EASTHAMPTON — Calling a critical state investigation into racial tensions at Easthampton High School “alarming” and a “call to action,” several School Committee members, city officials and candidates for mayor are ready to tackle the problems that enveloped the school last year.
“It’s evident that we need to change,” School Committee member Kasey Corsello said. “Change doesn’t occur unless someone brings light to a situation.”
Some School Committee members said they were saddened to hear of the discipline disparities at Easthampton High School found in an investigation by the Massachusetts attorney general’s office, but most agree the findings are consistent with what parents have been saying for months and align with the superintendent’s own internal investigation.
The report echoed what many parents told the School Committee in April — that there were issues with how the administration handles racist and bias-related incidents.
The AG’s office’s five-month investigation, which was concluded Friday, found that the school administration was too slow to identify, investigate, and respond to serious bias-related incidents within the school environment. The report said these incidents led to “serious disruptions” and created a “hostile environment for many students, particularly students of color.”
“We also found significant racial and ethnic disparities in EHS’s administration of student discipline,” the report stated, later adding the district and the school “were not prepared to deal with the difficult challenges they faced during the 2016-2017 school year.”
Mayoral candidate Nicole LaChapelle said of the report, “It’s alarming … It needs to be addressed.”
Among many things, the AG’s office found that black and Hispanic students face more severe discipline than white students at EHS.
School Committee member Marissa Carrere said she wasn’t surprised by the discipline disparities at the high school because the issue has been a problem throughout the United States.
“It certainly is a call to action,” she said.
In addition to the AG’s investigation, Superintendent Nancy Follansbee conducted her own internal investigation, and the Collaborative for Educational Services was hired to conduct an evaluation through multiple forums and surveys. The data collected assisted the superintendent in creating a 10-point plan to address what she called a “climate and culture” problem at the school.
But the AG’s report was much more critical of the district.
It said the school administration ignored serious warning signs of racism and tension that led up to a physical assault where three students of color were arrested — a March incident that sparked the subsequent student walkout and bias-related incidents that played out at the school last spring.
“We found that the Easthampton Public School District and EHS could have, and should have, identified and responded to bias-related issues before the altercation,” the report states. “An earlier, more forceful response could have prevented both the altercation and the escalating disruptions that followed.”
No administrator witnessed the altercation, and EHS did not acquire a video of the incident or conduct an internal investigation prior to contacting the police department, the AG’s report found.
Investigators said there was a procedural concern with the administration’s decision to recommend criminal charges, an action they considered to be a component of school discipline.
“We found that ESPD does not have sufficient guidelines or policies in place to assist administrators in their interactions with the police or to ensure that decisions concerning potentially criminal conduct are made in a fair, appropriate, and consistent manner,” the reports
Carrere said the district should keep students out of the criminal justice system when possible.
“I think that there needs to be very clear policies around the distinction between police jurisdiction and school-based discipline,” Carrere said. “In general, I think that school leaders should be advocating restorative justice.”
Carrere, who is on the Policy Subcommittee, said officials are updating a memorandum of agreement with the school resource officer which outlines procedures when an incident rises to a criminal issue and when an incident should be handled by school discipline.
Discipline policies and procedures will also be updated and the district will establish a protocol on how to respond to bias-related incidents.
The report also faulted the district for the way it handled bias-related incidents after the March 29 altercation.
Just a few days later after the altercation, the administration failed to react properly or effectively to a complaint from a student of color about the racial climate at the school
“EHS reacted defensively to the complaint, chastised the student, and did not conduct an appropriate investigation,” the report states. “EHS’s actions and inactions unnecessarily exacerbated existing tensions at the school.”
More problems followed. A student wore a Confederate flag sweatshirt to school in May, prompting the School Committee to vote 5-1 to ban the flag for the remainder of the school year.
But shortly afterward, a student, or students, created an Instagram account called “make.ehs.great.again” which included disturbing images of the Confederate flag, weapons, the school and students, the report states.
The AG’s office said the administration failed to adequately investigate and respond to the Instagram account. Although the administration reported the page to police and took steps to have it taken down, the AG’s office reports, the administration did not follow up.
“The failure to take disciplinary action was particularly problematic given that the student(s) involved posted to the page from EHS using a Wi-Fi password they had apparently taken from a staff member,” the report states.
Another page, “make.ehs.great.again.part2,” was created immediately after the first page was taken down.
“I think this is a good case of where an incident should be treated not in isolation, but in the context of a bigger issue,” Carrere said.
Carrere said that given the types of postings that were so clearly designed to spark further conflict, the handling of the incident was a missed opportunity to prevent issues from escalating.
Corsello and Carrere said there were missed teaching opportunities throughout the school year.
“We know that there is work to be done and we take responsibility for that,” Corsello said.
She noted that change will happen and the district will move forward with steps on the 10-point action plan.
School Committee member Peter Gunn said in a prior interview that all three reports zero in on how students, faculty and administrators experience the high school in different ways. From data collected by the collaborative, 28 percent of students surveyed report hearing racist jokes or comments at least once a day while no teachers reported hearing the jokes comments with that same frequency.
Follansbee released a statement to staff, families and community members on Tuesday.
“The (AG’s) report seems consistent with many findings outlined in our internal investigation and the steps in our 10-Point Action Plan, both of which were presented to the community in a public forum last Thursday night,” Follansbee wrote. “The Attorney General’s report highlights gaps and disparities that we take very seriously.”
Follansbee notes the state office and the school district agree that there are concerns that must be addressed.
School Committee Chairwoman Debora Lusnia did not return phone calls for comment, but in an email said she stands behind the superintendent’s statement as her response to the state report.
School Committee members Cynthia Kwiecinski and Sarah Hunter could not be reached after numerous phone calls on Monday and Tuesday. Principal Kevin Burke declined to comment.
Mayor Karen Cadieux said the city and school district will continue to work with the Department of Justice, which will provide anti-bias training for students.
“Our plans and strategies have been agreed upon and are already in place,” Cadieux said. “We are looking forward to moving in a positive direction and healing our community.”
LaChapelle, one of two candidates for mayor, said she assumes the administration followed the policies and procedures that were in place.
LaChapelle, former director of the Center for School Crisis Intervention and Assessment Inc. in Holyoke, said she has worked with many school districts. She said every incident handled is unique and administrators must be quick on their feet to react.
If there was an issue on a school bus, LaChapelle said, she would often go for a ride.
“If you want to know a school’s culture, get on a bus,” she said.
If elected mayor, LaChapelle said she plans to have multiple opportunities to talk in a casual setting such as at walk-and-talk events.
To get to know the schools better, LaChapelle said she’d like to get involved, possibly by volunteering as a teacher’s aide for a lesson at the high school or reading a book to a group of elementary school students.
Mayoral candidate Joy Winnie said in a statement that the AG’s report reaffirms the need to address the underlying issues of bias that the school community plans to address.
“As mayor, I would look forward to having an impact on implementing the 10-point plan as well as involving the community so that we can all heal moving forward,” Winnie wrote.
Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.