Race Issues Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

State Board of Education Hears Numbers, Next Steps To Address School Discipline

Since the return to classrooms after COVID-19, parents, teachers and education leaders across the country have reported a rise of disciplinary issues in schools. A new resource should help create a greater understanding of the emerging issue.

During the Dec. 14 meeting of the West Virginia Board of Education, State Superintendent David Roach directed the West Virginia Department of Education to expand the scope and depth of the July 2022 School Discipline Report to address issues more effectively and develop a plan moving forward.

At Wednesday’s BOE meeting the creation of a public, statewide dashboard to promote transparency and accountability around school discipline was announced.

Drew McClanahan, state Department of Education director of instructional leadership and school improvement, said the dashboard will help all community members better understand where and how school discipline is occurring.

“This one dashboard will give community members, will give parents, will give everyone the opportunity, to see at the county level even at the school level, what types of discipline interventions are being provided,” he said. “Are we seeing that 80 percent of our students are being suspended? Are we seeing that 66 percent of the time that a student is referred for discipline, they’re put in school suspension? That’s important for our parents. It’s important for our administrators as well because we should be the largest advocate for transparency as we can.”

McClanahan identified four aspects of the state’s response to issues of discipline and disproportionate suspension: training and support, accountability pieces, policy requirements, and responsibility. He said that classroom management training will continue to be offered, as well as school culture training, across the state.

“I think it’s important for next steps that we continue these conversations, that we continue to find the questions,” he said. “Do we have disproportionate numbers? It appears as though we have disproportionate numbers. Why is that? What’s going on? Why are we seeing these issues?”

Georgia Hughes-Webb, state Department of Education director of data analysis and research, presented statewide school discipline data to the Board of Education. One of the biggest takeaways she had from her analysis of the data was the number of instructional days students were losing to suspension and other disciplinary actions.

“As a consequence of those incidents, there were almost 67,000 suspensions given to 28,702 students. For those suspensions both in school and out of school, our students lost almost 178,000 instructional days,” Hughes-Webb said. “Each student who was suspended lost on average six instructional days in the classroom.”

Hughes-Webb also said the data showed significantly higher rates of suspension for Black and foster care students.

“When we look at our foster care students, they lost 9.2 days of instruction due to suspension on average,” she said.

The data showed a similar rate of lost instructional days for Black students, who are disproportionately suspended.

“Black students account for 4 percent of our population, but they also represent 16 percent of all students who were suspended for more than 10 days,” Hughes-Webb said. “So that’s quite a discrepancy.”

The data was not exclusive to suspensions, although according to the presentation 56 percent of disciplinary referrals in the state result in a suspension. Hughes-Webb also looked at rates of formal discipline generally and went on to show that Black and other students of color were more likely to be disciplined than their white peers.

“Although 19 percent of all students were referred for disciplinary incidents last year, 31 percent of our Black or African American students were referred for disciplinary incidents,” she said. “Twenty-four percent of our multiracial students were referred, compared to about 18 percent of our white students.”

Board member Debra Sullivan called the presentation a blueprint and an opportunity to change the dynamic around school discipline.

“That’s going to take a change in perspective,” she said. “Now it’s nobody’s fault. Everybody’s problem. Everybody has to get involved, not just our schools but our families, our businesses, our health care providers.”

Superintendent David Roach pointed towards Communities in Schools as a likely partner in reforming disciplinary issues.

“They make the difference, they make the connection. Teachers can’t make that home connection. They try but they can’t. A counselor can’t do it,” Roach said. “That coordinator can tie in all the agencies, everything, get their visit to home and find the problem and help build a relationship with the school.”

Disciplinary Disparities Focus Of Public Comment At Board Of Education Meeting

The Board heard public comment from two individuals concerned with disciplinary issues in the state’s schools, as well as an update on their own disciplinary report.

Early in its Dec. 14 meeting, the West Virginia Board of Education heard public comment from two individuals concerned with disciplinary issues in the state’s schools.

Rev. Franklin Hairston of the Harrison County NAACP spoke first to discuss racial bullying and harassment in schools.

