This petition is on behalf of the Nichols Community.

I am a former student who graduated in 2010. 

Christopher Burner’s statement on June 3rd was a hollow, unsubstantial response to the racially charged deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breona Taylor, and George Floyd. It did not condemn police brutality. It came 9 days after George Floyd’s death and protests had reached over 150 cities and spread continents. It did not state that Black Lives Matter. It claimed that it will continue to create a more just and equitable society without any details of how. It implies that it will continue with the status quo. You use your Black and Brown students for statistics and as pictures in your brochures, but you have not made the effort to hire Black educators, teach modern Black history, or Black literature. 

There are two Black faculty members at Nichols School. That is not enough. During my 8 years at Nichols from 2002 to 2010, I had one Black teacher, Madame MacDevitt, for less than a year in 5th grade. None of my other teachers were people of color. 

My history education ended with WWII at Nichols. I have had to actively teach myself about the history of the civil rights movements and the history of terrorism of black people in the United States. Black history is fundamental to American history.

During my entire Nichols education, only one teacher taught one book by a Black author. 

Buffalo is one of the top 10 most segregated cities in the United States and Nichols school is one of the most privileged high schools in the city. If you disavow racial inequality, start in your own institution with your own structural inequality. 

The city of Buffalo has a population that is 37.2% black, much higher than the national average of 12.7%. Yet that is not represented in your faculty. 

I did a study of the faculty directory last night.  

Of your 72 faculty members, 2 are Black. That is 2.8%. 

Of your 118 total members of faculty and staff, 4 are Black. That is 3.4%. 105 are White. That is 88.2%.

There appeared to be 74 new hires since I graduated in 2010. Only 4 new hires are black. That is 5.4%

Then, I did a study of your board of trustees. Of 24 members, 22 are White, 1 is Black and 1 is Indian. The head of Nichols School, Christopher Burner is also White.

You owe your students of every race, your alumni, your faculty, and the parents to do better. You are doing a disservice to all of your students that pass through your institution by depriving them of black leadership and role models in their teachers, in their history, and in their literature. You are alienating and traumatizing your black and brown students by neglecting their needs. You are reinforcing white supremacy and structural racism through your staff and curriculum in one of the most segregated cities in the country. 

We demand that you:

1. Apologize for your vacuous statement and state your commitment specifically to your black and brown students. State that police brutality is wrong. State that black lives matter. State that you will commit to amending racism and teach your students to be anti-racist. 
2. Make an action plan to protect your black and brown students.
3. Make implicit bias training a mandatory component of the freshman wellness curriculum. 
4. Hire more specifically black and brown teachers. If you are going to publish statistics on the demographics on the races of your students, we insist that you publish statistics on the races of your faculty.
5. Make black history a mandatory part of your curriculum starting as early as middle school. 
6. Make a substantial donation to local organizations fighting anti-black and POC discrimination such as Black Love Resists in the Rust and Showing Up for Racial Justice. Additionally, put more money into programs that directly support black and brown students.