Tag: Matthew Christensen

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Superintendent says Confederate imagery disrupts learning, but board chair postpones vote

The February 14 Albemarle County School Board meeting got heated after Chair Jonno Alcaro tabled a resolution that would restrict Confederate imagery on clothing in schools until the next meeting. Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County provided refreshments. Photo by Eze Amos

A resolution to ban Confederate imagery on clothing in Albemarle schools was back on the agenda at the February 14 Albemarle County School Board meeting. The last time the issue came up, in August, six people were arrested.

School board members were split on the issue, and again postponed a decision, to the dismay of both attendees and Superintendent Matt Haas, who said he was ready to ban the imagery because it created a disruption to learning.

Haas says that rationale, supported by a recent report from the School Health Advisory Board that concluded Confederate imagery might be harmful to students, could protect the board should a lawsuit ensue. But several school board members, citing a 2003 First Amendment lawsuit from a Jack Jouett sixth grader not allowed to wear his NRA T-shirt, expressed concerns about infringing on students’ rights.

At first, the meeting was business as usual. After commending eight Albemarle students on qualifying for the Daily Progress Regional Spelling Bee, board members listened to local middle schoolers attest to the importance of extracurricular civics programs.

Then came public comment. Most speakers, many with Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County, pressed the board to pass the resolution banning Confederate imagery. They delivered impassioned pleas stressing that minority children cannot feel safe around classmates wearing Confederate imagery, as audience members stood up in solidarity.

“To allow children to wear [Confederate imagery], carry it into a school, is no different from having them bring in swastikas,” said Matthew Christensen, a social worker. “I have seen the violence. I have seen the hatred. It has such an impact on our kids and it’s going to stay with them; it’s not going to go away when the image disappears.”

Star Peterson, one of the victims injured in the August 12 vehicular assault, spoke about the use of Confederate imagery during local hate rallies in 2017. “During the summer of hate…Richard Spencer and his people marched by a family festival with Confederate flags,” she said. “I can tell you I saw Confederate flags at a KKK rally. I can tell you I saw Confederate flags with my own eyes at the Unite the Right rally. There is no question of their significance.”

Before proceeding to debate, the board reviewed new items added to the Albemarle County schools budget, such as $30,000 earmarked for panic buttons. Then, it took a 30-minute break.

When the meeting reconvened, Assistant Superintendent Bernard Hairston submitted the resolution.

Board members Steve Koleszar, Kate Acuff, and Jason Buyaki, who wore a Confederate tie at one of the board’s previous discussions of the topic, said they felt the ban violated the First Amendment and failed to solve the underlying problem of racism.

Chair Jonno Alcaro implied he was reluctant to pass it for similar reasons, and decided to table the resolution until the next meeting, on February 28, to hear public concerns and allow the board more time to review the language.

Many in the audience were stewing. Amidst shouts of “coward” and “you’re supporting fascism,” Lara Harrison stood in front of the dais and flipped board members off with both hands.

After a minute of murmurs and muffled laughter, Alcaro noticed and asked her to sit down. “I’m not disrupting the meeting,” she replied, sitting on the steps. “I thought you were in favor of free speech.”

She returned to her seat after Alcaro threatened to have her removed.

Harrison had been arrested for trespassing during the special August 30 school board meeting concerning the same policy, though the charges were later dropped.

Audience interruptions continued throughout the meeting, but those heckling the board either stopped after being threatened with removal or stormed out of the auditorium.

Board member David Oberg supported the resolution, as did Graham Paige, who said he had evolved on the issue. Citing the School Health Advisory Board report, Katrina Callsen also supported the resolution.

“I think Confederate imagery should be banned from schools,” she said, comparing it to gang imagery. “Our city was the site of one of the largest hate rallies in recent history and the Confederate flag was a hate symbol.”

All board members in favor said they were willing to face a lawsuit but didn’t think it would happen because of the violent history of the flag in Charlottesville.

