Wellesley High addressing another racial incident

Wellesley High School Principal Jamie Chisum ended his Week’s End report with positive messages, ranging from updates on Step Up Day for grades 9-12 to thanks for a surprise 2:00 O’Clock Jazz Band performance on a school day morning. But he led off the memo with word of another racism incident.

Last week in this space I included a note explaining to you what I said to the students over the PA about the racist language that was used online.  [See Wellesley High addressing “biased-based incident”]

One piece of follow up is that there are still students we are investigating from that online space. We have not completed our disciplinary work yet. 

Unfortunately, this evening I have to report to you that we had another incident this week. This time a white student called a black student the “n word”.  The incident was reported, filed with the D, E, and I office and we know who all the parties are. In this case, we were able to be swift with our consequences. 

It is important to write about this week’s moment too so you can best support your child. For some of you it is about recovery, safety, and gathering support. For others it might be about further conversation at home.

I don’t believe writing this letter is going to solve racism in the community, but I do hope it is one of many consistent drum beats that helps continue the discussion. Here at school we are committed to teaching and supporting all our students and staff. Moments like this will not stop us from doing this work. 

Finally, the district has been in touch with some other community members and organizations who are interested in deepening conversations about race here in Wellesley.  We look forward to partnering with them as these opportunities begin to take shape. 

Thank you to members of the Wellesley Public School community for sharing school communications with us: theswellesleyreport@gmail.com