'I Know Data': Texas School Board Member Goes on Racist Rant
Parents and community members have called for a Houston school board trustee to resign after he savagely critiqued Black teachers during a racist rant at a school board meeting. Scott Henry of the Cypress Independent School District (CFISD) blamed students’ poor grades and low graduation rates on Black teachers and said diversity efforts were frivolous in comments that left lawmakers, activists and parents aghast.
In a school board meeting on Jan. 10, Onika Mayers, the director of Millennium Learning Concepts (MLC), went through a presentation about diversity and equitable practices and learning opportunities within the district’s middle and high schools. MLC is an organization that provides equity assessments. In the data provided, Mayers noted academic achievement disparities among different racial and ethnic groups.
During the 2019-20 school year, 72 percent of white students reached their academic grade level in English language arts and reading, while less than half of Black, Latino, and economically-disadvantaged students met the mark. Only a quarter of special needs students reached their achievement goals, according to Mayers’ presentation. There were also more Black and Latino students suspended than white students.
“Black and African American students in CFISD are suspended at elevated rates, and that takes away learning time [which] limits their academic potential,” Mayers said. “Black students are less than 20 percent of the CFISD population, but make up nearly 40 percent of students receiving in-school and out-of-school suspensions. MLC noted that this pattern does not appear to impact students of other ethnicities and harms African American students.”
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