Racial Slur Sparks Student Walk Out At Oregon Junior High

LAKE OSWEGO, OR — A note passed to a black student at Lake Oswego Junior High School on Jan. 26 has fueled a student walk-out Monday morning. The note, delivered by three white students, bore only two words: n----- dog.

The three white students reportedly received suspensions (one day for the note passer, and in-school for the two accomplices) for their part in the controversy — mild punishments, according to the mother of the note's recipient.

Jennifer Cook, mother to 13-year-old Christiaan Bedford, told KGW News the students who gave her son the derogatory note shouldn't even be at the school, adding the school district missed an opportunity to send a message to other students and parents that racial discrimination of any kind would not be tolerated at any level in Lake Oswego — a Portland metro town with a known history of racial controversy, not least of which includes its well-known nickname, "Lake No Negro."

“I feel like (Christiaan) should come to school and he should feel safe,” Cook told KGW, noting the three white students involved weren't even sent home after the incident. "I didn’t feel (the punishment) was sufficient … I felt like they had an opportunity here to take a really hard stance, to say, ‘We won’t tolerate this. This is not OK. We have a zero tolerance policy.’”

The Lake Oswego School District and junior high school Principal Sara Deboy both issued statements condemning the language used in the days following the incident.

"The recent incident in Lake Oswego Junior High confirms that we have more work to do to educate our students about the use of hate speech and to educate our families and teachers and staff about how to respond," district officials wrote. "Derogatory and racially charged terms are always unacceptable and should never be used. If any student hears these words, no matter the context, parents should notify the teacher or bus driver, and the principal so action can be taken. We can all learn how to have frank and sometimes courageous conversations about race in our homes and community in order to build the norms that do not allow for hate speech and intolerance to exist.

"In the recent incident, we make no excuses for behavior and actions of the children involved," the statement continued. "Because the offenders are minor students, we will not discuss confidential student information, including any punishment applied as a result of this incident. But punishment alone does not create opportunities for healing. That is why the Lake Oswego School District, like other school districts (including Portland and Beaverton), uses a restorative justice model to bring healing to the victim and learning to the offenders. In restorative justice, the victim is involved in how the process of restoring the relationship evolves."

Cook told KGW she felt the administration's official reaction offered more "sympathy for the abusers. But nothing really centered around my son."

“It breaks my heart," she said. "It makes me feel like on some level I’ve failed my son.”

Deboy on Jan. 29 shared a blog on the junior high school's website hedging around the district's stance on vulgar language and how parents and adults are equally responsible for teaching children the consequences their word choices may carry.

"In the last two weeks, I have spoken with both individual students and groups of students that have personally experienced slurs that make up the language of discrimination, be it race, ethnicity, identity, ability, or gender based," Deboy wrote. "While we can argue that these are isolated events that involve a small number of students, I am left to wonder how many times these words go unchecked.

"I am compelled to reach out to all of you for your partnership in this important work of teaching, learning, and healing," she continued. "It is important that we begin to teach children that (offensive) language is often also oppressive language, and by using it, we continue the practice of prejudice. I have found that when these words are used, the students have a hard time explaining their intent – they may claim it was meant as a joke, they did not connect the word to the meaning, etc. I believe them. That is why it is on all of us as the adults in their lives to help them understand how we cannot allow these words to be part of jokes or allow them to be thrown around as if they had no meaning. These words have power."

Image via Travis Loose, Patch News