Students Walk Out Racist, Other Cruel Remarks Heard At School Are Protested

Dozens of students walked out of Post Falls Junior High School Monday morning to protest racist and other cruel remarks overheard at school.

Though students claimed the idea of the walkout was their own, some adults blamed parent Inez Anderson for unnecessarily instigating the event.

The ruckus started when a student allegedly used a racial slur last Friday in a conversation about Anderson’s 13-year-old son, Faheem, who is black.

Students overheard the remark, but school officials did not have enough evidence to punish the student accused of making it, they said.

“We have zero tolerance about harassment of any kind, but we can’t go out on a witch hunt any time allegations are made,” explained Dick Harris, Post Falls superintendent.

The incident prompted an angry gathering at the school Friday afternoon, Harris said. He claims that Anderson arrived, using profanity, and encouraged the students to take matters into their own hands.

One teacher said “a mob” was chasing after the boy accused of making the comment. The boy was not at school Monday.

Students later met at the Anderson home and planned Monday’s demonstration, they said. They called local newspaper and television stations Sunday night and Monday morning.

One student even sent a fax from her parent’s business to news organizations as the protest was unfolding.

The students started with a sit-in protest in the hall, but soon moved outdoors when they felt no one was listening.

“I don’t think it’s very cool to make fun of someone ‘cause of their color,” said Kyle Malley, a small blond seventh-grader who had joined the crowd outside.

“We’ve been asking them for a long time to stop the racism, but they won’t do it,” said Destiney Turner, an eighth-grader.

Destiney and others said the issue was larger than racism. They cited other examples of insulting language, such as dumb-blonde jokes and teacher put-downs, as the source of their frustrations.

With nearly 100 students milling about on the front lawn, the school staff starting calling parents.

June Hart rushed to the school from her job in Airway Heights, Wash., after receiving a phone call from the school secretary.

“They told me they wanted parents here to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand, but it looks pretty peaceful,” Hart said. Two police officers watched from the sidewalk.

Hart lingered and listened to Anderson, who was addressing the crowd that had shrunk to 50 students and news reporters.

“I’m proud of you,” Anderson told the students. “I’m glad you did what you did.”

As one parent arrived to usher her child back to class, she snapped at Anderson, “You need to talk to some parents before you do this.”

Eighth-grader Brandy Meyer ran after the woman, saying, “She didn’t do this.”

School Principal Don Boyk met with Faheem, Brandy, a parent and another student as the crowd waited outside. They agreed to discipline students who make degrading remarks with a two-day in-school suspension and a 2,500 word composition on human relations.

Faheem said he was not satisfied with the meeting. He, several other students and Anderson spent the rest of the school day on the lawn. Faheem’s older brother and other high school students brought food for a picnic on the lawn.

“Some were very serious with their concerns. Some were just there because it was a happening,” Boyk said of the walk-out. But, he added, “if there’s one racial incident, there’s one too many.”

School officials said they knew of two confirmed racial incidents at school this year. In one of those, Faheem and another student were suspended for fighting.

After the last incident, signs were posted in all classrooms denouncing racist, sexist or degrading speech.

Monday’s walk-out came nearly a year after Anderson’s daughter, Ayisha, led a smaller walkout at the high school. That incident led to community meetings and the formation of a school district steering committee to address racial problems in Post Falls.

Anderson claims the committee “was only designed to shut me up.”

Though now inactive, the committee brought human rights activist Bill Wassmuth to speak in Post Falls and co-sponsored the Diversity Dance Workshop appearance this fall at the high school.

A humans rights club formed at the high school, and the district covered the cost of sending those students to the annual meeting of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment in Moscow last October.

Sue Manley-Smith, a Post Falls parent who chairs the steering committee, said Monday that Anderson was “disrupting the education of all the other students there, including mine.

“She’s got to quit overreacting every time someone calls her kid a name. … She’s loving the limelight you guys (reporters) are giving her.”

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