swordsman917 t1_j5u76lm wrote on January 25, 2023 at 4:30 PM

Reply to comment by greeneyedbandit82 in Vermont racism & schools by [deleted]

I think it's pretty easily the most liberal AND diverse portion of the state.

I think if you spent time in the NEK, Rutland area, or Southern Vermont, you'd probably have a pretty good idea what I'm speaking on.

I see more confederate flags in Southern VT than I saw in Tennessee. During the BLM protests, we ended up getting into it with some of these D-Bags in the Rutland area. I also teach in SVT and have had students of color face racism in a number of forms and have gone toe to toe with the idiot white nationalist in Bennington. I went to a small college in Rutland and saw my friends get accused of "dealing drugs," because black folks "couldn't/didn't live in this area if they weren't dealing." We had the same "N word" situation at a soccer team, but the principal of the school in the Rutland Area basically told them there wasn't enough evidence to do anything.

This is just what I've seen as a white dude who transplanted here in like '07. That event in S. Burlington was terrible, but I think the school system did a pretty decent job at handling it. They can always improve, but they've been actually policing these things.

greeneyedbandit82 t1_j5uc4vl wrote on January 25, 2023 at 5:01 PM

Thanks for your insight. I really have not spent any time in southern VT in all the years I have lived here. Definitely not surprised anyone would bring up the NEK...

As for SB, I was part of a group that was put together by concerned parents/teachers called SB Educational Equity Collective (they're still around and kickin'- attending school board meetings and doing what they can) to try to figure out what could be done about the environment at the school because we all were so disappointed in how the school 'handled' various situations. So, no, they may look like they care to outsiders, but they don't really seem into putting action behind words. And it's not only racism; my daughter was being harassed by some boys in middle school and the principal told me that if it continued, he would place my daughter in a new class. Not the boys, of course. It's a toxic school district and I thought we'd be in the clear since, as you said, it's so liberal and diverse.

On another note, I also lived in the south- Louisiana- for a couple of years when my daughter was in elementary school. She never once came home from school and told me about any racism she experienced in her day. Not that you could pay me to move to the south again, but if I could do it all over, I would not have put her in this school.