The Tamalpais Union High School District encourages its teachers and pro-name change supporters to falsely accuse community members of being “racist” while the district’s lackluster efforts to close the achievement gap have failed students of color
By John Geluardi
The thing about carelessly using the term “racist,” is that it harms the recipient unfairly even if the taunt is without merit. The false slur is not a reasoned argument. It’s a radioactive slander that is both powerful and easy to use. It requires no intellect, no skill and no meaningful understanding, only the willingness to wield it mindlessly at anyone the user wants to intimidate or groundlessly cause damage to.
Once falsely accused of being a “racist,” the damage to your reputation can cost a job, cause you to be shunned in your community, and eyed with suspicion in social circles. The slander, even if false, is difficult to deny and the act of explaining that you’re not a racist, has the chilling effect of making you seem even more guilty of being one.
In other words, the spurious use of the term “racist” is a perfect tool for bullies, dullards and the entitled who lash out when the world has not immediately bend to their will.
The Tamalpais Union High School District and the Sir Francis Drake High School Administration are well aware of the power of the false racist accusation and has encouraged the term to be used to bully community members who are opposed to renaming Drake High School. The slander has become the predominant tool in the district’s quest to impose the name change on the community that has supported the high school for nearly 70 years.
There may, or may not be, a valid argument for changing the school’s name, but if so, it’s hard to discern among the taunts, slander and slurs. The school district’s support of such a vulgar bullying tactic is ironic given the district’s inability to overcome its institutional racism to close the achievement gap, which particularly undermines black and Hispanic students. Not to mention such hostile tactics set a particularly worrisome example for students as a whole.
The slander is used at public meetings by re-naming supporters, a group largely comprised of recent graduates that are organized, in part, by Drake faculty members, according to district emails obtained through the California Public Records Act. Video recordings of those meetings can be found at the district and high school’s websites. It’s rare that individuals are personally attacked with slurs, rather the slander is typically used to attack any good faith comments or ideas or items of historical record that do not conform to the school district’s rigid orthodoxy.
Only once during a Drake “listening session” held on Sept 10, 2020 did Drake Principal Liz Seabury insist that an overzealous name change supporter not use slurs in his public comments. But shortly afterwards, supporters resumed making, unchecked, derogatory remarks that also included similar terms such as “white supremacist,” and “colonialist”
It’s worth noting that the movement to change the school’s name did not originate from a grassroots, community effort. The effort is driven by the Tamalpais Union High School District, a powerful institution that has used its influence and leverage to impose its will on any faculty members who may disagree with the district’s tactics and silence parents who are reluctant to risk displeasing the politically driven institution that educates their children.
This despite the fact that community members have financed the district’s renaming effort thus far with their tax dollars that have paid for a battery of attorneys who work for the expensive San Francisco law firm, Dannis Woliver Kelley.
The school district’s racist slur tactic has had a chilling effect. Members of the public who have became reluctant to make comment at public meetings. Longtime family supporters of the high school, who are respected in the community, have shied away from taking leadership roles in opposing the name change. Drake students, fearful of teacher retaliation, don’t express their opinions openly and even students of color, 64 percent of whom disapprove of the name change, have been ignored by the all-white Board of Trustees and all-white Drake faculty.
The school district also appears to be working with the support of the Marin County District Attorney’s Office, which has thus far turned a blind eye to the school district’s illegal activities, which include vandalism, misappropriation of funds, violations of the Brown Act and the unexplained disappearance of seven decades of Drake High School’s academic achievement awards, athletic trophies and drake-based artwork.
Perhaps most disturbing, parents on the Drake Leadership Council (DLC), which is made up of the teachers, parents and students that was tasked with deciding whether to change the school’s name. But school administrators denied the council information critical to making a properly reasoned decision. The school district denied the council any financial information about the impact of the estimated half-million cost of school’s renaming. The district also refused to give the council any details about where exactly that money will come from. The council was also denied an accounting of the estimated $75,000 to $100,000 that has been spent on the name change so far, most of which was paid by taxpayers for attorney fees.
The DLC was not even allowed to discuss the possibility of spending that money on programs that could help close the school’s shameful and pernicious achievement gap, which is directly hurting students of color, perhaps irreparably. Students on the council also asked for a comprehensive poll of students and community members but the request was denied by the school administrators who are managing the council. The council was allowed to conduct a partial poll, which showed the strong majority of students of color are against the name change.
On the face of it, the school district’s nondisclosure of public information was reckless and was clearly designed by the school district to control the outcome of the council’s action. An action whose only value is symbolic. The name change will have no meaningful impact on student achievement but will give self-serving boasting rights to the conspicuously white school board trustees, activist teachers and high school administrators.
It was no surprise that the two Drake Leadership Council Members who voted against the name change were both students of color.
The school district’s most alarming bully tactic has been its refusal to allow the DLC the opportunity to discuss possible alternatives to the name change, such as possible program solutions to the widening achievement gap. It’s telling of the district’s philosophy that it encourages its teachers to celebrate self-serving white saviorism, while students of color fall further and further behind and school district leaders are in a back room greedily polishing the crown jewel of institutional racism, the achievement gap.
The Braying Dog 