Iowa City School District community members protest over racial slurs in student video
At an ICCSD Board of Directors Meeting, around 100 Iowa City community members shared their concerns of a student using a racial slurs in a video that surfaced on social media.
Community members react after a speaker talks about racism in the Iowa City School District at a meeting of the Board of Directors at the Iowa City Community School District Administration Building in Iowa City Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. Community members protested after a video surfaced on social media of an Iowa City West High School student using a racial slur.
November 10, 2021
Nearly 100 Iowa City Community School District students, teachers, and community members gathered to voice concerns about a video that surfaced on social media of an Iowa City West High School student using racial slurs.
After a demonstration at West High School on Monday, students and community members urged the ICCSD Board of Directors on Tuesday to further discipline the student, who was given a suspension.
Many people brought up concerns over safety and said the district had a history of racism.
“It just makes me feel unsafe,” Angel McCambry said, an 8th grader at Iowa City South East Junior High School. “It makes a lot of other kids feel unsafe, and I feel like the district isn’t doing enough to help.”
Principal of West High School Mitch Gross wrote in an email to West High School parents on Monday after the protest that the district respects their engagement in social action and honors their right to free speech.
“However, a large part of today’s protest was disruptive to the learning environment at West High,” he wrote. “The administrative team worked to maintain a peaceful environment so that learning could continue.”
Later on Monday, Gross wrote another email to parents that the district will not tolerate racism, hate, and other discriminatory acts.
Over the course of an hour at the meeting, community members and current ICCSD students expressed their frustration with the district’s inaction regarding other racist experiences they’ve personally had.
One former ICCSD student and current University of Iowa student, Dasia Taylor, told the board that she had worked with the administration for years and it should have expected something like this.
“I’m disappointed and appalled about what happened,” Taylor said. “But I’m not at all surprised. I told y’all.”
Johnson County Board of Supervisor Royceann Porter, representing the Black Voices Project at the meeting, condemned the actions of the student but urged that “it’s nothing new.”
“We will be awaiting a decisive response and consequences for the student who perpetrated this violence against their own classmates,” she told the board.
One of the Black Voices Project’s demands, Porter said, is that the school district report the video including acts of racism and hate crime threat to local law enforcement.
Tori Cooper, a junior at West High School in Iowa City, said the school plays down racism.
“There’s always been racism at West,” Cooper said. “They always try to shut it down. I just want justice.”
Some members of the Board of Directors, including President Shawn Eyestone and Vice President Ruthina Malone, addressed the community’s concerns and expressed their support.
“Black lives matter, trans lives matter, queer lives matter,” Malone said, immediately following public comment.
