitions of what those steps are. I’d say our policy is very general in that regard, or I think could be enhanced to be more specific around what our expectation is, if we feel an incident meets the criteria for suspension. What does that suspension look like?” he said.
Pearson gave an example. “There seems to be a criteria that could dictate in-school versus out-of-school [suspension]. And obviously, circumstances where depending on what transpired, you may or may not want that student in school while they’re serving their suspension. Things like that… I think it’s worth a revisit, to make sure that we feel like we’re being specific enough.”
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DeLuca acknowledged that the BOE members understand the public’s frustrations.
“We all sit around this table and you want to have meaningful discussions, and there’s, unfortunately, legal limits to the way those discussions can proceed. And just acknowledge that and understand the frustration that comes with that, and the lack of satisfaction that sometimes we all feel even around this table when we walk away from these conversations,” she said.
While navigating the regulations and federal laws is complicated and “makes conversations really challenging,” Smith said he appreciates people’s desire to know more. Despite how it may appear with regard to the latest incident, Smith said actions were being taken and the district was not “minimizing” anything.
“There’s, unfortunately, legal limits to the way those discussions can proceed.”
Smith said he would be providing “some very concrete details” on new actions and events to the BOE next month.
Once again, I disagree with the school’s public response here. Dr. Smith references what they legally can and cannot talk about. I know they cannot disclose names or other personally identifiable information. Still, I can not find anywhere in the CT statutes where it states that they cannot publicly discuss disciplinary outcomes stemming from an incident while still not disclosing names or other personally identifying information. Is this their legal counsel being overly sensitive to a potential lawsuit?
Wilton High School requires its students to exhibit their view of a “Portrait of a Graduate”. This consists of 6 attributes, including being a “Courageous Ethical Leader” and an “Active Socially-Sensitive Citizen” as 2 of those six attributes. Clearly, these students do not exhibit those qualities and, as such, should not be allowed to continue at WHS.
In reviewing the CT General Statutes; https://portal.ct.gov/sde/discipline-in-schools/regulations Schools absolutely are responsible for addressing bullying that occurs outside of the school as it is defined as part of Sec 10-222d (Safe School Climate Plans # 12 (see the last few lines) “prohibit bullying (A) on school grounds, at a school-sponsored or school-related activity, function or program whether on or off school grounds, at a school bus stop, on a school bus or other vehicle owned, leased or used by a local or regional board of education, or through the use of an electronic device or an electronic mobile device owned, leased or used by the local or regional board of education, and (B) outside of the school setting if such bullying (i) creates a hostile environment at school for the student against whom such bullying was directed…”
It’s such a shame that this happened. I am heartbroken for the boy and his family. I met with administrators at WHS after my disabled freshman son was the target of of bullying through an online video that was shared on social media this past fall. I pushed for more education. I was told the district has a “kindness program”. I responded by saying oh yes- I am aware of that they “dress up like a bee MD & CM”. Obviously that is not enough. I had to specifically ask for the bullying event to be reported to the state. I certainly hope that after this most recent incident that the district will make inclusion & diversity acceptance a priority.