In the wake of this year’s horrendous murders at the hands of police against Black Americans, such as George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, our nation has questioned and condemned the systemic racism that is ingrained in American life which produced these senseless deaths and is seeking lasting change. Earlier this year, Dr. Geoffrey Hicks, the superintendent of Clarence Central Schools, acknowledged these tragedies as an occasion to “promote our core values of equity, empathy, tolerance, critical thinking, compassion, and resilience,” and “commit ourselves to helping our students make the world a better place.” 

Accordingly, we, as past and present Clarence community members, bring forth this petition to hold Clarence—both administratively and as a community—accountable to those statements. As this past month’s events have demonstrated, racism is alive and well in America, and Clarence is no exception. Marginalized students—such as students of color, LGTBQ+ students, disabled students, low-income students, and many others—experience discrimination and prejudice from peers, faculty, and administration.  Clarence students deserve not only greater awareness of global society, but effective change in operations during the school day to ensure everyone’s safety and dignity.

In June 2020, a group of recent alumni conducted a survey of past and present Clarence students, parents, and teachers, in which it became clear that Clarence Central Schools’ policies on racist acts are both vague and ill-distributed, leading to a lack of understanding and accountability when marginalized students encounter racist acts and prejudice at school. Additionally, Clarence’s curriculum lacks a well-rounded perspective, with marginalized narratives often ignored with the excuses of perceived “lack of time” or “lack of context” to address them.

Without political motivation, but as a call to preserve the dignity of all Clarence students no matter their race, sexual orientation, appearance, socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity, or other defining factors, we not only propose, but demand, the following changes to Clarence Central Schools’ policy: 

1. Clarence Central Schools, specifically Clarence Middle School and Clarence High School, must seriously condemn and discipline racist behavior and attitudes. Policies concerning other subjects, such as dress code violations or use of illicit substances in school, carry far worse consequences than, for example, the use of racial slurs. Moreover, students of color, especially Black students, are disproportionately labeled as the aggressor simply for speaking out.  In Clarence’s Code of Conduct, specifically in the “Prohibited Student Conduct” and “Reporting Violations” subsections, there are no specific references to racism or racist acts. We call on Clarence to modify the Code of Conduct to explicitly forbid racist acts, including but not limited to: the use of racial slurs and/or epithets, the wearing of stereotyping and/or blackface costumes, hate speech, hate crimes, racially-motivated bullying, and other such acts of racism. 

 
2. We also call on Clarence to modify the Code of Conduct to provide clear, direct steps students can take to safely report racist acts, racially-motivated bullying, or other instances of prejudice, stereotyping, or bias. This reporting system should be anonymous or otherwise protect the reporting party from retaliation.  In the past, students have felt neither comfortable nor heard in reporting such incidents, and have seen little to no action taken in response to their reports. Beyond the state-mandated DASA (Dignity for All Students Act) reports (which provide students minimal safety from retaliation), detailing specific steps students can take as part of the official policy will prevent future incidents from being downplayed or ignored. In this way, marginalized students will feel more protected at this predominantly white institution. 

3. In a recent survey of roughly 300 current and former students, parents, and teachers, several respondents reported the rampant use of the “N-word” inside and outside the classroom by students at Clarence Middle and High Schools.  That is simply unacceptable.  Given the context of that awful word and many other racial slurs in American society, permitting or otherwise not addressing its use in school creates an unsafe environment for every student.  Even in instances where it appears as part of a novel or primary source, white students and teachers should be educated on the consequences of permitting the use of the word, regardless of context.  To address offenses of this type, the “Disciplinary Penalties, Procedures, and Referrals” subsection of the Clarence Code of Conduct provides for a PBIS-based “progressive model,” meaning that first-time offenses are generally treated with greater leniency than subsequent or more severe offenses. This model is simply not effective to address and prevent students from saying racial slurs.  We call on Clarence to create a zero-tolerance policy for the use of racial slurs and/or epithets, with the first penalty being, at minimum, parent notification and detention. 

