Burlington School Board Meeting Shut Down by Protesters

BURLINGTON — A Burlington Area School Board meeting ended Monday night with chanting, arguments, School Board members walking away and a police presence.

BASD held their meeting and one of the items on the agenda was adopting an anti-racism policy and curriculum. Such policies have been internally discussed since March.

This also comes after a fourth grade teacher at Cooper Elementary School in Burlington taught the lesson about social justice and the Black Lives Matter movement. Several parents thought their children were getting indoctrinated. Like-minded community members were outraged and demanded that the school district discipline Statz.

The demands to include changes in the policy were made by community members after numerous allegations of racism in Burlington schools, with critics saying the school district has done little to discourage such behavior.

Several young people spoke Monday saying that while attending Burlington schools they were called out for their race, on the receiving end of racial slurs, had been spit on and were physically hurt because of their race.

One mother of a current college student who attended Burlington schools told the School Board “Your silence and inaction speaks volumes, and the world is watching you now,” noting that the way Burlington schools have dealt with race has received national media coverage while the School Board has not taken action on long-discussed anti-racism policies.

Later in the meeting, Preston Allred, a former BASD student and said he is the only one of his siblings to not transfer out of the Burlington Area School District, described a time that after another student repeatedly called him a racial slur, he grew angry and got into a fight. Despite the slurs, Allred said he was punished and told by a teacher to “be the better man” and that the other student went unpunished.

“I went to the school. It happens on the daily,” Allred, now 21, told the School Board of his experiences with racism.

Two allegations regarding the use of the racial slurs within Burlington High School came up in just the past two weeks:

A virtual high school class was interrupted by an unknown person who repeatedly yelled the N-word; one student of color was in the classroom. Burlington High School has confirmed this incident and says that the Burlington Police Department is investigating.

A Burlington High School football player has been accused of using the N-word to describe an opposing player in a game against Paddock Lake Central (formerly Westosha Central) on Oct. 22. The school said that it could not confirm that the student-athlete used that specific word, but that the student-athlete had used vulgarity and a meeting was held with that student-athlete and a parent. According to the Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism, no discipline occurred.

Arguments broke out between people who carried “All Lives Matter” signs and opposed including education about Black Lives Matter in school curriculum, and those affiliated with Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism who carried “Black Lives Matter” flags and demanded more acknowledgment of racial issues and of America’s often overlooked history of racism in the classroom.

We’re not saying Black lives don’t matter. We’re saying Black Lives Matter Incorporated should not be included in a curriculum,” a man who identified himself as Robert Jensen said during the meeting.

When the School Board tried to move forward with the meeting, the group of about 50 demonstrators became frustrated with their demands not being immediately addressed and began chanting.

Chants calling for justice — such as “If we don’t get it, shut it down,” and “All lives can’t matter until Black Lives Matter” — echoed through the Karcher Middle School library, the site of the meeting.

Minutes later, as chanting continued and a few groups from both sides attempted to have conversations, about a half-dozen uniformed officers from Burlington Police and the Racine County Sheriff’s Office arrived and escorted everyone outside.

Although one scuffle nearly broke out after an officer, who was escorting a couple of people out of the building, pushed a vocal demonstrator approaching him, the night ended without violence.

“We are nonviolent, but we are not peaceful,” one woman said outside before promising that protesting would continue until anti-racism policy and curriculum is required in the Burlington Area School District.