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Henrico County Public School students and one graduate shared their experiences with racism in Henrico schools and their efforts for change Tuesday evening.
The virtual panel, titled Community Conversations: Student Voices, was part of the Henrico County Public Schools Family Learning Series and was moderated by Adrienne Cole Johnson, director of the school division’s Department of Family and Community Engagement.
Jaesean Plummer, a student at Hermitage High School who described himself as a Black gay activist, described his experiences with counselors who do not think he wants to take advanced classes or has high expectations, school administrators, students, and school resource officers.
White students have threatened Plummer and his friends in the hallway, he said, and they have yelled, “Oh, let me go get the noose.”
Plummer and his friends have reported incidents to the office, he said, and been promised meetings with the principal, Michael A. Jackson, that never occur. Plummer believes that Jackson only hears about incidents when students approach him directly, he said, and pointed out that the principal is only one person.
School Resource Officers are necessary, but need better training, Plummer said.
“Being a Hermitage student, you not only have to fear for the kids — you also have to fear for the SROs,” Plummer said.
The SROs currently do not work to build relationships and are scary because of their guns and their threats to use pepper spray, he said.
Henry Haggard, a sophomore at Douglas S. Freeman High School, said he had participated in a student-led demonstration outside his school on June 12. There, Haggard presented a six-point plan that has since become an eight-point plan, he said, and can be found online.
Haggard’s first point is discipline. He said that schools should end zero tolerance policies and only consider suspension and expulsion as last result punishments — and that a third party that does not know the student’s name, race, or gender should make the final decision in these cases.
His other points range from an online system for students to report racist comments to new curriculum offerings and student forums.
London Hart, a seventh grader at Moody Middle School and the second panelist to speak, has sold t-shirts with her art printed on them to raise money for the Black Lives Matter movement. So far, she has sold 750 t-shirts, raising more than $4,000.
Zannatul Shahla, a class of 2020 graduate, spoke about the differences in her experiences at Deep Run High School and the Advanced Career Education Center at Highland Springs High School. Shahla felt like the minority at Deep Run, she said, while her classroom at the ACE Center was socioeconomically and racially and ethnically diverse.
As a minority, it is difficult to speak up when the room is filled with people who think differently from you, Shahla said about her time at Deep Run.
“I felt more comfortable and I learned more in a diverse environment at the ACE Center,” she said, “and at Deep Run, what happened was I often got shut down or I was on the defensive position on any viewpoints I wanted to share.”
Students, particularly in the West End, do not seek to act maliciously, Shahla said, but they need to educate themselves. In a response to a question later in the panel, Shahla said that teachers also were not educated enough on diverse backgrounds and beliefs.
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One submitted audience question was why the panel had only one Black student. Cole answered that while an earlier panel featured only Black students to center their voices, she wanted to include a variety of voices from active individuals on this panel and to show Black students their classmates’ support.
Another audience question asked Plummer what he thought about the diversity of the panel. He had felt pressured to speak for every Black student, he said.
Each student on the panel provided one call to action to the schools in HCPS in response to the final audience question voiced.
Plummer called for a class on Black history — not African, but Black, he specified.
Shahla said that during Black History Month, a speaker had come to Deep Run, but that his speech was not mandatory. Her call was that everyone should be required to attend such events. Hart agreed that educational events should be for everybody, not just for minority students.
Haggard said that education should also focus on the present systems in place, not only on the past.
Upcoming Henrico youth-focused events that Cole shared are HCPS Students for Change breakout discussions on June 29 at 6 p.m. and a Henrico Justice Youth Protest on June 27 at 4 p.m. HCPS students interested in the June 29 discussions can register through this Google form.
The next panel in the series will be on July 7 and will focus on parents and families, Cole said.
Cole shared three potential resources for students and parents: the Highland Springs High School Counseling department; Henrico County Public Schools Department of Equity, Diversity, and Opportunity; and the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities.
