Recent Racism And Division At LTHS: Official

La Grange IL

23 February, 2022

9:09 AM

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LA GRANGE, IL — The top official at Lyons Township High School on Tuesday noted problems on the school's two campuses over the last couple of weeks. But he said he was confident the school could overcome those issues. "I want to acknowledge the challenges that our school community has encountered throughout the last few weeks — the divisiveness, the disrespect, the racism. The examples of anger in the form of harassment is not what we're accustomed to seeing at LT," Superintendent Brian Waterman said at a school board meeting. "And quite frankly, the anger directed toward schools in our country has never been at the level that it is at now." He did not mention specifically what racism the school has seen. At the last school board meeting, two speakers reported an increase in the use of the N-word on campus. In response to those reports, Patch contacted the school's spokeswoman, Jennifer Bialobok. She did not detail any incidents, but she said the school was relentless in its pursuit of an inclusive culture. "We continue to stand against all forms of behavior and rhetoric that are hurtful, discriminatory, and/or racist," Bialobok said in an email. "To that end, please know that LTHS does not tolerate any language, behavior or action that fails to support these ideals." At the meeting, Waterman said emotions were raw. "People are hurting emotionally, and this negatively impacts every single person, staff, parents, community members and, of course, most importantly, students," Waterman said. But he said students have continued learning. And faculty and staff have continued to help them in every way they can, he said. "We need to double down on kindness, on compassion and on tolerance," Waterman said. Like many schools, Lyons Township has faced divisions over its mask mandate, which ends Monday. And many are also upset that the school twice rejected giving official club status to a student conservative group. At last week's meeting, mask mandate opponents became angry when the school board ended public comment after a half hour, following its policy. A mother of three demanded to speak, joined by two men who shouted at the board to grant her wish. One of them called the school board "cowards." Others in the audience yelled that the school board should be ashamed of itself. Earlier, an anti-mask resident spoke calmly at first, but then lost his cool, shouting "This is b-------" at least a couple of times. Tuesday's meeting also had its moments. A woman in favor of masks insulted an anti-mask student who had just spoken. The woman criticized the student's grammar, drawing boos from the audience. "That's respect?" one man shouted.