EDITORIAL
The irony isn’t lost on many that on the same day Hays CISD was presented with a “No Place for Hate” designation by the Anti-Defamation League two students were detained for racially charged vandalism after they wrote racist graffiti on a Hays High teacher’s classroom door.
It was a reprehensible act. Where they learned such behavior is being debated on the Hays Free Press website, with parents and students chiming in with their opinions. From parents? From friends? From the internet?
Another question occurs to us: since the teacher says this was the ugly capstone to a long pattern of behavior, why didn’t the district act more quickly and more forcefully to put a stop to it? At the very least, the district might have exerted leadership by making the latest incident public on its own terms, without prodding from the public or being forced by press inquiries.
A strong, pro-active, and unified statement would have been useful in communicating the unequivocal message that Hays administrators and board members will not tolerate such behavior – that Hays CISD is better than that.
Superintendent Jeremy Lyon has denounced the incident, and we applaud him for it. But the vandalism by the students occurred over the May 19 weekend, followed by days of rumors flying around the school district.There was not a word of public support from the district as the teacher dealt with the aftermath. It wasn’t until later in the week that the truth about the students’ actions was finally released. The kids are being punished by being sent (for the last week of school) to the district’s disciplinary alternative campus, though further charges are pending through the district attorney’s office.
This incident wasn’t the first time this teacher said she had to deal with such behavior during her four years on campus. She turned in her formal resignation letter in March, saying she no longer felt comfortable working at Hays High or Hays CISD in general.
The real shame, still, is that the teacher felt she was being blamed instead of supported. It’s too early to know the whole story, but if there is ever a next time, the school board and administration need to come down hard against such actions, publicly and immediately.
No Place for Hate should be our mantra. But it takes a strong stand from the adults for students to get the picture.
And in a high school where the teams are called the Rebels, where Dixie is the fight song, and where some students still wave –albeit off campus – the Confederate battle flag, it is incumbent on our school leadership, and on all of us, to make that picture crystal clear – that Dixie is great with special meaning on that campus, but that the South will not, and should not, rise again.
