Craig and Kelly Robinson said they were shocked to receive a letter informing them that their children would not be allowed to return as students at the prestigious University School of Milwaukee (USM).
“We can’t continue a relationship with your family,” reads part of the enrollment termination letter, sent at the end of last school year. The students, in season 11 and 9, were effectively removed.
“We felt they were retaliated against because we raised some issues that were sensitive to the government,” Craig Robinson told CNN. Robinson is the brother of former First Lady Michelle Obama.
He said he began by giving the school feedback on teaching practices that he and his wife believed were troubling, especially during the virtual learning period last year.
“The first thing we noticed was a repeated use of racial and ethnic stereotypes in real classroom tasks,” Robinson said.
While he and his wife, Kelly Robinson, did not provide details, they did emphasize the CNN which was more about how the school dealt with their concerns. “It’s the way they handled it and the fact that they didn’t want to face the real issue and instead retaliated against us and our kids.”
So the couple, along with attorney Kim Motley, filed a civil suit on Monday, alleging in part: “The school acted in an inadmissible manner to silence and retaliate against those adversely affected and to raise concerns about unfair treatment.” of color students school. and underrepresented students.”
The Robinsons now want a jury trial and damages. The school, however, denied the allegations.
USM’s letter to the Robinsons, dated June 2021 and sent by school principal Steven Hancock, said the decision boiled down to how the couple dealt with teachers and administrators.
“You have not shown respect for their expertise and professionalism, nor have you consistently dealt with them in a respectful, trustworthy, fair or kind manner,” part of the letter addressed to the Robinsons read. “You have repeatedly engaged in disrespectful and demanding communications with and about our teachers and administrators.”
In response to the lawsuit, the school released a statement saying it could not comment on the details of the case, but stated, “We can say that USM’s enrollment decisions had nothing to do with complaints of inequality or discrimination and we intend to vigorously defend the school. against any claim to the contrary.”
“We cannot and will not tolerate persistently disrespectful, intimidating or harassing behavior directed at our dedicated and hardworking teachers and administrators,” the statement continued.
The Robinsons denied this dynamic.
“Their statement is as surprising as it is revealing,” Craig Robinson told CNN. “The tone with which we were pitching ideas was like we were talking to you,” he added in a matter-of-fact, neutral way.
“We were taken by surprise,” added Kelly Robinson. “There was nothing to indicate that what we were doing and the way we were communicating was unusual.”
The termination letter did not cite any mention of the children’s behavior in its reasoning. They have been described as students who embody the USM’s “portrait of a graduate”.
“Our kids really took the brunt of it,” Kelly Robinson told The Associated Press. CNN when he started to cry. “They’ve heard people talking about how they must have done something terribly wrong, which couldn’t be further from the truth.”
She then tearfully recounted how one of her children told her that he had recently dealt with an issue of racism at his new school, “but he didn’t tell us until the third time because he was afraid of getting in trouble.”
‘This wasn’t just about us’
The Robinsons said part of their reasoning in taking a formal step is that they listened to others who shared similar experiences.
One part of the lawsuit alleges not only “unfair and retaliatory conduct” toward the Robinsons’ children, but also a “wider pattern, spanning many years, of unfair treatment and insensitivity by USM toward its black students.” and underrepresented”.
For example, the suit alleges that for years, in an abandoned teaching style, the school required fourth graders to perform a simulation of the Underground Railroadsecret routes in the United States used by enslaved African Americans to try to escape the slavery period of the 19th century.
“USM teachers told fourth graders to wear old clothes or buy used clothes at thrift stores. The teachers acted as ‘slave hunters’ and were instructed to try to catch the students,” part of the process read.
“During the simulation, students were supposed to navigate dark hallways and classrooms, while the USM team played sounds evoking whips, chains and galloping horses to make the experience more vivid and intense.”
THE CNN contacted the University School of Milwaukee for comment on the alleged exercises, but did not receive a response.
Appeal
Online, a call to action is circulating among a “group of current and former Milwaukee University School parents and students,” pressing school leadership to reverse what it calls a culture of “bias and insensitivity.”
More than 200 alumni, parents and even students are listed as enrolled.
“I’ve also heard from a lot of people whose stories won’t be on this site and who won’t be in public because they’re still afraid of retaliation,” said Kelly Robinson. “That’s why we brought this forward, as Craig commented, it wasn’t just about us, it was about all these other people who went through it as well.”
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
