It was a Monday morning, and freshman Kyla Jean was freezing. Though her mom told her not to miss class and it was only 40 degrees outside, she stood outside of East for four hours with a dozen other students since 8 a.m. holding a sign she had brought from home saying, “We Need Answers.”
According to a Chapelboro article published Nov. 24, East Exceptional Children teacher assistants Darrell Parker and Adam Watkins, who are African-American, were allegedly asked to move out of an Adapted Curriculum classroom by school and district administration in October because one family “requested that their child doesn’t work with African American males.” A Dec. 2 correction by Chapelboro said that the family “did not include any phrasing regarding race or gender in their request,” and that Parker and Watkins had never seen the parents’ email directly. Watkins sent East staff his resignation email the morning of Nov. 4, though Parker still works at East.
Superintendent Nyah Hamlett responded to the article Dec. 2: “While we do not believe the interviews quoted in that story depicted a fair or entirely accurate picture of our ongoing efforts to best meet the needs of our students, we will always take seriously those who come forward with their concerns on any matter. We say again that CHCCS believes wholeheartedly that teacher and staff diversity enhance the learning experiences of all students.”
Though the full details of the situation are yet unknown, students and staff have reacted strongly to the news.
“The role of a teacher is to protect and advocate for the rights of all students and staff,” said EC teacher Tonya Stanley, who originally reported the story to Chapelboro. “Whether it’s gen-ed students, or students with disabilities, everybody has a voice. I want everybody to know they have a voice, and everyone has a right to be treated equally and fair.”
In response to the alleged treatment of the two Black teacher assistants by East and district administration, many students have begun protesting for racial justice and accountability within the school throughout the week. On Monday, Nov. 29, around 30 students staged a protest outside the main entrance in the morning, at one point marching with signs around the school and holding 10 minutes of silence at lunch. Around a dozen students reconvened on Wednesday, Dec. 1 to stage a sit-in in the cafeteria, and others took a city bus to Lincoln Center to protest there during the day. Friday, Dec. 3, several students participated in a walkout from the school to the Peace and Justice Plaza on Franklin St. and others held further protests at East.
“The whole time, I felt really empowered,” said Jean, who participated in several of the events. “I felt most powerful when we marched [to] the Cafe Commons, because we started getting a lot of people’s attention, especially when the principal was talking to us. Sometimes it feels like protesting doesn’t really make much of a difference. But the whole point is to get people’s attention and the whole point was to spark conversations. And that’s what we did.”
On the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 30, Principal Ken Proulx met with 36 students in a public forum in the Career Information Center. At the meeting, students’ concerns and demands were discussed and Proulx expressed his sympathy for the protesting students. Proulx declined multiple requests to comment from the ECHO.
“I do want you to know that we’re all together on this,” Proulx said to the attendees. “Your voice is extremely important. This is an opportunity for us to collaborate together because we want East to be the best place it can be…. I know we’re all here for the common goal.”
Organizers of the protests originally include owners of an Instagram account called “Welcome to East” and later on members of the Leadership Council for Students Of Color (LCSOC).
Though senior Rayna Blair only found out about the protests when walking into school Monday, with previous experience in organizing protests in the summer of 2020, she took a leadership role and brought an agenda to Tuesday’s meeting, emphasizing working with and not against administration to move forward.
“I was shocked, disappointed, but never surprised,” Blair said. “What we are mainly focused on was the precautionary and disciplinary actions taken by administration against its Black staff and students, mainly the removal or the relocation of Black staff to comply with the majority-white parents, and the ISS suspension, expulsion… and removal of Black students.”
On Tuesday, protestors demanded more transparency in general about incidents at school, increased clarity and support for student demonstrations especially with regard to attendance, and requested school data about suspensions and drop-out rates by race.
Sophomore Laynie Smith was one of the organizers of the Dec. 1 sit-in. Though some students missed class during the week to demonstrate, the Monday protests and Tuesday meeting were supposed to be excused by administration, as clarified by Proulx in the meeting. However, Smith was marked absent in several classes Wednesday, and Jean said she was marked absent for protesting on Monday.
“We don’t believe what happened here was right,” Smith said. “We believe that Black lives matter and will always matter. [Being absent] is a bit concerning, but I feel like this is more important than being in class.”
Participants of the protests say they were motivated to speak up because of the apparent injustice of the situation and disregard for employees of color.
