By Genelle Gogue
The incident in which a staff member wore blackface on the MHS campus is still being investigated, School Board President Chris Norwood said. The video that had been posted went viral and since then, concerns have been raised from all different parties of the Milpitas community, he added.
The community’s concerns range from what is happening next to how the district is going to handle the situation, Norwood said. Due to the staff member’s actions, parents are disappointed and concerned about their children’s well-being, he added.
“I can tell you that it’s still under investigation, and I can tell you that the video that went around the world, [and] that there is interest in other parts of Milpitas, not just the high school,” Norwood said. “Parents, teachers, and students at other schools are interested in the entire situation. As I listened, I learn a lot of different things about how many different cultures and histories and stories that people in Milpitas have, and how they’re all surprised and shocked.”
Several weeks ago, students were given a lesson about the history of blackface, but some teachers did not feel comfortable giving the lesson, Principal Francis Rojas said. The next move is to see how to follow up with this because it was not just going to be a one-day thing. It requires taking a deeper look at students and staff to see where we stand from here, Rojas said.
“What I’m hearing is that it’s been a long time coming that we’ve needed to have this discussion because we have newer, younger staff and the student demographics have changed over the last couple of years, so we have to reassess ourselves and reevaluate where we stand as a community and make some commitments around that,” Rojas said.
From this incident, it is hoped that students will have more of their own voice, Rojas said. There was a meeting after the incident where students were able to speak in front of staff members to talk about how the incident made them feel and what should be done from here, he added.
“Although what happened on Halloween was a very negative experience for our community, there’s something positive that will come out of it, and I think it’ll make our community stronger and strengthen our resolve on where we stand on cultural diversity as a community,” Rojas said.
From the incident, the school board had to think about how this situation aligns with our five strategic goals of the Milpitas Unified School District (MUSD), Norwood said. It is about building a culture of “we” and not just with cultures ethnicity wise, but sports culture, science culture, and more, he said. The culture of “we” also extends out to teachers because there are many different viewpoints among them, he added.
The five strategic goals of MUSD are to “build a culture of “we” that engages parents, staff, community partners in supporting students’ success,” Norwood said. According to Norwood, the five goals are to: “improve communications systems for better outreach to parents, students, and staff, develop educational pathways that allow students to apply their passions and learning for their future careers, focus services on support systems to ensure all students are engaged in their learning and are making social, emotional, and academic gains, identify creative student-focused strategies to accommodate enrollment growth and ensure healthy learning environments.”
The MUSD website is consistently posting updates about activities surrounding the incident as well as the timeline of actions, Norwood said. Not only does the website include those details, but it also includes information on how Milpitas can grow as a community, he added.
“There’s a scripture of mine, it’s a favorite. It says: ‘In the end, there are three things that’ll last: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love,’” Norwood said.