4. Without a doubt, the current environment surrounding discussions about race and discrimination at Clarence is inconducive to any substantive change. We call for every member of the Clarence community, regardless of political affiliation or personal beliefs, to change this. It is no easy feat, but a change in the mentality of our students, faculty, and administration must occur. Efforts must include but are not limited to:

• Actively and regularly engaging students in conversations about non-white experiences at predominantly white institutions, and educating students on forms of racism, such as microaggressions, tone-policing, tokenizing, and invalidating POC experiences. School-run tolerance and anti-bullying initiatives should provide for students to celebrate different cultures, heritages, and traditions from that of their own.  Student-run clubs, such as the Student Council and community service clubs, with the assistance of dedicated faculty, should be empowered and regularly given the opportunity to educate their fellow students.  Currently, support for these efforts is limited; in order to be effective, these initiatives must be explicitly endorsed by the administration. 
• Students of different cultures and ethnicities must be given the opportunity to celebrate and share their customs in ways they feel comfortable to do so. In the past, students have received pushback from teachers and have been denied when requesting the day off for holidays that may fall during the school week, such as Eid or Rosh Hashanah.  This especially occurs within AP classrooms. We call on Clarence to modify the Code of Conduct and every school attendance policy to expressly allow students to take off school for their respective religious, cultural, and traditional holidays.  We also request that these policies be made widely known and that the schools notify students and parents of their responsibilities to ensure completion of student work.  We also request that Clarence establish policies and procedures for teachers to work with students in order to ensure students can celebrate their holidays with the same freedom as students whose holidays fall on weekends, or during school breaks. 
• Whenever students’ names are announced in assemblies, ceremonies, or even just class attendance, students with less “white” sounding names often hear theirs mispronounced completely. Despite correcting faculty time and time again, faculty and staff continuously pronounce their names incorrectly. Even when faculty have gone out of their way to ask the pronunciation of a student of color’s name, many still say their names improperly during a presentation. Some teachers have even given students “nicknames” or “white-sounding names” in lieu of the student’s real name. This is embarrassing and disrespectful to the student. Something as personal as someone’s name deserves to be respected. Just because a student’s name may be more unique to their ears, faculty and staff should still commit to learning how to say it properly. We call on Clarence to ensure that each faculty member ensures to learn the name and its pronunciation of each student, regardless of the student’s cultural background.
• Clarence Central School District currently employs few to no teachers of color. Students of color are not seeing themselves reflected in the faculty, and therefore do not feel as included in the decisions made by this faculty. We understand that this issue can take years, if not decades, to resolve. We understand that even if more diverse faculty members are hired, they will likely face the same bias and microaggressions experienced by students of color. Indeed, a conversation with administrators in July made it evident that the lack of Black faculty is a “statewide issue.” However, we believe this will be a necessary step to take in order to ensure a truly diverse, inclusive, and excellent environment, not to mention a well-rounded education for all students. Students of color often are unable to relate to the majority-white faculty, and thus commonly harbor feelings that they do not belong. The first step to inclusivity is instilling a sense of belonging. We call on Clarence to commit to hiring and retaining faculty members of color when future vacancies are posted.
• In addition to diversifying the faculty, Clarence must commit to educating its staff. Clarence does not conduct thorough staff development training in the areas of recognizing implicit bias, preventing microaggressions, and celebrating diversity.  While the state mandates 6 hours of “compliance” training in regards to the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA), this training does not specifically address racism and bias.  Anti-racism education must be mandated for faculty and taught foremost by people of color.  We call on Clarence to further staff development training that empowers teachers to recognize their own implicit biases, prevent microaggressions on the part of themselves and their students, and to genuinely celebrate a variety of peoples and perspectives in their classrooms.
• While we have discussed students' color being reflected in their leaders and mentors, it is vital these students see themselves reflected in educational materials as well. Clarence must empower its faculty to support its students, by supplying them with honest and true accounts of racism in America (and the world in general) written from non-white perspectives. Teachers in every English class should ensure to teach literature and rhetoric by authors of color: Black novelists, like Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, and Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie; Black rhetoricians, activists, and philosophers, like W.E.B. du Bois, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Angela Davis, and bell hooks, Latinx authors, like Junot Díaz, Pam Muñoz Ryan and Sonia Sotomayor; Middle Eastern/North African/South Asian authors, like Khaled Hosseini, Arundhati Roy, Malala Yousafzai, and Jhumpa Lahiri, East and Southeast Asian authors, like Gene Luen Yang, Min Jin Lee, and Viet Thanh Nguyen; as well as Indigenous and mixed-race authors, such as Daniel Heath Justice and Nick Estes; and in addition, authors of any other races not mentioned above.  Elementary schools should strive for greater representation of people of color in picture books and chapter books, acknowledging that crucial values of tolerance and respect begin from our earliest moments in school. We call on all English teachers and principals at Clarence schools to teach required reading by authors of color every year, and, in the case of optional reading, provide equal representation to authors of color. 
• History curricula should be more attentive to the racist history of America and the world. While figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Rosa Parks are lauded and taught throughout all levels of schooling, leaders less palatable to a white supremacist narrative like Malcolm X, Bhimrao Ambedkar, Cesar Chavez, Huey Newton, and many others are glossed over. Many events exemplifying America’s ties to racism, such as the Tulsa Race Massacre and the LA Race Riots, are omitted completely.  Moreover, global colonization is taught within an “exploration narrative,” in which colonization and imperialism are seen as creating a “favorable balance of trade” and as “leading to great discoveries,” without making great mention of the violence, disease, death, political instability and destruction that European and American colonization brought to the rest of the world.  Primary sources and assignments largely focus on the white perspective, and racism is largely taught as a past, isolated issue rather than a current, systemic condition. In addition to the history of white and Black Americans, Clarence must acknowledge and teach the stories of other peoples that are integral to our society—Latinx Americans, Americans from the Middle East and North Africa, Americans from East and South Asia, and Native Americans. Too often discussions about race in America are concentrated on laws, battles, and subject matter in textbooks rather than lived experiences, photographs, and analysis from marginalized perspectives. We call on the history teachers and principals at all Clarence schools to incorporate more marginalized voices, primary sources, and lived experiences of people of color. We understand that flexibility may be more difficult with standardized material, such as in AP classrooms, but we trust that each teacher will find a way to broaden and decolonize their curriculum.  We also note that AP Exams test students’ ability to comprehend complexity and nuance.  In order for students to truly understand the present oppression against people of color, they must learn about the United States’ history in oppressing them. 
• Clarence Central Schools, within the last three years, have recently appointed “school resource officers”—retired New York State Troopers, with military-grade training—to occupy space in the schools and act as “mentors and facilitators.” We encourage Clarence Schools, in light of recent incidents of police brutality, to reconsider their agreement with the New York State Troopers and work to create a campus culture that doesn’t require the presence of state police.   While we understand the district may view them as helpful in addressing potential violent incidents, at a bare minimum, we call on Clarence Central Schools to require implicit bias training for “school resource officers,” in order to educate them on the dangers of bias when working with children, specifically children of color.  We call on Clarence to require that “school resource officers” have no past incidents of misconduct in their employment files.  We call on Clarence to ensure that “school resource officers” take incidents of bias, prejudice, hate crimes, racially motivated bullying, or microaggressions seriously and work to investigate any and all claims of the above racist acts, in addition to helping victims file police reports.  We also request that “school resource officers” communicate and follow through on their commitment to keeping all Clarence students, teachers, parents, and other community members safe, especially including students of color. 

