Queen Anne’s County NAACP Calls for Answers from Kent Island High School Administration
STEVENSVILLE, Md- The Queen Anne’s County NAACP chapter is looking for answers from the County School District following allegations of racist incidents involving Kent Island High School athletes.
The school district claims they held an educational meeting in partnership with the Queen Anne’s County NAACP chapter in response to those events.
That chapter’s Vice President Eric Daniels tells 47ABC he was at that meeting and that’s not exactly how it happened.
“We did not feel like that was a meeting where we collaborated, the agenda was already set, we didn’t have any part in what took place other than being able to talk to them about how we felt about what had happened,” Daniels said.
The QA NAACP reached out to the office of the Queen Anne’s County Public Schools superintended to find out about what disciplinary actions were taken during the course of the investigation according to Daniels.
Daniels says the school told them it was a closed case that they were not permitted to discuss with them. The school offered 47ABC a similar answer when asked for comment, citing a student privacy act known as FERPA as to why they were unable to release details of incidents or their disciplinary responses.
The district directed 47ABC to their guidelines against bullying and to their online reporting portal for racist incidents.
QAC NAACP Chapter President Marlon Johnson tells us those guidelines are strongly worded, but wants to know if the bullying and harassment or the racial incident guidelines were used in this case.
“[The Guidlines] can be an effective rule book but they need to address what it is, it is a racial incident, not bullying, not harassment,” he said.
47ABC has repeatedly reached out to the Superintendent’s office, requesting an interview following their initial statement and response to our written questions Monday night.
The school initially agreed to only answer more questions through email, before later declining to comment further.
Both NAACP leaders tell us, they still want to see the incidents acknowledge by the school, calling for the Superintendent to send a message out to parents, and post it on their website, condemning the behavior and laying out clear consequences for future incidents.
Daniels believes this lack of transparency sends the wrong message and is calling on the school to make it right.
“When you don’t respond it says to the students that it’s okay, so someone should have made a statement, the school board or the superintended saying that this occurred, it’s not acceptable, and it will not be tolerated,” he said.
