Fresno’s Black student leaders demand more action in wake of racist Bullard High photo
About a dozen students spoke out at the Fresno Unified School Board meeting Wednesday night, demanding an update on the district’s response to a racist photo taken at Bullard High school that emerged online about two weeks ago.
“If you have students writing statements, sending you emails directly, speaking at board meetings or press conferences, just for you to finally understand that we are tired ... you are the problem,” said Rayven Few, a student at Edison. “It’s time to stop catering to white supremacy.”
Hundreds of Fresno students, led by the Black Student Unions at Bullard and Edison, mobilized in the wake of a photo of a student wearing a white garment resembling a Ku Klux Klan hood in a Bullard High School weight room. Students called out additional racist social media accounts in the following days, pointing to a larger pattern of racism in city schools.
But it was the photo taken inside the Bullard weight room that launched student walkouts and protests at Fresno high schools. During the May 6 protest, Black Student Union members also presented the district with a list of demands.
Some of these demands include:
- Discipline and cultural sensitivity training for the students involved, as well as the staff members who were supervising
- Enforcement of Fresno Unified’s anti-racist resolution for district employees and students
- Increased recruitment and retention of Black teachers
- Implementation of student governing boards at each comprehensive high school in the district to assess and enforce of anti-racist policies
Earlier in the meeting Wednesday, Superintendent Bob Nelson provided some updates on the district’s response to the student demands and acknowledged the challenge of wanting to stand with the district’s students of color while also being legally prohibited from sharing disciplinary details of the students involved in the photo.
Last week, the district said it had taken disciplinary action against the students involved in the photo.
The district has not revealed details regarding staff supervision at the weight room when the photo was taken.
He said that the district is committed to expanding student advisory boards on race and social justice and improving inclusiveness on Bullard’s campus.
“We’ll be bringing back updates on those student advisory board goals throughout the remainder of this school year and regularly next year, as well as in ongoing years,” he said.
During the presentation on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised state budget, Trustee Andy Levine also said that there might be an opportunity to address the demand to recruit and retain Black faculty in the additional one-time funding to expand residencies for teachers and school counselors.
Some community members spoke in solidarity with the BSU students, including a representative from Fresno Barrios Unidos, while others spoke in defense of the Bullard students involved in the photo.
Andrew Fabela, who lost the race for the board’s trustee Area 5 seat to Levine last month, said the students in the photo didn’t deserve to be judged or labeled for one snapshot.
Fabela’s statement ended in a shouting match with board members, however, after he cursed during his remarks.
“I’d like to apologize to the people in this room for that obscenity,” said Trustee Valerie Davis after Fabela had left the podium. “I don’t condone it, and I don’t want it spoken in front of our children.”
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This story was originally published May 19, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
