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A staff member from an elementary school in Newberg, Oregon came to work on Black Friday and allegedly claimed she was portraying Rosa Parks as part of a protest against a vaccination warrant for staff at the school.
Details of the incident at Mabel Rush Elementary School have been forwarded to The Newberg chart by an anonymous staff member, who said Lauren Pefferle, a special education assistant, used iodine to darken her face and called herself Rosa Parks while protesting mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for Oregon school personnel.
A spokesperson for the school district declined to comment on the staff member’s motivation to The Daily Beast, but confirmed that an employee had worn blackface, which was “unacceptable.”
“Our administration has implemented and will continue to implement equity training for our staff,” Gregg Koskela, communications coordinator and obligations manager for Newberg Public Schools, told The Daily Beast in an e- mail. “We take that [incident] seriously and will do everything possible to create a safe environment that minimizes damage. “
Shortly after Pefferle showed up on blackface, she was put on administrative leave, according to the school district. Pefferle did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
In a statement released Monday, Newberg Public Schools insisted the district condemned “all expressions of racism.”
“Last Friday, one of our employees showed up for work at Blackface. The employee was fired and HR put the employee on administrative leave, ”the statement read.
The school district is committed to taking appropriate action to deal with incidents that run counter to its goal of creating “a safe and welcoming environment in our schools, free from bullying and reducing mental, emotional and harm.” physical ”.
“Blackface has no place in our schools, and we are committed to creating spaces that every student belongs to as we move forward together on our mission to educate students,” the statement said.
But the blackface debacle comes after a string of race-related scandals across the school district.
Parents were alerted last week that a group of Newberg High School students were involved in a Snapchat group chat called “Slave Trade,” which included photos of black college students and discussions about the price that ‘they would pay for their classmates in a slave. auction. Members of the cat also wrote comments like “All black people should die” and “Let’s have another Holocaust,” according to KGW8.
“My heart is so broken for these children who have realized that they are not even considered human by some of their classmates,” said Heidi Pender, the mother of a black student at the school. “To imagine that your own child is being talked about as if they were sub-human slaves to be sold by other students, it made me feel like I was going to throw up.”
Addressing the incident in a letter to families last week, Superintendent Joe Morelock acknowledged that the district had become a scandal magnet in the news and said he wanted to “make it clear that racist behavior and intimidating people have no place in our schools or our community. Morelock also said in the letter that the social media incident will be investigated and that he has provided “support to all students adversely affected by this and other bullying behaviors.” .
In August, the district board of directors voted in favor of an order ordering the superintendent to ban the pride flag and Black Lives Matter logo, as well as “political symbols” from facilities.
Although the ban gained initial approval in a 4-to-3 vote, the rule, known as the “Ensuring Safe Environments for Learning” policy, has yet to be enacted. It could get a second reading and potential approval at a special board meeting next week, according to a board meeting record.
Vice-chairman Brian Shannon has played a central role in efforts to push back the way race issues are handled in Newberg public schools.
In July, he called for a language review in the district’s “Every Student Belongs” policy, which he said came at a “very tumultuous time”.
The rule was created as part of a commitment to create a “free from discrimination and harassment” environment in Oregon schools by prohibiting the display of hate symbols, including the Confederate flag, noose and swastika. in school programs and school sponsored activities. . He was adopted following a series of high-profile murders of blacks by police last year.
Shannon insisted that since things “calmed down” he had been in talks with members of the community who shared the view that politics “had language that affected a lot of people.”
Shannon has since been the target of a recall effort that includes parents, students, alumni and community members of the Newberg School District.
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