RICHMOND — A year after parents complained about their children’s experiencing anti-Black racism in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, the school board has adopted a new district policy calling for accountability for racist behavior.
“School districts have to declare a strong and very clear lens and policy so that when others come to work here, when our parents come, they know we are working towards being an anti-racist district,” Dr. Rachelle Rogers-Ard said during a Wednesday school board meeting. “We have to shift our policies, our practices, our procedures and our behaviors — and while that takes time, we have to get started. We have to get working on that.”
Students and staff say they have been experiencing racism on WCCUSD campuses for years. Kimberly Lee, a former Pinole Valley High School physics teacher from 2018 to 2022, said she left the district after directly experiencing and fighting racism on campus for years.
During her time in the district, Lee said she was called racist slurs, presented with a pages-long rant and hateful drawings about an anti-racism club she led, and fielded complaints from other students and staff of color, while some colleagues brushed off racist behavior. As far as she knows, no repercussions were handed down in any of the cases she reported to administrators, she said.
“Learning is not on table at that point. You’re just trying to feel safe in the classroom,” Lee said about the ways racism and the mishandling of reports impacts students and teachers. “It genuinely is the reason why I left.”
District leaders asked Rogers-Ard to assist with its anti-racism work more than a year ago after parents of Black students came forward with concerns about the lack of resources available to their children and Black high school students experiencing racism on campuses.
After meeting with parents, students, staff and district leadership, Rogers-Ard said a strong message against racism is vital, along with policy changes. Change will take time and will only happen if everyone is on board, she said.
“We need to all be in the same boat, rowing the same way. We may not agree, and we can agree to disagree, but we must decide we are going to fight against racism. It is truly one of the most divisive pieces in our country right now,” Rogers-Ard said. “We must create a safe space for our young people, and we want to be on the right side of history.”
An administration-supported survey she conducted of more than 800 students during the 2020-21 school year found that 168 students reported experiencing explicit acts of racism including one in three Black students, one in four Southeast Asian students, one in five East Asian students, and one in five Hispanic students, according to the survey data.
A total of 215 said they experienced racially biased and harmful comments that were not necessarily explicitly racist, and nearly half of all students surveyed said they’d witnessed acts of explicit racism. More than 80 percent said pursuing racial justice should be a top priority at the school.
The district, which serves about 30,000 students in Hercules, Pinole, El Sobrante, San Pablo, Richmond and El Cerrito, is among the most diverse in the region. Its student population this past school year was 58.5 percent Latino, 11.5 percent Black, 10 percent Asian, 9 percent white and 4 percent Filipino, according to the California Department of Education.
Shortly after Rogers-Ard’s comments, district trustees voted unanimously to adopt Board Policy 0415.3, which defines racialized harm and trauma, explicitly disavows such behavior within the school community, commits to addressing systemic racism and calls for accountability for anyone found to be participating in racist behavior.
“This is a journey we are taking with clarity and with caution but with motivation to continue moving forward,” said Board President Jamela Smith-Folds during a meeting Wednesday.
Lee said she was pleased and not surprised to see the district adopt an anti-racism policy but wished it was in place during her time there. Smith-Folds and Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Chris Hurst have both been supporters of the initiative, she said.
“No matter how anti-racist an administration is, it’s a whole other level to bring it to work and actually act on it,” she said.
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