WeHa Middle School Hosting Assemblies After Racial Incident

WEST HARTFORD, CT — A West Hartford middle school is hosting grade-level assemblies this week to reinforce district policies and expectations following a recent racial slur incident in school.

West Hartford Superintendent of School Paul Vicinus said Sedgwick Middle School pupils will gather this week, with the first assembly taking place Wednesday, to discuss what happened.

Vicinus didn't provide details about the incident, but the incident reportedly involved one student using racial slurs against another student in school.

Vicinus told Patch Wednesday that school officials are investigating what took place.

"The district was made aware of the alleged incident and the school's investigation and handling of the incident," he told Patch.

"As a district, we take any such claims very seriously as racial slurs have no place in our schools and are antithetical to our values."

West Hartford's school chief said such situations are the antithesis of school board policy and what local schools stand for.

He said pupils who engage in such behavior will face "significant consequences."

"It is beyond regrettable that incidents of this nature surface, serving to deter our efforts to create a collective sense of belonging for all of our children," Vicinus said.

As for the future at Sedgwick and West Hartford's other schools, Vicinus said efforts will increase to stop what happened recently from happening again.

"We remain committed to creating spaces where all students feel safe, welcomed, and valued," he said.

"Our discipline policy and our stated expectations will continue to send a strong message that hate has no place in our schools and we will continue to work with our student body and the community at large to provide them the maturity of understanding of the impact of hurtful language and bullying behavior."

This is the second time this year Sedgwick has been central to allegations of racial slurs in the school.

Last October, a math teacher at Sedgwick resigned following a school system investigation into allegations the teacher used racial slurs while speaking with a student at the start of the current school year.

From Oct. 25, 2023: 'West Hartford Teacher Accused Of Slur Resigns: WeHa Supt.'