After
incidents
of
racism,
community
holds
‘listening
session,’
but no
Saline
teachers
attend
By
Samuel
Dodge |
sdodge@mlive.com
mlive.com
Officials
in
Saline
host
community
forum
Sunday
to
“launch
a
dialogue
of
education,
understanding
and
healing”
SALINE,
MI -
After an
uproar
over
racist
remarks
between
students,
followed
by more
overt
bigotry
from a
parent
last
week,
officials
in
Saline
sought
to
launch a
dialogue
of
"education,
understanding
and
healing”
in a
community
forum
Sunday.
A
meeting
last
week
with a
similar
goal
turned
explosive
when a
man
asked a
Hispanic
parent
-- who
was in
the
middle
of
describing
his
son’s
experiences
with
bullying
and
racism
in the
district
-- why
he
didn’t
“stay in
Mexico."
‘Why
didn’t
you stay
in
Mexico?’
School
diversity
and
inclusion
meeting
turns
volatile
Reactions
expressed
in the
Feb. 9
forum at
Saline
City
Hall
ranged
from
emotional
to
contemplative,
with one
moment
of
anger.
An Ann
Arbor
teacher
asked if
any of
about
100
people
in
attendance
were
teachers
at
Saline
Area
Schools.
No
one
raised
their
hand,
drawing
gasps
and
muttering
from the
crowd.
“That’s
shocking
to me,”
said
John
Fisher,
an
African
American
teacher
at
Thurston
Elementary
in Ann
Arbor.
“I’m a
teacher
in Ann
Arbor,
and I’m
here...
It’s sad
to me
that
there’s
no
Saline
teachers
here. To
be
truthful,
they
should
feel bad
about
that.”
The
recent
discussions
over
diversity
and
inclusion
in the
school
district
began
after
Saline
high
school
students
exchanged
racist
messages
in a
Snapchat
group.
Superintendent
Scot
Graden
denounced
the
incident
and
asked
for the
community,
including
his
teachers,
to come
together
to stand
against
bigotry.
“This is
an
opportunity
for us -
the
staff,
students,
and
community
of
Saline
Area
Schools
- to
stand
for
anti-racism,
respect,
and
inclusion
of all
students,"
he wrote
in a
letter
to
parents.
"In
addition,
we
recognize
that
harm has
been
done to
students
of color
in
Saline
who saw
the
post.
Additional
efforts
must be
made to
repair
the
damage
from
this
situation.”
‘Act
of
racism’
in
Snapchat
group
denounced
by
Saline
Area
Schools
Dru
Campbell,
a
bi-racial
junior
at
Saline
High,
talked
about
how his
brother,
a former
student
at the
school,
had to
“prepare
him to
go to
Saline"
to deal
with
racism.
“It’s
just
being
ignored
in the
school,”
he said.
“We have
very few
teachers
that are
actually
addressing
this
problem,
and some
of the
teachers
who do
address
this
problem
get
singled
out.”
Marian
Faupel,
who
served
on the
Saline
Board of
Education
for 12
years,
demanded
community
members
take
“affirmative
action”
to
counter
bigotry,
rather
than
wait for
“affirmative
action
policies”
from
government.
Washtenaw
County
Commissioner
Shannon
Beeman,
D-Manchester,
Commissioner
Felicia
Brabec,
D-Pittsfield
Township,
and
Saline
Mayor
Brian
Marl
organized
organized
the
session
to give
the
community
a voice
to
“acknowledge
and
witness
the
wrongs
created
by
individual
and
systemic
racism”
in
Saline.
Washtenaw
County
District
Judge J.
Cedric
Simpson
provided
opening
remarks
on
racial
issues
throughout
the
county.
Saline
officials
to host
‘listening
session’
in wake
of
uproar
over
racist
remarks
“We
know
what
exists
in our
society,”
Simpson
said.
“We have
to
recognize
it, and
we have
to think
about
ways to
resolve
it...
There
are
different
ways of
doing
that,
and we
have to
explore
all of
those
ideas.
My
presence
here is
really
to
listen
to the
community
(to find
those
solutions).”
Beeman
said
that
“racism
and
bigotry
live in
our
community,”
while
Brebac
talked
about
developing
racial
equity
ordinances
to close
racial
disparities.
Beeman
later
said
that
“allies
and
safety”
also
exist in
Saline.
Marl
finished
by
saying
that he
expects
more
listening
sessions
like
Sunday’s
to occur
in the
future.
“Racism
is a
malignancy
in our
community,”
he said
in his
closing
remarks.
“This is
a big
issue.
We need
to do
more,
and as I
indicated
this
afternoon,
we will
do
more.”
Rally in
Saline
calls
for
courage,
diversity
after
‘racist,
bigoted
words’
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