The Park Hill School District is again dealing with a racially-charged incident, this time at Park Hill High School.
Last week, a Black student who said he defended himself after being called a racial slur was suspended, while the other party faced no penalties for his language. This led to media coverage of the suspended student’s story and a walk out on Thursday, Sept. 5.
This is just the latest racial scandal for the district, where in 2021 at Park Hill South a petition to reinstate slavery was circulated among students.
Over the weekend, the district responded to the allegations that the Black student was singled out for discipline.
“In Park Hill over the last few days, we’ve been working through an incident at Park Hill High School that has been put into the public domain based on social media accounts and media reports. As a district, we want to share information more broadly, and from our perspective, so that context can be provided to what is being shared throughout our community.
“We are not immune to the conversations happening around us and with us. We care deeply about what happens with our students, staff and families, and this is why we’ve been working through these conversations for the last few days. Part of this includes protecting our students’ physical safety, emotional and mental health needs and working with our professional staff to do so.
“This communication is to help provide some context and information for our community in the midst of several stories circulating. The drivers of our work around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging say that we will create safe and welcoming spaces, we will create meaningful connections, expect accountability, ensure inclusive representation, engage in purposeful learning and conversations, and share our stories and be clear in our communications.
“To be clear in our communications now means to share with you, our community, some perspective around the events at Park Hill High School in the past few days.
“With this, we were made aware of an incident at Park Hill High School that happened on Thursday of last week. We then worked through an investigation that resulted in consequences according to guidelines in our discipline policy. Physical violence, racial slurs, sexual harassment and inappropriate language have no place in our schools.
“Because we are bound by confidentiality, and honoring confidentiality for students and staff when we work through difficult situations, sometimes we aren’t able to share all that we want to share. But we do want to try and help our community understand that we expect accountability, that we have meaningful connections, that we engage in tough conversations, and we want to share what we can when we can.
“As a result of this incident, we also had a walkout at our school yesterday Thursday, Aug. 5). Several of our students participated in this walkout, whether in our auditorium or in front of our school, and we provided a space for that to happen safely.
“We have connected with multiple students involved in this incident and are still listening to those who want to connect about what happened. Trusted adults have connected with all students involved and have tried to provide a space for conversation and reflection.
“In Park Hill, we guide and support our students, staff, families and community through engaging in purposeful learning together. When difficult situations happen, we continue to learn and listen.”