SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The South Orange-Maplewood School District’s ongoing struggles with racial parity and inclusiveness earned another notch on Thursday, Feb. 15, when South Orange Middle School Principal Lynn Irby sent an email to the school community alerting it that “racially charged” and “inappropriate” comments had been made by a student during a classroom discussion. SOMSD spokeswoman Suzanne Turner called the statements “racially insensitive.”
“On Tuesday, as a follow up to Nikole Hannah-Jones’ presentation on intentional integration last week, one of our seventh-grade social studies classes was discussing the question ‘Is South Orange a good place to live? Why or why not?’ The student-driven conversation raised concerns about race, diversity, and de facto segregation, and one student made racially charged comments during the classroom discussion,” Irby wrote. “There are rumors that the student’s comments continued in the cafeteria. Our investigation has not substantiated the rumors about the cafeteria, although inappropriate statements were made in the classroom.
“The comments that were made are not representative of the core values of our district or our school,” Irby continued. “We are addressing them with the student involved and, as always, we cannot discuss specific consequences due to confidentiality laws.”
According to Irby, she sees this incident as an “important teachable moment” in which the school can help students understand the impact their words can have, as well as learning about balancing respect and the right to free speech.
Following the incident, Irby met with the seventh-graders to discuss what had happened.
“I praised the students for not allowing this incident to spill over into conflict outside of class, and assured them that our primary purpose is to keep each student safe — not just physically, but emotionally safe as well,” Irby wrote.
The school also held a “restorative circle” in the classroom to help the class rebuild trust and will continue to have conversations about race.
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