On Jan. 31, Jamesville-DeWitt Central School District Superintendent and J-D High School Principal Paul Gasparini sent the following letter via SchoolMessenger to J-D families and staff.
Dear J-D families and staff,
Those of you who attended J-D High School’s curriculum night for incoming ninth-grade students via Zoom this evening know that we abruptly ended the meeting after an unknown individual or individuals made repeated racist comments during our presentation.
We apologize to those of you who were subjected to this racist, hateful and vile language during a school-run event. We plan to reschedule the meeting so that you may receive the valuable information that was planned to be shared, and we will work with our technology department to ensure that an incident like what occurred will not happen again.
We are appalled that our staff would be so terribly victimized and that our community was subjected to such horrific language and actions. We know we are better than this. We must be better than this. As a district, we have embraced diversity, equity and inclusion as one of the four primary focus areas of our strategic plan, and incidents such as this show that while we have accomplished much, we have much more work to do. We will continue working with our students and staff to create a school environment in which all individuals feel welcome and accepted. Hate in any form is not, and will not be, tolerated.
We understand that for many students, especially our students of color, school tomorrow may feel different, less welcome. We want our families to know that our school counselors, psychologists and social workers are available to meet with any student who may be uncomfortable or struggling, tomorrow or at any time in the future. Please share this information with your students so if they need to reach out, they know we are here to support them.
We will be working with our technology department and the DeWitt Police Department to identify the individual or individuals who made the unacceptable comments, and if they are a J-D student(s), their actions will be subject to the district’s code of conduct. If you have any information that you think would help us identify the individual(s), please feel free to reach out to me, J-D Middle School Principal Andy Eldridge, or J-D High School Principal Paul Gasparini.
Sincerely,
Peter Smith, Superintendent
Paul Gasparini, J-D High School Principal