As an educator with 11 years experience in the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS), I have spent the majority of my career working directly with fourth grade students. Having this close involvement with young students, it is deeply concerning and unacceptable to me when their safety and dignity are violated under the watchful eyes of those who are supposed to protect them.

Recently, I came across a disturbing incident involving a second grade student from C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School. In this incident, shocking in its severity and implications, a young child was subjected to a hateful act of discrimination by a fourth grader, who hung him in the school bathroom. Even more disturbing is the way this incident was handled. The principal dismissed this act of violent racism as mere 'horse play,' despite the fourth grade student plainly stating that he was intending to recreate the racial atrocities committed against African Americans in history - by showing the black student "how his people were done back in the day".

Such dismissal, and lack of immediate and strong action, speaks volumes about the leadership's violence tolerance and their failure to foster an environment of safety and respect for all students. Our children deserve better. They deserve an environment that protects their rights, fosters equality, and delivers justice for such hate crimes.

In classrooms across the country, educators like myself work tirelessly to instill values of respect and equality, and to foster safe, learning environments for students. The actions (or rather, inactions) of C. Paul Barnhart Elementary's Principal seriously undermine these efforts, exhibiting a failure of duty and a grotesque misinterpretation of his professional calling.

It is essential for the safety and wellbeing of the C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School community that this principal be removed from his position. We call upon the powers that be within BCPSS to take immediate action and uphold the dignity and safety of all its students. Please sign this petition to demonstrate your support for this necessary change.