Rally Planned To Address Racial Discrimination Parents Say Counselor Under Fire For Defending Black Students

Black parents and students from Chase Middle School plan to rally today for a counselor they believe is under fire after supporting them in dealing with alleged racial discrimination.

“He put his job on the line for our children. We’re going to be right there for him,” said Carrie Ann Evans, a parent organizing the rally.

Counselor Lionel Harding-Thomas creates a hostile work environment, according to a letter signed by two Chase employees.

School district officials would not release the letter because they consider the matter a personnel issue. Harding-Thomas discussed the letter, but would not release a copy of it.

Harding-Thomas, a black man, said he is the target of a “personal and professional assassination” because he spoke out for students.

“I’m the person who stood up. I’ve gone against my peers,” he said. “I feel I’m being harassed.”

Harding-Thomas has been on a voluntary leave with pay since Friday.

School officials said it was not a disciplinary action, but time off to deal with the stressful situation surrounding the teachers’ complaint.

School district officials responded to the letter by requesting advice from the Office for Equity Education in the state superintendent’s office.

Two representatives from the office questioned employees at the school Feb. 16. They plan to return to Spokane today to talk with Harding-Thomas and the parents.

“My priority is to talk to him,” said Warren Burton, one of the two equity advisers. “Now we need to hear his side.”

A teachers’ union representative will accompany Harding-Thomas to that meeting today, the counselor said.

Forty-one of 883 students at Chase Middle School are black. The school has five minorities on its instructional staff.

Last fall when the new school opened on the South Hill, it replaced Libby Middle School in the racially diverse East Central neighborhood.

The first year has been marred by complaints from parents of unfair treatment of black students.

Those complaints are “intertwined” with the charges against Harding-Thomas, Burton said.

Four black parents filed grievances against the school with the Spokane Human Rights Commission last fall.

Linda and Jimmie Martin complained school officials mishandled a discipline situation with their daughter and then tape recorded a meeting with them without their permission.

Evans filed a complaint after several black students’ lockers were searched when a teacher’s purse was reported missing.

Both sets of parents said they received letters of apology from Principal Rodger Lake.

The Chase staff will receive equity training to increase their sensitivity to racial issues, Lake said.

“We realize, at least in some people’s perception, that we’re not sensitive enough and we’re going to remedy that,” he said.

Harding-Thomas said he angered coworkers by standing up for students involved in the complaints.

“The whole school is against me at this point,” he said.

About 90 parents and students will meet today at East Central Community Center to show support for Harding-Thomas, Evans said.

The parents want their children released early from school to attend the rally. A community center van will pick up the students at school and deliver them to the center.