In response, Koleszar alluded to MLK. “You know, Martin Luther King warned about how the Northern liberal was more dangerous than the white racist,” he said.

“I am not a Northern liberal,” Paige retorted. The room erupted in laughter.

Haas said he would use his authority to prevent students from wearing Confederate imagery in the meantime. “I want a green light to work with the administrative team to have a plan to proactively tell families that the school board supports our current dress code,” he said. “I am now saying that you cannot wear these outfits to school.”

Nobody objected.

Before adjourning, Alcaro suggested the meeting prompted a change of heart. “I look forward to approving the anti-racism consent resolution in the next meeting,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot that I really need to think through.”

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‘Order over justice’: Community further criticizes school board

Lisa Woolfork, an associate professor at UVA, said the Albemarle County School Board’s decision to have protesters arrested at its last meeting was a “complete embarrassment, and a moral failure.” eze amos

“You can jail revolutionaries, but you can’t jail the revolution,” were the words scrawled on a giant white sign held by a man in sunglasses.

It was the first meeting of the Albemarle County School Board since the August 30 one where six anti-racist activists were arrested and hauled off in handcuffs for allegedly being disruptive, and where one was sent to the hospital after a police officer knocked him to the ground.

This time, things were more peaceful—board chair Kate Acuff only threatened to have one community member removed for clapping.

Activists with groups such as Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County have put intense pressure on the board for over a year to make county schools more inclusive and safe for all students—by, among other things, banning Confederate imagery currently permitted in the school division’s dress code. In response, a panel of nine volunteer students has been tasked with writing an anti-racism policy that will be implemented at all county schools, says school spokesperson Phil Giaramita, and a re-examination of the dress-code policy could happen subsequently.

Albemarle County School Board Chair Kate Acuff threatened to have one community member removed for clapping at the September 18 meeting. eze amos

That response has not satisfied activists, who want Confederate imagery banned now, and who have been outraged at the school board’s aggressive attempts to limit dissent.

Tension was high at the September 18 meeting, and Superintendent Matthew Haas, perhaps hoping to set a new tone, began with a statement declaring that county and city schools will join together to end racism and discrimination in their hallways, and close opportunity gaps.

“Discrimination against diverse people of color is still deeply ingrained in American culture,” he said. “Whether we call it racism or systemic bias, it results in inequitable opportunities for African American and Latino students.”

But the nearly 20 community members who had signed up for public comment wanted to talk specifics.

After a warning that any sounds of support or non-support could result in ejection from the meeting, a retired Henley Middle School teacher of 25 years stood up to speak.

Margie Shepherd said she had successfully argued before the board a decade ago that students using hate speech should be disciplined, and now the same conversation has resurfaced.

Because those who agreed with her weren’t allowed to cheer, or even snap, they silently waved their hands in support as Shepherd said Confederate symbols “make schools less welcome and less safe for our students of color.”

Matthew Christensen spoke next, and criticized the board for not being open to two-way communication, which it promises in its code of conduct.

“Each and every one of you needs to think very long and very hard about who you are and what you want to represent to this community,” Christensen said.

School board members are aware of the danger they’re putting students in by allowing such “traumatizing imagery” in schools, he claimed.

“And yet you do nothing,” he said. “You pretend to care about our children. You pretend to care about our community, and yet, you have shown over and over again that you don’t.”

Lisa Woolfork, an associate professor at UVA, called the board hostile, and said its decision to have activists arrested was a “fetishization of order over justice,” a “complete embarrassment, and a moral failure.”

While the board made no apologies for the previous meeting’s arrests, school board member Graham Paige, a retired teacher of 30 years, stayed back to talk with some of the remaining activists. “A dress code and anti-racism policy that benefits all of our students is really the mutual goal of Hate-Free Schools and the board,” he said.

The board will next meet September 27. And the activists have promised they’ll be there, too.