“My goal for being here today is for you to understand that we have a problem in Harrison County, West Virginia, and in other counties all throughout West Virginia, as it pertains to racial bullying, harassment, unfairness and discipline, and a push for academic achievement,” Hairston said.

He listed more than half a dozen incidents in schools where little or nothing was done to address the racial harassment students face, including his own daughter.

“I’ve been addressing issues with race in her schools since she was in the second grade from being called outside of her name, picked on because of the color of her skin, the texture and style of her hair, the build of her body, and she’s even been hit by few male athletes,” Hairston said.

He went on to request disciplinary data for Harrison County schools, but also urged statewide action including diversity in recruitment of teachers and diversity and racial sensitivity training.

“The issues with our children are not just with students, it’s also with our educators.”

The Board is not allowed to deliberate or take action on any topic addressed by a member of the public that is not already on the meeting agenda.

Hairston was followed by Rev. Matthew Watts, who spoke more broadly about the multiple crises facing the state’s poor children. Watts listed several chronic issues impacting low-income children in the state including low labor force participation and poor health outcomes, before focusing on education.

“Probably the most profound crisis we have is in education,” Watts said. “Four reports were produced in the last four months that I thought would have resulted in summits being held all over the state.”

Watts referred to the board’s own School Discipline Report and 2021 Summative Assessment Results, the Higher Education Policy Commission’s College-Going Rate report, as well as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Released in July, the School Discipline Report showed that poorer students were more than twice as likely to be referred for disciplinary action in schools. Both the Summative Assessment and NAEP results showed a drop in academic achievement across the state, while the college-going study indicated less than half of all high school graduates in the state go on to post-secondary education.

“If that’s not a crisis in education, I don’t know what it is,” Watts said. – “It’s pretty profound among poor children, so what I’m here to request is we’ve got to take some action.”

Watts asked the Board to help facilitate discussions in all 55 counties and at individual school levels, on how to address educational issues. He also asked that funds from the American Rescue Plan Act be set aside to help address the issues.

Watts ended by encouraging the Board to develop a suspension tracking system that posts every week online.

“This is a national problem,” he said. “Why can’t we be first in solving something for change? Why can’t we take the lead in West Virginia?”

Discipline was briefly discussed later in the meeting when Superintendent David Roach gave an update on the Student Discipline Report.

He stated that data has been distributed to county and school level leadership, and that the Board of Education directed the Department of Education to expand the scope and depth of the report to address these issues more effectively and develop a plan moving forward.

“Educators, students, families, community partners, and other stakeholders will be involved as part of a comprehensive response,” Roach said. “A detailed analysis and potential action steps will be developed and presented to the West Virginia Board of Education to ensure that all students have equitable access to safe and high quality learning opportunities in West Virginia classrooms.”

Board member Debra Sullivan said she was glad to see progress being made on the issue, and expressed disappointment with the initial report for its lack of actionable items.

“There was really nothing there that you could get your hands on to deal with,” she said.

Sullivan also pointed out the ambiguity of some of the data, and looked forward to greater detail that will better help school leaders.

“I know that you’ll be looking at the various demographics, all the indicators, and not just race, but SES (Socio-Economic Status), and gender, and special ed populations, and are certain special ed populations being cited more frequently than others, the learning disabled versus a behaviorally challenged,” Sullivan said. “There’s such a wealth of information that the schools could use.”

Kingwood March Exposed A Raw Seam Of Rage

This episode about a Black Lives Matter march in the tiny town of Kingwood was recently honored with a 2022 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The Kingwood BLM Rally set up a flash point. Black protestors and their allies faced off with heavily-armed white people who say Kingwood has no race problem. The event exposed the raw seam of rage that’s come to define racism in this country. In this episode, host Trey Kay speaks with West Virginia Del. Danielle Walker, who is pushing back at the fear and outrage of racial hatred in America.

2020 presented new levels of outrage over police killings of Black and brown people in this nation. Police killed George Floyd and Breonna Taylor which prompted protests, marches and rallies to denounce racially motivated police brutality.

