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‘Not a one-off’: Community speaks out at school committee meeting after Burlington Pride incident
Burlington school leaders were urged to hire a new diversity, equity, and inclusion director after middle school students disrupted a Pride celebration earlier this month.
Burlington school officials reiterated their support for the LGBTQ+ community Tuesday night in one of their first meetings after students disrupted a middle school Pride event by tearing down decorations and chanting “U.S.A. are my pronouns.”
The incident came during a June 2 spirit day at Marshall Simonds Middle School celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride month, Burlington School Committee Chair Martha Simon said Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, during the Pride theme day, there were behaviors that were hurtful to students and the school community,” she said. “We are now involved in a healing process. We do not think that there are hateful middle school students; students at this age are finding their voices, or changing their voices, or challenging adult voices.”
Simon said the district has provided support to students and staff who were affected, in addition to administering “consequences” for student behavior that went against school policies.
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Burlington Public Schools Superintendent Eric Conti noted that while participation in the spirit day was optional, “respectful behavior across the entire student body … is non-negotiable.”
He voiced disappointment for the students’ behavior, but noted that most of the student body acted appropriately. He emphasized the importance of follow-up conversations with students of that age.
“Middle school-aged children reflect what they see adults do without thinking about the consequences of their actions,” Conti said. “Ascribing hate to middle school children who are not yet fully developed, I think, is a mistake.”
Part of a trend?
In public comments Tuesday, community members and advocates condemned the students’ disruption, shared their own experiences with intolerance, and urged Burlington Public Schools to quickly hire a new diversity, equity, and inclusion director.
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Several speakers asserted that the incident at the middle school was not an isolated event.
“I’m here to let you know that this was not a one-off incident,” Nate Carey said. “Homophobia has been a pressing issue throughout the BHS [sic] school system and the town of Burlington as a whole for a while now.”
Carey shared a number of examples, from regularly hearing anti-gay slurs on the school bus to seeing Pride stickers torn up in the halls of Burlington High School last year.
“As it stands right now, I do not feel good about my children being in this school system,” one parent said during Tuesday’s meeting. “I have a multi-racial household, and I have a son who loves to wear dresses and barrettes in his hair, and loves princesses. Even in kindergarten, he’s already gotten bullied for that, and I don’t want that to continue as he continues his education here in Burlington.”
Martha Duffield, co-founder of the Burlington Equity Coalition, said the middle school incident didn’t come as a shock.
“There has been a steady drumbeat of intolerance getting louder and louder in our schools and in our town,” she said. “If you do find yourself surprised, then please start paying attention now.”
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That intolerance isn’t just limited to the LGBTQ+ community, Duffield continued; she asserted that swastikas have appeared in middle school bathrooms, Black students have been called the N-word, and Asian American students have been told to go back to China.
“This is who we are,” she told school officials. “So the question is, what are you, the leaders, going to do about it?”
What’s next?
Conti said he was focused on filling an assistant superintendent vacancy before setting his sights on the diversity, equity, and inclusion office, which has been empty since last fall. He briefly described the district’s efforts to wrap up an equity audit and create a job posting for the DEI role.
“At the next meeting, I will speak more completely about the district’s DEI efforts since September,” he said. “But for this evening, I want to state unequivocally that here in Burlington Public Schools, we are committed to tolerance and inclusivity for all — and that includes our LGBTQ+ students.”
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