Racism in the Frederick County Public School System? An Interview With Local Black Leaders

On March 18th, 2019, a meeting was held at Dublin Roasters Coffee for Standing Up for Racial Justice. SURJ Frederick was established following the inauguration of President Trump, who has been widely criticized for racist comments and policies. SURJ focuses on combating white supremacy, and pushing for racial justice.

Local figures arrived to speak on racial issues, including discrimination against Muslims, and racial inequalities in FCPS. Willie Mahone, Director for the Frederick chapter of the NAACP, and newly elected FCPS School Board member Jay Mason, were in attendance. Both men spoke about issues facing children of color, including being kept out of honors classes, and how the FCPS “Systemic Equity Committee”, which was originally intended to address racial inequalities, has shifted away from those concerns.

“If we don’t focus on race, I think we lose that conversation,” Mr. Mason said. “I have no problem supporting special ed, LGTBQ community, socioeconomic status…But when we start talking about all the other elements, we lose the conversation, which is what I thought this started with, which is race.”

Members Liz Barrett and Joy Schaefer said they agreed, but had concerns about shifting the committee’s focus to racial issues, with Schaefer reported by the FNP as saying: “There’s always going to be, within all of these four, the underpinning of racial inequity…there will be a gap favoring white students.”

Member Michael Butinsky supports reform, but recognizes that things like bank loan and housing discrimination, which affect people of color greatly, can’t be addressed by their policies. While this is true, Mr. Mahone has other concerns. “There have been physical and verbal attacks on minority kids that aren’t always being addressed. These things warrant investigation by what we want, a Minority Affairs Committee.”

“We sent out a FOIA request on the issue of minority teacher hiring,” Mr. Mahone continued. “They hired 6% minorities, where the minority student population is about 36%. We have non-equity on its face here.” These numbers were supported by Mr. Mason in his speech.

Inquiries into FCPS have revealed that suspensions have dropped for white students, but have stayed the same for students of color, shown by data collected from 2006, 2009, 2015, and 2017. The FNP has previously reported: “The suspension rate was up overall this year, with a particular spike among English learners, who were suspended in 2018 at double the rate they were last year. Black and Hispanic students continue to perform at significantly lower levels than their white and Asian peers…Colleen Cusimano connected the achievement gap to disproportionate suspensions.”

Suspensions are negatively impacting the academic performance of children of color. “Ultimately, the superintendent is responsible for a child’s suspension,” Mr. Mahone said. “We’ve looked at the data and found that students of color were suspended for several categories, fighting, drugs, bringing in paraphernalia. But we’ve found that a lot of the disparity in suspensions came from suspicious areas: disrespect and classroom disruption.”

This is a concern for many, since suspended children of color are more at-risk of the school-to-prison pipeline, where if a child of color is suspended, a police officer might assume they are committing a crime, or “acting suspiciously” by not being in school during the day, which would expose them to police violence, including unjust arrest and murder.

Racist policing is a problem in Frederick, according to SURJ, the NAACP, the ACLU, the RISE Coalition of Western Maryland, and others. Frederick Sheriff Chuck Jenkins is accused of racist policing, given his highly controversial remarks about Hispanic immigration.

“We have recommended a committee to review these decisions made by the superintendent, to see if they agree. We have called for a moratorium on all long-term suspensions and asked for them to be reviewed by the committee, but the school system, the Board of Education never agreed to that,” Mr. Mahone said.

He continues: “They’re not looking at racial disparity in punishment. They’re looking at ESL, socioeconomic status, and special ed, but the black and brown students have been treated differently; ambiguous criteria, no representation of minority teachers. The board is ‘attempting’ to address these issues, but we have proven that they’ve done nothing on that. They’re not looking into it.”

Minority students are also not being given the same access to honors and AP curriculum. “That data has been there for years”, Mr. Mahone said. Mr. Mason added, “My family had to fight hard for me to be able to get into honors and AP classes, just as I am now fighting for my daughter to have the same access. Black children are not being given that equal opportunity.”

Economic status is directly tied to educational success, as many say. If white liberals in Frederick desire to lift up communities of color away from drugs and crime as they say, then they ought to start with equality in education first, because these kids are hungry to learn, and to be treated equally.