“East puts out a lot of statements about how it prides itself on being like a diverse school and promoting anti-racism, and after this, it seems like that’s very hypocritical,” said sophomore Hazel Brian, who attended Monday’s protests and Tuesday’s forum with Proulx. “So me and a lot of other students are disturbed by that and kind of ashamed to attend a district that’s making these racist decisions. The system is really dysfunctional.”
Jean also found a disconnect between the signs she noticed around East and what she has felt.
“There’s always posters in the school that say something about kindness, treating each other right, but it doesn’t really seem like that,” Jean said. “So I don’t feel like students actually put in the work. We can probably change at least some points of views.”
Senior Alicea Davis, a member of LCSOC and the NAACP Youth Council, participated in demonstrations Monday and said that while she was shocked at the apparent actions taken by the school in response to parents, she was not surprised at the idea that there could be racist policies or people at East. She relates this incident to a larger scope of issues at East, from disproportionate suspension rates for Black students to the achievement gap.
“It’s very annoying because it’s like, I just want to come to school and have a decent day at school,” Davis said. “This district has the second largest academic achievement gap. It’s unacceptable and it still happens. Since I’ve gotten here four years ago, it’s been like that and nothing changed.”
Senior Grace Akoth, who is also a part of the LCSOC, says she has felt uncomfortable as a Black person at East. Akoth described being the only Black person in her Civics class sophomore year, and not feeling comfortable discussing topics related to race during class.
“It’s almost affecting my learning,” Akoth said. “I would not feel comfortable saying anything in front of anybody because my whole classroom was white guys. I don’t want to explain to a white person, you know, how this affects me. That’s not cool.”
Akoth went on, “And so, I would write essays that would explain [my thoughts] and I would send it in to my teacher, but she would never hear anything from me. And she would always ask me why I would never speak and I told her, ‘I don’t know.’ And that’s a problem. You should feel comfortable enough to speak in class and participate in class.”
On Tuesday, Proulx agreed with students that there is significant equity work to be done, though he will be visiting family in Europe on a previously planned vacation beginning Dec. 2 until Dec. 14 as well as departing from the school permanently over Winter Break. He emphasized that while he is gone, the work toward progress will be continued by his successor, assistant principal Aaron Acome.
“I think that the article and the things in that article are not the whole problem…. it was a spark…. It is a bigger systemic problem,” Proulx said at the student meeting. “While I won’t be here much longer, I’m committed in my time here to do the best that I can to make sure that we are doing what we need to do. It is a priority for [Acome]–we have been working on this for three years together.”
Many students have directed the conversation toward a larger scope of action for racial justice at East. Several seniors, including Blair, Davis and Akoth, are forming a Council for Black students and staff.
“Like Mr. Proulx and Mr. Acome were saying, it’s not about focusing on the past, what has happened has happened and now there’s not really anything we can do about it,” Davis said. “We don’t even have all the information. So [we are] just trying to prevent this from happening in the future.”
School and district staff say they are similarly in the dark on greater detail related to the incident. East EC Program Director Chris Beacham started his job on Monday, Nov. 29. He said he was not informed about the teacher assistant controversy while being hired. Like many other school staff, he says that while he does not himself know the details, there is more beyond what was published in the Chapelboro article.
“With all due respect to journalistic integrity and the process involved, I feel like there are certain elements that had to be excluded from the article, by necessity,” Beacham said. “And so, as a byproduct of that, there are certain facets of the discussion which are underrepresented. While additional information may not absolve any wrongdoing, I think it would help to add context.”
Regardless of the specifics related to Parker and Watkins’ story, students say they feel the event being brought up at all has sparked an overall reckoning with race at East, and serves as a reminder that even in Chapel Hill, in 2021, anything can happen.
“I think just the fact that that can happen is honestly terrifying to me, because if somebody can ask for a student to not work with a teacher, then you could probably ask for a student not being with another student,” Akoth said. “And that can lead to a lot of problems. I think that the ripple effect of all of the things that can happen because of this event, is scarier than the actual event. The fact that that can happen means so many things.”
Throughout ongoing investigations, Stanley says there are lessons to learn from the situation.
“Everything’s a teachable moment,” Stanley said. “Hopefully, this situation will encourage or motivate other students to speak up if they see something wrong.”
Hammond Cole Sherouse and Eloise Rich contributed reporting.
Photos by Hammond Cole Sherouse and Caroline Chen/The ECHO. Image created by Caroline Chen/The ECHO.
