At least two minority students were harassed and bullied as the result of the school district allowing a President Trump-themed banner to be used at the start of a recent high school football game, school board member Rose Morgan claimed during Monday night’s Anderson County Board of Education meeting.
![School board member Rose Morgan delivers a blistering rebuke of the school district’s defense of a Trump-themed banner used during a recent football game. ‘[From] what I understand, there are 9 percent minority children at the high school,’ Morgan says. ‘I want you to put yourself in their shoes.’ (photo by Christian Marnon via KPNS)](https://forwardky.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/10-16_school_board_morgan.jpg)
The racial allegations didn’t stop there. A Hispanic woman who spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting called out Mitchell for allegedly not supporting people of color, followed by a heated exchange with a board member that was rife with racial overtones.
Petra Gonzalez, a resident and one-time school board candidate, blasted Mitchell for defending the banner.
“You didn’t have the gall or bravery to stick up for us,” Gonzalez said to Mitchell between tears. “You didn’t do it and you could have. You apologized to me in an email when you should have apologized to me publicly.”
Mitchell was offered a chance to respond following the meeting, but did not do so by press time.
Gonzalez then directed her comments to board member Peggy Hawkins Peach who, according to Gonzalez, represents her district.
“You are my board member, Peggy Peach, for you to not reply to me, and not apologize, and you represent the most students of color in your district.”
Peach, who defeated Gonzalez for her seat on the board, then looked Gonzalez in the eyes and said: “I have a grandson that looks just like you.”
Gonzalez paused for a moment, but then said: “Then you should have apologized. And don’t argue with me. You cannot justify how I feel.
“You are not a person of color. You don’t know what this feels like. We can’t trade colors of skin. So don’t tell me because my grandson is brown or I have a black friend [that] justifies it. I’m here to tell you all that you’ve failed the students of color.”
She also accused the board of “failing legally” for what she called an “endorsement of a slogan” rather than a play on words, as the district claimed.
No board members responded after Gonzalez finished her comments.
Following the meeting, Peach sent a message to The Anderson News, saying she agreed with what she called the “counsel’s decision” about the banner and that she “forwarded the message to Ms. Mitchell.”
Peach sent a second message early Tuesday morning, saying she “received several emails and the concerns were that a political message was being sent in the banner. Our counsel ruled otherwise. The minority issue wasn’t addressed because there was nothing derogatory in the message. If we are in this country legally we are Americans. No matter our heritage or skin color.”
As the public comments portion of the meeting was coming to a close, Morgan blistered the Trump administration for what she claimed is “the rise in hate crimes” since Trump took office, and implicated the school district in abetting alienation and bullying of minority students at the high school.
“Right now, [from] what I understand, there are 9 percent minority children at the high school,” Morgan said. “I want you to put yourself in their shoes. When you hear a person of power say to this group ‘you are rapists and murderers’ and you say to this group ‘you’re from a sh*t hole country … that is what [Trump] said. Just think about that. How do those students, [those] children feel? The 9 percent keep me awake at night.”
After listing regional examples of racially motivated violence like the Jeffersontown Kroger shooting and the thwarted Dylan Jarrell plot near the high school, Morgan enjoined any local students in the “9-percent” to report instances of racial bullying to her personally.
She then claimed to receive two reports of from separate people “in the last couple weeks” of minority children who “have been harassed and bullied,” finally apologizing if they “caught flack” as a result of the banner.
“What I’m saying to you if you [are] the 9-percent, please, if you have problems, please let me know and I personally am sorry if you had to suffer one ounce of flack because of this. If I can’t help you and get you the help you need, I know people who can and I will do this because I said I would.”
Her comments were also met with some applause and no immediate response from Mitchell or other board members.
Retired physician Pamela Graber introduced the Trump banner topic Monday night, reading excerpts of an email she sent to board members James Sargent, Scott Luna, and Rose Morgan. In that email and during the meeting she cited KRS 158.83, which concerns school board duties.
Of those listed duties, Graber highlighted a subsection that says, “If the content of the student’s speech is such that a reasonable observer may perceive affirmative school sponsorship or endorsement to the student speaker’s religious or political viewpoint,” the school board must issue an oral or written response that the student’s speech is not endorsed by the school.
“I have not heard that from the board,” Graber said. “A number of members from the community have perceived endorsement and I would expect someone from the [district] would say that the student speech does not reflect their endorsement.”
Those comments were also met with some applause.
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Written by Christian Marnon. Cross-posted from the
Anderson News via the Kentucky Press News Service.