Rolling Meadows High School teacher Denise Chapman told the story of a Latino Dist. 214 Spanish teacher who faced discrimination at a Dist. 214 school at this morning’s (Wednesday) school board meeting. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)
Township High School Dist. 214 faculty members who are white and part of the new D214 Justice Group read stories written by their colleagues of color — detailing racist incidents — at Wednesday’s early-morning school board meeting in Arlington Heights.
Members of the group said they will continue sharing the anonymous stories at every school board meeting as part of a new tactic to pressure the district to adopt changes to address racial inequities.
After a July Dist. 214 board meeting where members of the Justice Group delivered a 1,400-word manifesto, signed by hundreds of Dist. 214 faculty, and called for specific changes to address what group members say are incidents of individual and systemic racism within the district, Supt. David Schuler agreed to meet with members of the justice group and Kaylin Ahn, a soon-to-be Elk Grove High School senior who delivered her own petition calling for better racial equity and other changes.
Ahn said Schuler made a commitment to change the district’s dress code to be similar to that of Evanston Township High School. Ahn said the Dist. 214 dress code sexualizes and objectifies girls, making them change clothes in the middle of the school day or be sent home. She said specifics of how the policy would change were not detailed.
Elk Grove High School soon to be senior, Kaylyn Ahn speaks at this morning’s (Wednesday) Dist. 214 school board meeting. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)
Ahn said she met with Schuler on July 23, but she and D214 Justice Group members said Schuler later denied members of the group a meeting, saying changes would need to be negotiated with the teachers union. Dist. 214 officials did not confirm that before press deadlines Wednesday.
Dist. 214 Union President Jim Arey said 40 members of the union, led by a woman of color, have been working on issues of equity since December — long before the death of George Floyd that sparked protests across the country including within professional development.
At the meeting, a white faculty member read an account of a new African American teacher at a Dist. 214 school in which, during an assembly attended by about 2,000 students, one white girl came running out onto the floor dressed as Oprah Winfrey in blackface.
The account said at the end of the day, the teacher cried in her car and considered not remaining at the school long.
Later that same school year, a photo display was shown at a retirement event for other school staff. The event showed photos chosen by the retirees from their careers, including one in which the staff member was in blackface.
As stories were anonymous, details of the stories could not be independently confirmed. The D214 Justice Group maintains 40 such stories by current and former faculty and students on its website.
Another account was read of a Latino teacher who teaches Spanish. One day at his school, the teacher was wearing jeans and said he was told by an administrator that he looked like a migrant worker. The teacher said he played it off but later said there were 19 complaints against that administrator for racist conduct. That same teacher was later criticized for speaking Spanish.
High School Dist. 214 school board members at a Wednesday, Aug. 5 school board meeting with Supt. David Schuler. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)
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D214 Justice Group Takes New Storytelling Tactic To Continue Calls For Racial Equity - Journal & Topics Newspapers Online
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