Racism In School: Another Wayland Parent's Perspective

The following is a letter to the editor and does not reflect the views of Wayland Patch

Should Wayland schools make a public statement on the recent racist act that took place? I would suggest that's not a good idea and that additional public statements by the school are the wrong approach to these incidents. Here's the point — there are three likely motivations behind a racist act from school kids: the shock value, attention-seeking, or racism. In the case of the first two, the school making a public statement to condemn the act will give the perpetrator exactly what they want and may encourage more provocations from imitators. In the case of racism, do we think issuing a public statement is going to discourage that individual person or persons from more racist acts? I don't think so. If the perpetrator doesn’t understand that people of all races, colors, national origin, sex, religion or age have equal value, a statement by a town board or committee is certainly not going to change their minds or hearts.

The Wayland Select Board and school have been clear on their stance on racism; we don't need a public statement for every childish or ignorant racist act at school.

The solution proposed by the chair of Wayland Human Rights, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (HRDEI) committee is for a community forum led by professionally trained diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) specialists. I doubt this will help. Recent college certification programs for DEI provide a new approach to diversity training. It is not clear they work as intended and are unproven. I would suggest people Google "harm from DEI training" to get some perspective on these new approaches, the likely outcomes, and their overall effectiveness. The school teachers and administrators have been trained and have considerable experience and expertise in handling bullying and racism. They are closest to the issue as well as to the students and the parents, most assuredly not every parent will be satisfied.

RELATED: Racism in Wayland Schools: A Parent's Perspective: Opinion

Neither the racist nor the attention seeker will be discouraged by public statements or community forums. Many of the new approaches generated from academia sound good, but in practice are not effective or helpful. Take the use of the term Latinx: originated in academia in the mid-2000’s in an attempt to create a gender-neutral pronoun for Hispanics and is commonly used in academic, DEI and elite circles. However, Hispanics overall are not fans of the term "Latinx." According to a 2021 poll, only 2 percent of Americans of Latin descent refer to themselves that way, 40 percent are offended by the term, and 68 percent prefer Hispanic.

—Larry Kiernan, Wayland