Clarence has a history of muted responses to issues surrounding race and discrimination. We cannot allow this evasiveness to continue. Our community must refrain from simply condemning racism as a past evil, and instead be actively anti-racist. Racism is wrong and illogical—It’s easy to say, but harder to do. Yet it must be done. We call on Clarence to purposefully communicate this to its students and the surrounding community by implementing the changes listed above. Clarence swiftly changed the Code of Conduct in August in anticipation of modified behavior required during COVID-19; we similarly expect that Clarence will change the Code of Conduct swiftly in response to our modest requests that all community members be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Change begins at the bottom level, in the day to day interactions and accepted practices among people. Police brutality is one of the most violent and disturbing manifestations of America’s white supremacy. However, discriminatory practices such as those perpetrated at Clarence reinforce prejudices that are essential to the greater structure of systemic racism. To ensure the change that Clarence students deserve, administrators must commit to updating written policy in the Code of Conduct, increasing awareness and understanding of policy, and incorporating diverse perspectives into the curriculum from grades K-12. Only then will Clarence begin to address its role in perpetuating racism and pursue an actively anti-racist environment. 

However, anti-racism is not something to be achieved. It is something to practice, and learn, and continue improving upon day after day. Our nation, our school, and our communities were founded on the principle of empowering those who need it most. We encourage Clarence to keep listening to its marginalized students and taking action to assist them—so that Clarence may truly be a community that embraces all with dignity and respect. 

Signed,