Students should be able to attend schools that are free from racial biases, inclusive, and have teachers that promote a positive environment for learning and student well-being. On Monday, October 24, 2022, an incident was brought to the attention of Charles County Public Schools and several news outlets regarding racially insensitive social media posts associated with the Facebook account of a teacher at General Smallwood Middle School. The Facebook posts contained images with the teacher posing with the Confederate flag memorabilia, giving a three-finger salute, and stating that today she is being “classified as a racist because of my opinions, beliefs and again I’m white,” while also referring to children as “pansies getting offended by every little thing.” 

Throughout her tenure with CCPS, there have been several student and parent reports concerning her demeanor and interaction towards students of color. There is documented evidence showcasing a deeply rooted bias towards students of color and an inability to effectively manage a classroom. 

Parents and students approached Charles County Public Schools to investigate this matter and without any prior notice on November 7, 2022, General Smallwood Middle School put out a letter to parents stating they had “investigated the report and sought assistance from the CCPS office of human resources and school safety and security, as well as CCPS legal counsel. Because the account is personal and not affiliated with CCPS or Smallwood, it was determined that the teacher did not violate any CCPS employment or staff social media policies.” The school went on to say they addressed the concerns with the teacher and she removed the content and that they would be have a staff member from the CCPS department of student services who is trained in restorative circle practices report to the school to help the teacher talk with students about inclusivity and tips to build trust with their teachers. 

To this day, there is no written investigation report, parents have been denied information about who from CCPS was involved in this investigation, and past students and families who experienced racial bias from their interactions with this educator have not been contacted. The countless students and families of color this educator was supposed to serve have not seen justice for the irreparable damage done by this teacher and have experienced even more trauma as CCPS has failed to effectively address the concerns associated with racially derogatory and insensitive acts. 

The behavior of this educator does not align with our core beliefs as a district and school community. Charles County Public School students, parents, educators, and community members demand the following:

1. As we continue with our thorough investigation into the grading and interactions of educators that show implicit basis and problematic behavior, that educators are placed on leave and are removed from the classroom.
2. That a thorough external study by an impartial subcommittee be done expeditiously into the racial climate and environment within CCPS schools and into the Office of Community Engagement and Equity.
3. That a formal apology be issued by Dr. Navarro regarding the failure to acknowledge the incident in a timely, transparent, and culturally sensitive way to the CCPS students, families, and staff impacted, along with our school community. 
4. Parent leaders in Charles County Rise and Charles County Moms of Color would like to formally request a meeting with the National Response Committee who is tasked with developing solutions on how to help CCPS teachers, staff, students, and parents handle matters involving race and social issues to review the bias training developed by the CCPS Equity Task Forces. We want to know the following:

• How are we measuring the effectiveness of this “mandatory” training? 
• How often is this training required to be conducted? What kind of support or learning opportunities are offered to teachers throughout the year? 
• When incidents of bias behavior are displayed by CPPS staff, what retraining measures are implemented? Is such data being collected and available to community?
• What is CCPS’ response to proven failures related to the execution of the Implicit Bias Training? 
• Each school is supposed to have a restorative practice facilitator per the Office of Equity and Cultural Responsiveness. What continued training are these facilitators receiving? Where can our community find who the facilitator is for their particular school?  
• Ideally, each member of the school community should be trained to play some part in school-wide implementation of restorative practices and approaches. How are we training staff, principals, counselors, facilitators, students, and parents? 
• How are we implementing whole school restorative practices to build community, respond to harm/conflict and provide individual circles of support for students and families? By building, maintaining and restoring relationships between members of the entire school community, we help to create an environment where all students can thrive.
• Currently, the Office of Equity and Cultural Responsiveness offers a mandatory Implicit Bias Training per the CCPS Equity Task Force to address educational equity. Each Board member, the Superintendent’s executive and operations staff, and all principals are to complete a 16-hour, 8-week training on implicit bias. All CCPS staff are to be trained on implicit bias by the end of the 2021-2022 school year. Have we met that requirement? 
• Currently 11 schools within CCPS are named after people that kidnapped, enslaved, and killed Black and Indigenous people. We should not be paying homage to white supremacists and immortalizing them. We want to form a renaming committee – which includes community leaders as well as student representatives from our community–  to meet starting in February 2023 to start the process of compiling a list of possible new names for the board to vote on.