After Blackface Incident At Brick School, Focus Turns To Improving Understanding

BRICK, NJ — An incident at a Brick Township middle school where a student smeared paint all over his face resembling blackface has prompted plans from the district to undertake more training on racially sensitive issues, the district says.

"We need to be senstivie to these kinds of things," interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella said. "It just proves to us that we need to do more. Sometimes you get so caught up in test scores that you forget other things are more important."

And Aimee Vanduyne, the parent whose social media post about the incident prompted outrage, said it's that response that gives her hope of preventing future incidents like the one that happened Monday at Veterans Memorial Middle School.

"The teachers need to begin to be senstive to culture and the needs of students of color," she said.

The Brick Township School District population at one time was virtually 100 percent white students. But over the last 30 years, as the demographics of the township have changed, so too has the makeup of the student body. According to the 2017 school rankings report by U.S. News & World Report, Brick Township High School's student population is 21 percent minorities, and Brick Memorial's is 17 percent.

The incident Monday that prompted Vanduyne to take her concerns to social media happened at Vets Day, the annual field day at Veterans Memorial. According to both Vanduyne and Gialanella, the students were split into teams representing various countries' soccer teams. The student in question was in a group that was representing Brazil, and the boys all painted their faces.

"A lot of kids (participating in field day) had painted their faces," Vanduyne said, using many different colors. But the boy in question smeared paint all over his face, resulting in the blackface look that has deeply racist roots.

"It was all over his forehead and around his eyes," she said.

"I don't think it was (intentionally) racist and I'm sure he has no idea of the history of blackface," Vanduyne said. "But the adults were there all day with him. They should have known."

That was a sentiment Gialanella echoed. "I am most disappointed that the adults didn't recognize this was a problem," he said.

Vanduyne said the incident was upsetting in part because there have been other issues. One occurred at the beginning of the school year: Students played a "plantation game" where white students "owned" black students and gave them 10 lashes if they didn't do what they were told. Vanduyne said that was handled swiftly by the district. "They were fabulous," she said.

But a more pervasive issue — and one that hasn't been addressed sufficiently, she said — has been persistent use of the word n----- by students in school.

"My son hears it all the time," Vanduyne said. It has been adopted in casual conversation by kids who listen to rap music and see it as no big deal, but Vanduyne said it is very upsetting, especially for someone to hear it spoken by a white person. "He's tired of hearing that word," she said. "They need to be taught that it's not acceptable."

Gialanella said the district has no tolerance for racist incidents, and that while he, too, believes the student was not intentionally doing something offensive with the facepaint, the situation has resulted in an examination of what the district is doing.

"This is not a problem just at Vets; it's not a problem just in Brick," Gialanella said. "It's widespread."

"It just proves to us that we need to do more in the area of education" on cultural sensitivity, he said.

Gialanella said he learned of the incident as soon as he got to work on Tuesday morning, and in addition to having the building administration speak with her, contacted Vanduyne to assure her it would be taken seriously and addressed.

"I told her to hold our feet to the fire on this," Gialanella said, adding that he asked her to work with the district as well to help them find more resources for training to address cultural sensitivities, which Vanduyne said she readily agreed to do. She has been asked to meet with the district's ant-bullying coordinator as well.

Vanduyne said she and her sons have received some pushback as a result of her social media post, especially over perceptions that she was blaming the boy.

"That's what people don't understand. I do not blame the kid and I do not think he's racist," she said. "I expected better understanding from the adults."

"I know there are people who think I go looking for trouble, but when my sons come home and tell me something, I ask for details on context so I can understand" before she takes action, she said.

For her, the bottom line is the staff needs to be more sensitive to the changing student population.

"I'm glad these results are happening," she said. "My kids shouldn't have to deal with this all the time."

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Photo via Brick Township School District