The Day – East Lyme High School continues to count with racist social media posts

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East Lyme – The ongoing tensions at East Lyme High School turned violent in an assault on a girls’ bathroom on Thursday which is being investigated by school officials and police.

The situation comes after high school administrators over a month ago issued a warning that old racist messages were being recirculated by students and that “online harassment would not be tolerated” against those who posted the original messages.

Schools Superintendent Jeff Newton said in September he was unaware of any physical altercations in high school despite at least one post showing one student confronting another, also in the girls’ bathroom .

Parents and students have expressed concern that the administration’s failure to deal effectively with incidents of racism has contributed to a dangerous climate for all students.

Newton confirmed on Friday that he saw video of Thursday’s assault. Images on social media platform Snapchat obtained by The Day show a girl coming out of a stall to attack another girl in a public washroom. The victim was slapped and punched on the head, pulled by the hair, then stepped on and kicked while lying on the ground protecting her head.

“The high school administration is dealing with it and they took immediate action yesterday afternoon,” Newton said Friday. He declined to go into details of the disciplinary action based on the confidentiality guidelines.

East Lyme Police Chief Mike Finkelstein said the department received a complaint from the victim’s family on Thursday and was investigating. He said on Friday he was not aware of any calls the school made to police or emergency services the day before.

The student attacked was the author of a post recirculated among students on Snapchat that said things like “segregation exists for a reason”, “black people are insignificant just because they are black” and “I m ‘don’t care about black people, and that’s just the truth. “

Andy Slager, the student’s father, said she initially sent the message privately to another friend between one and two years ago. He said she didn’t feel that way now.

“I don’t think that’s what she was feeling then, you know,” he said. “She has a nasty habit of saying stupid things when she’s upset. She feels like she’s trying to hurt someone in return.”

Slager attributed her daughter’s statements to “internalized negative feelings” that arose in fifth or sixth grade, when the family lived in Michigan. It was then that he said that she had suffered minor bullying from a student who “turned out to be black” that neither of her parents realized she was. had affected her so deeply.

“So when he first appeared a year or two ago, we approached him at that point,” he said. “I guarantee you that’s not how she feels now.

Slager described the student harassment of his daughter as constant. He said the school after the September incident had appointed someone to ensure his safety during the school, which was operating until recently.

He cited an incident filmed about a week ago in which she was spat out by the same student who ultimately assaulted her.

Slager admitted that his daughter hadn’t always reacted to threats on social media the way he “would have preferred” and was sanctioned by the school because of it.

“I’m not saying she never responded,” he said. “I’m sure she did. I know there were times when she did, I told her about it.”

He said he was asking the Board of Education to expel the girl who assaulted her daughter.

Others told The Day that the school did not take care of the necessary discipline on either side.

Nikki Buzzelli, whose child is a biracial high school student, said the victim of Thursday’s assault has continued to display “unabashed hatred towards some of the school’s students” since the racist post resurfaced area.

“The school has never condemned or addressed this girl’s actions and words other than protecting her at school – and even that the school has failed,” she said.

Buzzelli said the school’s failure to act decisively threatens progress towards the district’s equity goals, which included a recent equity audit to better understand the racial climate in the East school system. Lyme.

Auditing is part of a strategic plan to “fight racism” through diversity, equity and inclusion. Questions to be addressed over five years include how current policies might perpetuate racism and how schools manage to affirm students of different racial, ethnic or religious backgrounds.

The fairness talk by school officials seems hollow when students feel that racist attitudes and behavior are accepted, according to Buzzelli.

“The students are showing their displeasure at feeling helpless and unsafe at school and this is now turning into physical assaults on this girl,” she said. “It cannot be tolerated either.”

Kris Wraight, trainer and restorative justice facilitator from New London, said she has worked with East Lyme Public Schools in the past to respond to a student’s racist comments and would like to do it again.

Restorative justice is a community accountability process that brings together those affected by a particular incident, according to Wraight. This means seating the injured person, the person who did the wrong, members of both families and school officials.

“He doesn’t see evil as a violation of a rule or a law; he sees it as a violation of a relationship,” Wraight said. “So the evil has to be recognized and the community has to come together to determine what needs to be done to fix it. “

She said traditional punishments such as detention, suspension and expulsion do not take into account how students’ actions affect those around them.

“The problem they’re facing right now, I think if restorative justice had been used in the past, we wouldn’t be facing it,” Wraight said.

She highlighted the recirculation of racist messages, which was an act decried by principals and deputy principals in a letter to parents. Newton, the superintendent, told The Day at the time that the initial messages had already been “handled and processed” and that continuing to share them was a form of harassment.

“If the injury had been truly and truly addressed, then new incidents related to the old injury would not continue to occur,” she said. “It doesn’t mean judgment, but it does mean restorative justice offers a new way forward.”

Wraight stressed that everyone involved must be present voluntarily and that the person responsible for the harm must admit it.

Slager said he would welcome this kind of opportunity for his daughter. He said he asked the school to facilitate dating after two previous altercations involving his daughter, but it was unsuccessful.

Without facilitation, he said he did not see the willingness of the other students to have a conversation.

“Even if they think she’s racist, the proper way to deal with it, you think, would be through conversation, through education, through social interactions – not physical fights,” he said. .

Buzzelli reiterated that something different needs to be done.

“The school must take its share of responsibility for what happened,” she said. “If they had been proactive and fair in their response to the initial incident, something like yesterday’s incident would never have happened.”

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