A Black Lives Matter (BLM) march in Kingwood, West Virginia set up a flash point for that tiny town. Black protestors and their allies faced off with white people who say Kingwood has no race problem. The angry white crowd outnumbered BLM marchers and showed the raw seam of rage that has come to define racism in this country.

In this Us & Them episode, host Trey Kay speaks with West Virginia Del. Danielle Walker, D-Monongalia, a woman pushing back at the fear and outrage of racial hatred in America.

This episode, which was originally posted in Jan. 2021, has been honored with a 2022 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation and the CRC Foundation.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.

Chris Jones

100 Days In Appalachia

Kingwood BLM March organizer Frank Goines walks with West Virginia Del. Danielle Walker. Walker wears body armor under her shirt.

Chris Jones

100 Days In Appalachia

BLM marcher at the Kingwood Rally passes a counter protester wearing a Nazi SS shirt with a swastika tattooed on his hand. Other counter protesters shouted insults and racial slurs at BLM marchers.

Chris Jones

100 Days In Appalachia

As BLM marchers made their way through the streets of Kingwood, they passed armed counter protestors shouting racial epithets .

Chris Jones

100 Days In Appalachia

West Virginia Del. Danielle Walker marches with a BLM activist on one arm and a counter protester on the other in an attempt to deescalate tension during a Black Lives Matter march in Kingwood, West Virginia in September 2020.

Public Hearing Comments Call For Rejection Of ‘Anti-Racism’ Act

How do we teach – or not teach – our children about race, ethnicity or sex? At a public hearing in the House Chamber, West Virginia lawmakers heard the public’s views on the so-called ‘anti- racism’ act.

At the meeting 24 people spoke out against Senate Bill 498, while four people supported the hot button bill. The proposal forbids school instruction that one race, ethnic group or sex is superior to another.

Howard Swint, a parent and former American history teacher, argued the bill reverses any progress in promoting diversity.

“I think this is just another wave of southern, white-privileged bigotry going through the government,” Swint said. “The kind of thing that put the Stonewall Jackson statue on our grounds 100 years ago.”

West Virginia attorney Kitty Dooley said there are numerous ways to support anti-racism, but she also said this bill would chill educators from teaching history and give lawyers a field day.

‘You’re giving me a cause of action for every discussion of the enslaved African-American,” Dooley said. “A cause of action for confderates glorification, of lynching, of domestic terrorism following reconstruction, of Dred Scott, of Plessy vs. Ferguson.”

Among the few supporting the bill, Barry Holstein said passage would offer teachers personal protection along with lesson plan freedom.

“Contrary to what you’ve heard, this bill does not prohibit the education and debate of the way race or sex has impacted history or current events, including the causes,” Holstein said.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, said the bill does not prohibit controversial discussion, does not call for lawsuits, only a reporting mechanism and will not have a chilling effect on teachers.

“Let’s just say this, if you’re teaching history and you are teaching facts, you have nothing to worry about,” Rucker said.

The anti-racism bill passed the Senate 21-12 and is now in the House Education Committee.

Morgantown Project Promotes Listening To Heal Racial Divides

Two activists in Morgantown are organizing a listening project they hope leads to greater racial understanding in the community.

Chris Schulz spoke with Susan Eason and Eve Faulkes about listening with intent, and finding common ground.

Schulz: Susan and Eve, thank you so much for joining me today. I’d first like to start out by asking you if you could explain to us what exactly the Listening for Racial Understanding Project is. Susan, why don’t we start with you?

Eason: Okay, sure. We’re trying to bring together people of different races to have conversations, really to increase greater understanding and empathy towards each other. Because we believe that that’s what’s really going to help improve the racial climate within our community and our country.

Schulz: Eve, do you want to take a pass?

Faulkes: I’ll add to that. Maybe this is a time to talk about the process? A little bit?

Schulz: Yes, absolutely.

