“living racialized experiences every moment of every day”
The Plymouth Public Schools spent $7000 for a day long critical race training session attended by a select group of students and staff at Plymouth South High School earlier this month, according to documents obtained by 1620Today.
The session was designed to reject color blindness, induce white “guilt and shame” and have participants recognize they were “living racialized experiences every moment of every day” before eventually asking white participants what “type of White person they want to be.”
The training asked participants to place themselves on a “Racial Identity Development” continuum [see below] divided by race: African American/Bi-racial/White. The continuum for each race was distinctly different. The training was conducted by Henry J Turner, principal of Newton North High School, who also hosted a one hour faculty meeting titled the “anti-racist educator.” The full day training session was billed at $6000 and the one hour faculty meeting at $1000 [invoices below].
In the white racial identity continuum, whites “after feeling guilty and ashamed, Whites may move into the emergence stage where they start to understand their privilege and how it has and continue to benefit them. They also now begin to take control over the type of White person they want to be like.”
In the first “contact” stage of being white, the training asserts “The individual adheres to the ‘colorblind’ motto. They see racial difference but do not find it salient and in fact may feel that racism is in fact propagated by the discussion and acknowledgement of race as an issue. In this stage, there is no conscious demonstration of racism here. This seemingly non-racist position can cover unconscious racist beliefs.”
Plymouth South High School originally posted the session on its Facebook page with the caption: “PSHS staff and students worked today with Newton North High School Principal Mr. Henry Turner. Henry is helping our school community begin the important work of developing a racial identity. Thank you to all staff and students who participated today!”
When asked how a “school community” develops a “racial identity” Plymouth South responded on Facebook: “We are working to develop an identity that is free of bias and truly welcomes all students. This has always been our goal but this is more intentional. Some of our guiding questions are: Who is included? Who is not included? What do we need to do to make sure more students are included? Feel free to reach out to the school at 508-224-7512 and we can share more of the focus.”
The documents below were obtained by a public records request to the Plymouth School Department. Click links in presentations to dive deeper into the training.
Virus levels among school students and employees dipped even lower this week to just 4 total cases systemwide, down from 14 last week. The four cases were students who acquired the virus from “out of school” exposure. No employees reported having the virus this week, the second week in the last three weeks with no employee virus cases. 22 students and 2 employees were quarantined due to “out of school” exposure. Last week 32 students were quarantined and no employees.
According to data released by the school department late Friday, no Plymouth school students or staff had a current virus case due to school exposure. 12 student were reported with out of school exposure and 2 staff, for a total of 14 cases, last week there were 11 cases. Plymouth schools include over 7000 students and staff. 32 students were quarantined for out of school exposure, down 7 from last week. No staff were currently quarantined.
Virus levels in Plymouth public schools remained level over the last week with 11 student virus cases reported, but no employee cases. This was the first school week since November 6th that no employees were reported with the virus.
Quarantine students fell to 39 from 46 the week before and only 2 employees are quarantined. All quarantine cases were from out of school exposure to the virus.
Under the prior standard which was in effect the week of April 12th a “close contact” with a confirmed case within 6 feet for 15 minutes or longer within a twenty-four period would result in a quarantined student. Over school vacation state has reduced the number of feet to within 3 feet.
The CDC standard remains at 6 feet and the new 3 foot Commonwealth of Massachusetts standard varies from CDC guidance.
Overall virus cases in the school district are down slightly. Students returned from April vacation yesterday.
Ten students have active virus cases, down from 17 the week before (2 from in school exposure) , with 2 employee cases (1 from in school exposure).
After middle and high school students returned to full time in person learning Monday, the number of students quarantined for virus exposure has nearly doubled since last week, according to data released by the school department today. Quarantined students don’t necessarily have the virus and the school department is following state guidelines for what constitutes a “close contact” at school. School department data is released system wide, not by grade level.
Quarantined students due to “in school” exposure jumped from 22 to 116, since last week.
SOURCE: PLYMOUTH PUBLIC SCHOOL DATA
The number of quarantined students due to in or out of school exposure almost doubled from 87 last week to 171 this week. All of that increase was due “in school” exposure as “out of school exposure” actual fell from last week, down to 55 students from 65 the prior week. But quarantined students due to “in school” exposure jumped from 22 to 116, since last week.
Meanwhile the total number of students with the virus actually fell from last week down to 17 from 25, none of the current student cases are traced to “in school’ exposure.
Employee cases held steady at two cases, also none traced to “in school’ exposure.
