ROGERS — The Rogers School District may consider a hate crime policy after a black student received a note with a racial slur and the words “Join Today! KKK.” The note, provided Thursday by the Rogers Police Department, also had a drawing of a stick figure hanging from a burning cross.
Colby Isbell, a 14-year-old student at Greer Lingle Middle School, said another student gave him the note Feb. 17. Isbell read the note and put it in his locker.
“I just kind of blew it off,” Colby said, sitting Wednesday on a couch next to his mother in their home near Avoca. He deferred to his mother, Sabrina Isbell, to answer most questions about the incident
A week after receiving the note, he showed it to a coach at the school, and the matter worked its way to Principal Mary Elmore, Sabrina Isbell said.
Elmore referred questions about the incident to district administrators.
Isbell said she first heard of the note Feb. 24.
“I was immediately just in shock,” she said.
Isbell, who works at Wal-Mart headquarters, has lived in the area for 14 years. She never felt overt racism in that time, she said, and thought it was something her son would not experience, but he was been called by racial epithets twice in the past year by different students, before receiving the note, she said.
After learning of the note, Isbell called family to discuss the incident. She also did some research on the Internet about similar incidents.
“Then it just hit me that this is a hate crime,” she said.
The student who wrote the note was arrested as a juvenile on a misdemeanor charge of harassing communications, said Cpl. Angel Murphy-Pearce, Rogers Police Department spokeswoman. Isbell also contacted the FBI and was told the police department’s actions were sufficient, Murphy-Pearce said.
Janie Darr, superintendent of the Rogers School District, declined to say what, if any, punishment, the district gave the student. District policy prohibits harassment of individuals, specifically in regards to gender, race and religious preference among other traits.
Isbell said the responsible student should have been expelled. The harassment experienced by her son should be reason for expulsion, similar to a weapons violation, she said.
“You have targeted a specific race,” she said. “History says that there have been some very cruel and unusual punishments as it relates to race.”
She said she contacted district officials to push for a school policy to mandate harsher punishment for bullying associated with racial or other discriminatory motivation. So far, she’s happy with the results.
District officers are studying the situation, and the outcome could be a change in policy, said Phil Eickstaedt, the district’s executive director for secondary curriculum and instruction. He said the district does not have any policies specifically for bullying rooted in prejudice. He said the problem is rare and is dealt with under bullying policies.
While district policy prohibits harassment because of race or religion, the policy doesn’t outline enhanced punishment for racially motivated harassment. Eickstaedt said he could not discuss specific incidents or students, but said officials will consider a policy to deal with incidents motivated by extreme bias.
“There are actions like that that happen very seldom,” Eickstaedt said. “When they do happen, it’s important that we have the appropriate policies.”
Sonja Trainor, senior staff attorney for the National School Boards Association, said policies requiring harsher punishments for hate crimes in schools are rare. Most schools handle such cases through their harassment policies, she said.
Those policies regulate behavior rather than attitudes, Trainor said.
“It’s difficult to regulate feelings and thoughts, which is what hate really is,” she said.
She said she understood Isbell’s desire for harsher punishments, but said districts should be careful about instituting automatic punishments.
Any change in policy would be drafted by the Rogers district’s discipline committee, which reviews the policies annually. The committee is comprised of teachers, parents and high school students, Eickstaedt said.
Eickstaedt said the district tries to avoid expelling students except when it has little choice, such as in the case of drug and weapon violations.
Changes to the must be approved by the Rogers School Board, he said.
At A Glance
Rogers Student Harassment, Discrimination policy
“It shall be the policy of the Rogers Public Schools to maintain a learning and working environment that is free from practices which discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, creed, age, or handicapping condition....
“The school district will act to investigate all complaints, either formal or informal, verbal or written, and to discipline any student or employee who engages in discrimination or harassment against any other student or employee of the school district.”
Source: Rogers School District