Faulkes: We’re using an approach called active listening, where you’re not sitting there imagining what you’re going to say next, when someone’s talking to you. Your job is to listen to them so intently that you can then repeat verbatim back to them, as much as possible, what you just heard. And then you ask them if that’s what it was that you heard correctly. And they can either say yes, or add to it or. And that tends to be, you would not believe we’re sitting there watching someone’s face who’s being heard, when that reflection is coming back to them. They’re laughing, they’re nodding. That’s the difference between a regular conversation and active listening. And then that other person responds to the same prompt. And eventually they go off track. But by that time, they’re very comfortable talking to one another.

Schulz: What was your inspiration for wanting to pursue this?

Eason: Well, I would say my inspiration really came out of the summer of 2020, after the death of George Floyd. Just kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back in racial issues and racial tensions in our country. And, like Eve, I just felt like we’ve got to do something to bring people together. And I really felt like I needed to be a part of a solution. And one of the things that I wanted to do was give people the opportunity to hear one another, learn from one another, understand each other.

Schulz: Yeah, Eve?

Faulkes: I probably came at it from having grown up in an all white town in the middle of West Virginia, like so many West Virginians have. I’ve taught, for the last 10 years, a design for social impact class at WVU. And so we’ve been exploring that. And I’ve long since been exposed to a lot of people of color and every other kind of way we divide each other up because of students at WVU. And we’ve worked on this, and this, it really did seem like we have to do all we can to make people hear one another. Designers are communicators. And we’ve learned a long time ago that you can put the message out there, but if you haven’t figured out the way for someone to receive it and hear it, it’s a lost chance, lost opportunity. And so, being able to look at the whole picture, the whole context, see what people’s barriers are to hearing, and try to find a way around those is part of the process.

Schulz: So, Susan, if you can tell me what do you hope for the people listening to get from what they hear?

Eason: Well, I think our hope is that people will hear things that they haven’t ever heard before. That by hearing two people talking to each other honestly and openly, and reflecting on experiences: One, they might hear something about another culture that they had never heard before. But the other really neat thing that they might hear is that they’re very similar. Because we see, when two people talk together of different races, that many times they have a lot of experiences that are profoundly the same, and generate the same type of experiences, and feelings and emotions. So I think people observing that can begin to connect with those people themselves and see, “Wow, I too have something in common with this conversation.”

Schulz: Eve, what do you hope listeners will get from this experience?

Faulkes: Courage to do the same. You do see the common ground more than anything. In fact, there’s no group, there’s no pairing we’ve had yet that did not find common ground, something that they felt just like and you could, you could feel that. And Susan and I are sitting there laughing with them and crying with them. Trying not to make any noise as we do it. But it really is, it’s a beautiful thing.

Schulz: When do you hope to start releasing these to the public?

Eason: I would say, kind of our timeline is to complete these recordings, within the next three weeks, develop the montage over another month, have artists respond in April, to these conversations as well. And then maybe in June, have an art opening, where we invite people to come and see the art pieces. We hope to have a QR code, where you can really zoom in on the conversations that were held that are depicting the art there. And then also invite some of the people who experienced these conversations to come and talk about what it was like to be a part of the experience.

Faulkes: And so far, 21 of the 22 people want to be sharing that on stage or wherever they can.

For those interested in participating in the project as listeners or as artists, you can contact Eve Faulkes at faulkeseve@gmail.com and Susan Eason at susanceason@gmail.com

Kingwood March Gives A Unique Look At Racism In America

2020 presented new levels of outrage over police killings of Black and Brown people in this nation. Police killed George Floyd and Breonna Taylor which prompted protests, marches and rallies to denounce racially motivated police brutality.

A Black Lives Matter march in Kingwood, West Virginia set up a flash point for that tiny town. Black protestors and their allies faced off with white people who say Kingwood has no race problem. The angry white crowd outnumbered BLM marchers and showed the raw seam of rage that has come to define racism in this country.

In this Us & Them episode, host Trey Kay speaks with West Virginia Delegate Danielle Walker, a woman pushing back at the fear and outrage of racial hatred in America.

For this episode, Us & Them collaborated with Chris Jones and Jesse Wright of 100 Days in Appalachia, a non-profit news outlet at West Virginia University.
.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in on the fourth Thursday of every month at 8 p.m., with an encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.