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‘Crime against humanity:’ Jail urged to stop voluntary ICE reporting

Nearly 50 activists went to the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail’s July 12 board meeting to protest its policy to voluntarily report undocumented inmate release dates to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Staff photo

When incarcerated undocumented immigrants are released from the local jail, they exit through the sally port, where they often have an unfortunate encounter. It’s not unusual that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent will be there waiting for them.

In a July 12 Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail authority board meeting, jail superintendent Martin Kumer said 25 undocumented immigrants were taken from the ACRJ by ICE between July 2017 and June 2018—because staff voluntarily reports those inmates’ release dates to the federal immigration agents.

Nearly 50 community activists showed up at the meeting to protest the board’s decision to continue reporting release dates to ICE, which passed in a 7-3 vote in January.

Local activist Matthew Christensen, the first person to speak during the public comment session at the meeting, called the jail’s voluntary reporting a “crime against humanity,” and others noted how “extremely cruel” it is to report someone who “came to make a better life for themselves and their families.”

These community members had demanded that the board take another vote at its July meeting, which did not happen. Approximately 2,900 people have signed a petition asking the board to stop its voluntary reporting.

“Because this matter was considered and acted on in January and no new substantive information directly relevant to this policy has been presented, there has been no compelling reason to place this matter on the agenda for another vote,” says a July 1 letter signed by Kumer and jail board chair Diantha McKeel, who also sits on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

When undocumented people are taken into the jail and fingerprinted, staff is required by the state to notify ICE. Along with requesting their release dates, ICE has also asked for ACRJ staff to hold undocumented people beyond their release time, which the jail’s authority board voted against in 2017. ICE agents must be present at the time of a person’s release to take them into custody.

When authority board member and City Councilor Wes Bellamy motioned in January to comply with notifying ICE during the fingerprinting process, but nix the voluntary release date reporting, it wasn’t received well. He amended the motion to only voluntarily report release dates for undocumented immigrants with felony or DUI charges, and still lost the vote.

“We are sure members of the community would agree there are individuals who have committed specific crimes that should not be released back into our community,” says the letter from Kumer and McKeel. “It would not be reasonable or realistic to form a community consensus on specifically what crimes those would be.”

A list provided by the jail of the 25 undocumented people from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala hauled off by ICE between July 2017 and last month shows that some were charged with nonviolent crimes, including driving without a license, public swearing or intoxication, failure to appear in court or possessing drugs.

Some were convicted of more serious crimes such as drunk driving, domestic assault, abduction, malicious wounding or carnal knowledge of a child between the ages of 13 and 15, and the record shows that ICE picked up six undocumented people before they were convicted.

Showing up for Racial Justice organizer Mark Heisey used his public comment period to read from a letter signed by 17 community groups.

“If a judge has decided to release someone on bond, or if someone has already served their sentence, that indicates that a judge has decided that the person is no longer a danger to the community,” the letter says. “By calling ICE to incarcerate someone for civil immigration infractions, ACRJ is subjecting undocumented community members to additional incarceration based solely on their legal status and not on the crime they have been accused of committing.”

The board members have also said they don’t know enough about each undocumented inmate’s history to determine whether he is a danger to the community, should he be released.

“While you may not know everything about undocumented inmates at the ACRJ, we do know a lot about ICE,” says the letter given to the board. “We know they imprison people in the most inhumane for-profit prisons in the country. We know they separate families and lose children. We know people have died in their custody. We know they are construction internment camps on U.S. military bases. We know they sexually assault people in their custody.”

Several members of the board weren’t present, including McKeel and Bellamy, who are both on the civil rights pilgrimage to the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

Outside the jail, Heisey said, “I’m confident that Wes would have pushed back against a lot of the narrative.”

But he said he’s glad that board members are considering holding a work session to re-evaluate their policies before their next meeting, which is in September.

And the irony of McKeel missing the meeting wasn’t lost on Heisey.

“She’s too busy celebrating civil rights victories of the past to be on the right side of civil rights struggles of the present.”