Feeling ‘pushed aside’ by school officials, family seeks a public forum on racism

By Melanie Matts, for the

Granite State News Collaborative and Concord Monitor

WEARE -- Eric and Sharon Houle have grown more and more upset since last school year when they were informed of a racist death threat targeting their son written on the bathroom wall of John Stark Regional High school. 

Equally disturbing as the threats themselves, which were written by two white students, is the way the school district has handled the situation and failed to act in a timely manner, they said.

On April 20, 2022, two 17-year-old male juveniles carved, wrote and caused threatening, race-motivated property damage inside a bathroom at John Stark Regional High School, according to the civil complaints filed in the Northern Judicial District of the Hillsborough County Superior Court. One of the teens is accused of writing, "Blacks stand no chance," and, "KKK." The other teen is accused of drawing swastikas, as well as carving a threatening message that incorporated the name of one of the Houles’ Black children next to a racial slur.

“That's a scary thing that there's people in my own town that want to kill my kids,” said Sharon Houle. 

Despite promises for community dialogue and “follow through” over the summer into this school year, the Houles say little has been done by school administrators. 

Even now, the Houles would like to see what happened last school year become a teachable moment for the school district and the community and have requested open public dialogue on the matter.

Their request was honored and they will be on the school board agenda next Friday, Jan. 13. 

Feeling pushed aside

As the months have gone by, one of the biggest concerns for the Houles is the lack of communication between the school district, their family and the community regarding the incident that took place last April. 

“They (administration) never followed up on my other child. They never followed up on my daughter. None of the other Black children in the school, none of those parents were notified,” said Sharon Houle. 

Houle said the school seemed more interested in protecting the offenders than helping the victims and addressing the rest of the community. The incident not only affected their son who was directly targeted, but their youngest child who received backlash from classmates in the junior high afterwards. 

 

“So the question now we've had since then is ‘how many other things have happened at the schools that people just erase, and nobody even knows about it?’” she said.

The Weare School District had five Black students out of a total school population of 882. John Stark School District, which includes high school students from Weare, Henniker and Stoddard, had two Black students out of 579 during the 2021-2022 school year. Both figures show Black students make up less than 1% of the student body, according to New Hampshire Department of Education Statistics.

Feeling as though they were “pushed aside” by both the school district, and Weare Police Department, the Houles reached out to the Manchester chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in early May for guidance on how to proceed with their situation.

After speaking with James McKim, president of the NAACP Manchester branch, the Houles proceeded by alerting the Hillsborough County Attorney’s office on May 11 of their case, along with reaching out to local officials for support.

School response

Just over a month after the incident, on May 27, 2022, Principal Gary Dempsey sent an email to the John Stark Community. 

“Over the past month, administrators have been dealing with an ugly, racist threat that occurred in our building. Actions like these violate the core of the John Stark Way. I am incredibly saddened that something like this happened here.” 

He said the incident was dealt with through the school’s discipline process and promised continued improvement. He also asked parents to talk to their children about treating every person with respect.

“We need to foster an environment where every member of our community feels safe and connected,” he wrote. “That work will follow through this summer and into next year.”  

School Superintendent Jacqueline Coe said that over the summer into the fall, administrators have worked to ensure that the policies and procedures they have respond to specifically racist and hateful incidents.

“We're a learning community and we seek opportunities to reflect and do better,” she said. “We believe every student in our school deserves to feel safe and like they belong.”

Eric and Sharon Houle believe that a message to the community should have come immediately after the incident, and that an email is simply not enough of a response to the severity of the actions against their child and Black people all together. 

“We would love for them to acknowledge that it happened, it was wrong. And what is the plan if it happens again?” they said. 

“One thing we would do differently is we would communicate out to the community earlier. I mean, that would be the biggest lesson,” said Coe.

In addition to a lack of communication from the school district, the Houles’ felt the racist incident was “swept under the rug” in comparison to others that have recently occurred in NH.

In October, a racist “homecoming proposal” posted by a Trinity high school student sparked outrage not only across the Granite State, but broke headlines nationally. 

“Honestly, we do find it interesting that there was so much response to what happened at Trinity for a kid holding up a sign,” said Sharon Houle. “That was completely inappropriate; I will not downgrade it, but there was no physical threat and that was all through the internet.” 

This school year

On Sept. 20, 2022, five months after the incident, the New Hampshire Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General announced that enforcement actions were filed against the two perpetrators for violating the NH Civil Rights Act.  

“A civil rights violation allows for a maximum civil penalty of $5,000. The court may also enjoin further violations of the Civil Rights Act,” according to the release.

An email from Coe titled “We Stand for Respect & Inclusion,” was sent out the day after the Attorney General's press release. 

“Unfortunately, as many of you know and as you may have seen in the news this morning, last year we experienced hateful and discriminatory language and behavior in our schools,” said Coe. “Specific incidents were addressed and serious consequences were issued. Responses to violations of the code of conduct are designed to maximize student academic, emotional and social success, while at the same time assuring the safety of our community.”  

The Houles’ emphasized their desire to educate based on this incident, rather than centering it around the punishment of the perpetrators. 

“If you punish them to the max, they're just gonna get angrier. It's not going to help them, whatsoever,” said Eric Houle, alumnus of John Stark. “They're going to go into society and be even worse than they are now, because it's going to build. Educate, don't punish.”

Still feeling as though the situation has yet to be resolved and discussed properly with the community, the Houles’ met with Coe and other administration this week, and had put in a request to be on the agenda for the upcoming school board meeting on Friday, Jan. 13.

Their request was honored by Zach Lawson, the chairman of the John Stark School Board. The discussion will happen the same night at the public hearing for the district’s proposed budget.

The Houles hope to discuss the incident openly and have school officials go over protocol for handling racism in schools. They would like the meeting to resemble a public forum, something that was never offered to their family and the community following the event. 

“You know, the biggest thing is teaching these other students that this is not right,” Eric Houle said. “Teaching about diversity.”

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative.  It was edited by The Concord Monitor, a partner in the collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.