Last night’s routine Board of Education meeting was rocked by charges of racist behavior by students — and not enough action by faculty and administrators — during the public comment session.
Dr. Carol Felder — speaking also for her husband, Richard Anderson — grew emotional as she described the “heinous, hateful” abuse their daughters have suffered.
The “most difficult thing” she has ever done, she began, is to “raise Black children in Westport, Connecticut.”
At Bedford Middle School play rehearsals this year, she said, a student pointed a prop gun at her 7th grade daughter and said, ‘This is what happens to people with your color.'”
At Staples High, her 9th grade daughter has heard the “n-word” and “monkey” yelled in crowds — and in geometry class.
Her daughter’s ex-friend, and the friend’s boyfriend, shared texts in which they called her a “n—– monkey.” Dr. Felder said the ex-friend added, “LMAO.”
Dr. Carol Felder (at the microphone) and her husband, Richard Anderson, at last night’s Board of Education meeting. (Screenshot/Dan Woog)
“This isn’t an Anderson problem,” Dr. Felder said. “This is hate, discrimination, peer-based racism, terrorism. This is sad.”
Investigations, support plans and the schools’ bullying policy “do not work,” she continued.
“It is a chronic problem. It is rampant.”
She told the Board of Education: “We’re not here to point fingers. We’re here to ask for assistance. This is Westport’s problem.”
Looking ahead, she said, “We must have conversations with ourselves, our children, our neighbors, and our neighbors’ children.”
She and her husband “want the same thing as anyone else who moves to Westport: a great education, kids who are mentally and physically healthy, without anyone trying to destroy them.
“This is a community problem. Who are these children? Who are their parents, raising them to be animals?”
Dr. Felder said that she and her husband were “putting everyone on notice. We’re showing emotions because they are our kids, and we love them.
“We need you on our side. But you have to recognize: It’s not working.”
After 2 public comments about gun violence, other speakers responded to Dr. Felder’s comments.
One woman who drove “hours” to be there said, “If our African American students can’t be safe, none of your students will be safe.”
She told the Board of Education to cancel winter break. “We are prepared to block the doors,” she warned.
Though the board was slated to move on to agenda items, member Robert Harrington said he would “break protocol,” and apologized to Dr. Felder and her husband.
“We must, and can, do better,” he said. “There will be difficult conversations ahead. We must take this on.”
Member Jill Dillon added, “A meanness runs through our students sometimes. I don’t know where it comes from. But it has to stop.” She urged parents to talk to their children about kindness.
Board member Kevin Christie noted, “there’s a difference between mean-spirited behavior and racism.”
After a 5-minute break, the board reconvened, and moved on to their agenda.
Chair Lee Goldstein said before the public session began — as she always does — that the Board would listen, but not respond to, any comments.
Privacy laws prevent administrators and board members from speaking about individual students and disciplinary matters.
But board members seemed shaken by what they heard.
This conversation has just begun.