Visalia district calls out adults for tearing down Black Lives Matter signs at school
The Visalia Unified School District has stuck with its decision to remove all signs — regardless of the content of the message — from any district-owned school property that’s accessible to the public.
But the district also denounced the behaviors and actions of “misguided” adults who destroyed or removed signs that often were promoting racial equality.
Rows of Black Lives Matter signs have been on display along the fence line at El Diamante High School for some time but ended up causing several confrontations outside of the Visalia school. All of the signs are expected to be removed by Friday.
“The District is disappointed in the reactions of some adults to respond with multiple incidents of threats, violence, and intimidating actions,” the district wrote in a news release that had Superintendent Tamara Ravalín listed atop. “While we cannot expect to agree on every aspect of any emotionally charged issue, we can agree that we, the District and all adults in this community, need to do our best to provide opportunities where our students’ unique and diverse voices can be heard.
“These harmful actions by adults of our community must be denounced.”
Visalia Unified partnered with the College of the Sequoias to allow its students to “continue to share their voices with the community in a safe manner” in the designated free-speech area of the community college.
Students will be allowed to post signs on the fence of the COS south parking lot from July 2-Aug. 10. The district warned that “unlawful” signs would be removed.
“The District will not let the actions of a few misguided adults stop our students from making their voices heard,” Visalia Unified stated in its release.
In addition, the district held a forum Tuesday night (with social distancing measures in place) for selected students who have demonstrated passion about addressing bias, injustice and racism to speak directly with Visalia Police Chief Jason Salazar.
The district said it is exploring ways for more students to engage in dialogue about these issues with the next step likely to be a larger virtual forum for current students to discuss their thoughts.
“Standing together against racism and injustice, and to address bias, is not a political matter,” the district said in its release. “This country, this community, and this District must find common ground to address racism, injustice, and bias to ensure that diversity is a strength and asset.
“That every individual has equal human value, that the needs of those who have been marginalized are met, and that a secure and safe learning and working environment is available for our students and staff. We must teach our students that addressing these issues is a core value of our society and a responsibility of active citizenship.”
This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 11:14 PM.