PHS Color Wars legal response
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POLSON — Polson School District administrators followed policies and procedures when dealing with two juniors who wore t-shirts with “white power” and a Confederate battle flag during Homecoming Week activities at Polson High School in late September.
That was the finding of Missoula attorney Elizabeth Kaleva, who specializes in employment and education-related matters. The school district hired her for $2,000 to investigate and report on what happened.
Kaleva gave her report at the Polson School Board meeting on Monday, Dec. 12.
The incidents occurred Sept. 29 and 30 as part of a “Color Wars” activity at the school in which, each class got to pick a color. The junior class chose white.
Kaleva said “Color Wars” has been used at the school for some time and is also practiced at other schools in Montana.
“It was never an issue before,” she said. “You had a perfect storm this year with the things being said nationally. I doubt you’ll see ‘Color Wars’ (used in the future).”
In her summation of events, Kaleva said that two students came to school on Sept. 29 with “inappropriate clothing.” The students posed for photos in the lobby of Polson High School before they were seen by staff, and some of those photos were posted to Facebook. Both students were stopped prior to first period and told to cover their shirts or turn them inside out, which they did.
Later in the day when students were posing for class photos, the students in question exposed their shirts with the inappropriate messages and those photos were also posted to Facebook, Kaleva said. Staff was not aware of the social media postings, she said.
That evening, PHS principal Scott Wilson was informed about the Facebook postings and notified Superintendent Rex Weltz. The administrators and assistant principal Jay Sampson met the next morning, Sept. 30, and called an attorney for advice. Weltz issued a statement mid-morning that the actions of the students were inappropriate and said disciplinary action would be implemented. Kaleva said she couldn’t legally divulge what kind of punishment was meted out.
Kaleva said there is resentment amongst some groups of students.
“They didn’t understand the difference between ‘Native Pride,’ ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘White Power,’” she said. “There is a group of students who don’t understand what was wrong with the shirt.”
There is a lot of history about “white power,” she said, adding that there is no evidence that the students knew about it. “They thought it was a funny … a joke,” she said. (The term is linked with white supremacy.)
In addition, she said there was no clear attempt by staff to facilitate a meaningful discussion following the incident to use it as a teaching moment. Consequently, it remained an awkward issue for some or was viewed as blown out of proportion by others.
She said the district got a call from the American Civil Liberties Union. The information that the ACLU had was incorrect and based on social media, she said. The district also got a call from the Washington Post.
She encouraged the school district to train students and staff on how to recognize and address culturally-sensitive issues and implicit or cognitive bias.
Weltz said staff and students completed a “My Voice” survey recently. The survey asks students about conditions that make a difference such as belonging, heroes, leadership, responsibility and the ability to take action. Students’ answers will help administrators understand the dichotomy between what some groups of students believe about race relations, and what the staff believes, in order to lessen it. The survey results will be discussed by the board in January, he said.
“The entire district was kind of shaken up after that incident,” school board president Caroline McDonald said, adding that she’s “so proud of us. We didn’t bury it, and we’re addressing it and moving forward.”
Kaleva also determined that the district was within its rights to not publish editorials in Polson High School’s student newspaper about the incident. Kaleva said the editorials did not accurately represent the events nor display a basic knowledge of the underlying social issues. She cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier, as the basis for the administration’s action.
