Slur Victim's Grandmother To WeHa BoE: 'I Want To See What You're Made Of'

WEST HARTFORD, CT — Hartford resident Lee Thomas-Morton said she is a first-generation Black American who has endured her share of difficulties along racial lines in her life.

But, she told the West Hartford Board of Education Tuesday night that what happened to her grandson in West Hartford is unacceptable in such a community in 2023.

Shortly after the start of the school year, Thomas-Morton said her 13-year-old Black grandson asked a teacher at Sedgwick Middle School a question, a question that was answered using a racial slur multiple times.

"This should never happen. I don't know what the teacher was thinking when she did use the racial slur," a visibly upset Thomas-Morton told the school board during the audience of citizens.

"There's many ways to speak on this kind of a subject. You do not have to use the actual word. However, she chose to use it more than once. She actually stuck him out."

By singling out her grandson in front of the class, the teacher — who is subject to a school system probe and, reportedly, is not working in a classroom — may have damaged her grandson emotionally, Thomas-Morton said.

"I don't believe that anyone in this room, in 2023, thinks it's OK to answer a question in a way that hurts the child," Thomas-Morton said. "He's only 13. He's been in the West Hartford school system since kindergarten."

Other Supporters

Other family members were in attendance at the regular school board meeting, as were several friends and supporters of the family.

Board of education members didn't comment on the investigation Tuesday, and offered no new information regarding the status of the probe.

At the school board's Sept. 5 meeting, board members and administrators confirmed they are investigating the incident, offering no specific details about what happened.

Prior to Tuesday's school board meeting, supporters of the victim gathered outside, holding up signs, and peacefully made their opinions clear.

During the meeting, attendees utilized the board's audience of citizens portion of the agenda, and a school board waiver of a new policy limiting comments, to further make their point.

"I'm here tonight in support of the family and in support of the young eighth-grade student that continues to have to go to school every day and have reminders of this incident that has occurred," said West Hartford resident Abby Williamson, a friend of the victim's family.

Williamson expressed some concern about school officials taking too long to investigate the matter, and said she was hoping for a decision on the teacher's fate soon.

"I'm concerned that more should be done to address an issue of this concern," Williamson said.

Resident Sarah Raskin said she couldn't understand how a teacher hired by the West Hartford School System could say what she was accused of saying.

"I just urge and hope this is an opportunity to look at how it could be possible," Raskin said. "There shouldn't have been a way that somebody who had been vetted by our school system could do something like that."

Others spoke in support of the family, many from nearby Hartford and other towns.

But it was Thomas-Morton's emotional testimony that dominated the public comments Tuesday.

She told the West Hartford school board she's watching and waiting to see how they address the situation.

So far, she's not happy.

"Had it been a teacher of color that had done something like this to a white child, we would be looking at the back of their head as they walked out the door and been kicked in the butt," Thomas-Morton said.

"What I will say, is it doesn't mean that everybody in West Hartford is that way. However, I want to see what you're made of."

Policy Test

According to the board of education policy, those speaking on the slur incident normally would not have been allowed, as a recent policy change limits non-agenda item comments to the first meeting of a month.

This was the second September school board meeting, meaning a school board vote to suspend that policy was required.

Though the waiver easily passed, Republican school board member Gayle Harris, an opponent of the new policy, said the new policy is wrong because it limits public input.

"What I don't want to be is an arbiter of free speech and I am a little bit concerned that we are only going to make this accommodation some of the time, but not all of the time. I think it's really important for a democratic process that we, as a board, are willing to listen to everybody when they want to speak to us and not decide who can speak and who can't speak," Harris said.

"I think that's a very, very dangerous place to go."

From Sept. 19: 'Protest Planned Over WeHA Teacher Racial Slur Incident: Reports'