An Open Letter To CHCCS PTA
Submitted by Sophie Suberman
This letter was submitted by email to the following recipients. We would like to ensure the community at large is able to read it. And to be able to discuss it if that’s an option.
Dear CHCCS Superintendent and Leadership, School Principals and Vice Principals, CHCCS PTA council, Hate Free Schools Coalition, NAACP Executive Leadership, Coalition for Hate Free Schools and Community Members,
As some of our community likely remembers, on March 11, 2020, right before COVID-19 impacted our community, Grow Your World’s cofounder, staff and youth had a traumatic experience at the Chapel Hill public library involving the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools PTA. Since the event itself, we have had a restorative circle with the PTA president at the time who caused harm to the GYW group, one additional meeting with the current PTA president, and over ten email correspondences back and forth. We have been unsatisfied as an organization and as community members with the actions the PTA have taken, which is why we have come to provide a public comment.
This year-long ordeal highlights racial inequity, white supremacy culture and power hoarding, and has negatively impacted youth of color and white youth, adults of color and white adults, and everyone involved. The inability of the Chapel Hill Carrboro PTA group to share the space at the Chapel Hill Public Library led to GYW’s cofounder who was leading the activity at the time to feel scared for her physical safety and for the youth she was serving at the time. Our program is strategically diverse, bringing youth and adults together from many backgrounds.
The issue was upsetting enough to require intervention from the library staff. Conversations have moved occurred with library staff to prevent future instances such as this. We requested clocks both inside and outside of meeting spaces to ensure all parties have a shared understanding of the time, as well as buffer time between reservations. We have yet to see these come to fruition because of COVID. We are hopeful that these changes will take place when we return to being able to rent out rooms at the library.
A restorative circle took place between the outgoing PTA president Erin Schwie Langston, the incoming PTA president, Riza Jenkins, Grow Your World cofounder, Soteria Shepperson, and myself, GYW cofounder and Executive Director. Afterward, everyone expressed that the restorative conversation felt fruitful and action steps for each party were agreed upon to complete and bring back to each other. While COVID and its impacts on life have understandably complicated nearly everything, we are disappointed with the CHCCS PTA’s lack of follow-through and insensitivity to the gravity of the situation. The PTA’s lack of concern for the trauma they caused, demonstrated by this slow response and a public statement about the event which did not include an apology nor clarity on its next steps to prevent future harms, particularly in light of the extreme racism that is happening in the world, and the fact that their role is to care for ALL of the children of this community, is unacceptable. While we requested a deeper dive and a second look at their action steps, given the organizational nature of the issues and the impact on the black and brown youth we serve and those at CHCCS, those requests have gone unheeded. That leads us to where we are today.
We call on the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools PTA to apologize publicly for its actions and its disregard for the severity of events, and to communicate the explicit behaviors it will take in regard to racial equity, white supremacy culture and power hoarding. The PTA is charged with caring for all youth equally, and we are surprised and appalled that the situation has not been taken as an opportunity to express its stance and actions toward creating more equity in our schools, especially after its board chair was explicitly invited to do so.
The information linked here is common knowledge; if it is not the PTA’s charge to improve the environment for all its children, whose PTA is this really?
We hope this public comment will implore the PTA to reflect on its inactions, respond to the trauma it has caused, and be transparent about the actions it will take regarding inequity, white supremacy culture and power hoarding within the PTA itself for the safety and well being of the youth entrusted to their care and those within the greater community. This whole process has taken a complete year; we must do better, faster.
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