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Mykah Simmons, a biracial freshman at Westosha Central High School, has called for dialogue and racial unity at the school. School officials have announced plans to implement a program in the fall aimed at defusing racial tension and conflict.(Photo: Mark Hertzberg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
MILWAUKEE — A U.S. Department of Justice program aimed at defusing racial tension and conflict will be implemented next year at a Wisconsin high school where a student recently dressed as a Ku Klux Klansman for a class presentation and a 15-year-old freshman detailed months of racial bullying.
Officials at Westosha Central High School in Salem confirmed Friday that the Justice Department will visit the school next year to provide training in its SPIRIT program, which pulls together students, families, staff and administrators in an effort to identify and resolve issues that provoke racial tensions.
"We are moving forward with specific actions for developing greater understandings regarding racial sensitivity on top of understanding and acceptance for all," Principal Lisa Albrecht said in an email. She declined to comment further.
Niccole Simmons, one of two parents who complained to the federal agency about the school, applauded the development.
USA TODAY
Student’s KKK costume in English class sparks uproar
"That's great. That was the goal — to get somebody in there who could help," said Simmons, whose 15-year-old biracial daughter endured months of bullying at the school and on social media after arriving there in the fall.
Veronica King, president of the Kenosha County branch of the NAACP, said Westosha Superintendent Scott Pierce had reached out to the Justice Department's Community Relations Service after a Journal Sentinel story detailing racial bullying at the school.
As a former superintendent of the Kenosha Unified School District, Pierce was familiar with the work of the service, she said, because it had mediated complaints about racial bias in hiring at Kenosha schools a decade ago.
"It was very helpful," King said of the process.
King said the Journal Sentinel story "opened the dialogue so not only students but parents could come forward."
"I think, before that, people were afraid to speak up."
Pierce was out of the office Friday and could not be reached for comment.
Mykah Simmons was one of two biracial students who shared their experiences as minorities at largely white rural schools in the May 8 Journal Sentinel story.
Mykah and 15-year-old Caleb Hutchison, a freshman at Badger High School in Lake Geneva, recounted how they'd been relentlessly taunted with racial slurs after enrolling at their schools in the fall of 2015.
Mykah had been physically accosted, harassed on social media and threatened with lynching. Two days after the KKK incident, she found a racial slur carved into a desk at the school. Caleb said he'd been smacked in the face and had a chair pulled out from under him in the cafeteria.
School officials said they addressed all of the issues that were brought to them, but both families complained that the responses were insufficient and in some cases tried to lay blame on the victims.
In the weeks since they shared their stories, the fallout for the students has been mixed.
In the days immediately following the news story, Mykah Simmons said teachers, fellow students and even strangers online reached out to offer their support.
But the online harassment has continued.
"On social media it's worse because kids from other places who don't go to Central are getting involved in it," she said.
Mykah said she was brought into a meeting with administrators who asked her to bring her concerns to them, rather than outsiders, in the future and sought her input on how to address the problems at Westosha.
"I told them kids are scared to tell; they're afraid they'll get bullied for that," she said.
In Lake Geneva, Summer Hutchison said her son has been demoralized by the district's handling of his problems at Badger High School.
With four weeks left in the school year and Caleb feeling unsafe and unwanted at the school, she said, school officials arranged for him to finish up the school year at home.
"He says, 'Mom, I'm just ready to give up.' He just doesn't care any more."
Lake Geneva Superintendent Jim Gottinger said
Badger would "continue to work on strengthening the anti-bullying program we already have in place."
Niccole Simmons, Mykah's mom, said she sees one bright spot in all of this, entirely unrelated to Badger or Westosha Central.
Like Mykah, her younger son had heard racial slurs at Salem Middle School, but he resisted any efforts by his mother to address it.
"They don't mean anything, they're just joking," he'd say.
When it happened again recently, according to Simmons, "He said, 'Mom, I told him it's not cool to play with me like that anymore.'"
Despite his pleading, she insisted on taking it up with the school
"That school was so on top of it. They met with the kids and told us that would never be accepted here. It almost made me cry," Simmons said.
"The difference was so refreshing. I wish Mykah would have had that kind of response."
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