WA responds to allegations about racism

The Washington County legislative delegation requested on August 14 a formal investigation by the Maine Attorney General's (AG) Office into allegations of racism and bullying at Washington Academy (WA) in East Machias, including the finding of a noose in the classroom of a teacher who is originally from Mexico. The delegation was responding to a letter sent to Senator Marianne Moore by one of her constituents, Nathan Kempthorne, the father of a senior at WA, Natalia Kempthorne Curiel, as well as husband to Esther Kempthorne, a Spanish teacher at WA for five years. The Kempthornes are a former military family who moved to Maine in 2014. WA administrators deny there is a pervasive culture of racism but say they realize the need to address the allegations. The private high school takes pride in being one of the most diverse schools in the state, but administrators say they recognize they must take steps to ensure that all students and staff are treated fairly.
In their letter to the attorney general, the legislative delegation wrote, "We believe the claims made by Mr. Kempthorne are horrifying, unacceptable and must be fully and openly investigated by your offices along with the Maine Human Rights Commission to allow our community, the school, students and their families to move forward." They added, "Racism, abuse and bullying have no place in our society, much less in our K 12 educational system; not in Maine; not in Washington County; nor in Washington Academy. Such behavior is unacceptable and must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law if we are going to turn a corner -- especially where minors are concerned." The delegation is comprised of Senator Marianne Moore and Representatives Will Tuell, Robert Alley, Anne Perry and Rena Newell.
The AG's office had no comment on whether it is conducting an investigation. However, Senator Moore, who spoke with Attorney General Aaron Frey on September 4, says an investigation has not been launched but the office has reached out to the school to obtain the student handbook and is looking at the school's funding streams to see if it is required to have a policy on bullying. In addition, Brandon Baldwin, project director of the Civil Rights Team Project in the AG's office, explains that while there has not been a civil rights team at WA, his office is working with the school to possibly start one this year.

Petition demands reforms
About two months ago Natalia Kempthorne Curiel developed a Change.org petition that details demands for social justice reforms at WA. It states, "We believe the current administration of Washington Academy and the board of trustees have created a systemic and institutionalized culture of discrimination within our school." In three weeks she had gathered over 1,000 signatures. "A large number of the signatures are local, varying from current students, alumni, former and current faculty, international students from many countries around the world and concerned community members," she says.
Before starting the petition, Kempthorne Curiel submitted a report on June 8 to WA about race based harassment she had experienced at the school. The report includes allegations of racial slurs used by some students at school and on social media; and verbal attacks on minority students, "including the use of the n word and racial slurs directed at Native Americans." She reported that she and her sister had "witnessed white students routinely flying Confederate flags on school grounds - and as recently as the first week of March 2020." From her perspective there appeared to be no repercussions, "which made me feel as though the administration accepted that practice."
Kempthorne Curiel filed her report with WA officials: Head of School Judson McBrine, Tim Reynolds, Richard Olivares and Chris Lyford, who was president of the board of trustees at the time. The only response she received, she says, was a two sentence thank you from McBrine for sharing her story. "Standing up for myself was terrifying, but it was even worse to feel ignored." McBrine, though, says, "It is not accurate to state that the school essentially dismissed her concerns."
While Kempthorne Curiel had been collecting information for her report, she began to collect stories from current and former students of color. They had similar experiences, she says. She collected stories from those willing to share them and provided them to the WA administration last month. "I started the petition because I want the school to know that these are not isolated incidents and that students, teachers and the entire community demand better."
The petition includes a list of action items for the WA administration to follow, and on September 4 the Kempthornes' attorney, Shelby Leighton, shared, "Esther [mother to Natalia] and Natalia are now engaged in ongoing discussions with Washington Academy about investigating their reports of discrimination and implementing the action items in the petition." Those action items include: acknowledge WA's past and hold school leadership accountable; understand and investigate ongoing discrimination at WA; improve WA personnel, processes and procedures for future students and staff; and improve transparency and community oversight.
McBrine says that an investigation into allegations of racial discrimination "and the more global equity audit are being conducted by third parties with no affiliation or relationship with WA. WA will take all necessary actions in response to this investigation's findings and to the recommendations made pursuant to this equity audit." In addition, WA "is planning on conducting a more global analysis of its policies, practices and curricula to determine where inequities exist at WA and how the school can best respond to those inequities to ensure that students and staff learn and work in a safe, inclusive environment."

Sharing experiences and tackling inequities
"WA needs to be a safe place for everyone to be who they are. It's not right now," says 2009 graduate Zami Godin. Along with incidents of alleged racism, there was also a lack of understanding and acceptance of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and allies (LGBTQA) community, she maintains. As an adopted Black woman raised by lesbian parents, she notes that she represents a lot of layers and has experienced numerous examples of racism and intolerance during her time at the school. What still chokes her up, though, is when she was presented with an award for her involvement on the tennis team at a WA sports banquet dinner. When she was called up to the podium, she and only one of her mothers was called to the stand. "I said 'no, you're both coming up with me.'" She adds that the situation was painful and embarrassing and shouldn't have happened. "There was no tolerance when I was there" for the LGBTQA community.
Esther Kempthorne is a naturalized immigrant from Mexico and a certified PreK 12 Spanish educator. She was unaware of the significance when she found a noose in her WA classroom, but she later found out and reported it to the administration. She also had been asked by a student when she was "going home." She left WA in 2020. "I resigned because I could no longer teach in an environment where race and national origin based harassment and discrimination were commonplace and were not taken seriously." She explains, "I was tired of being told that I was being 'political' when I spoke up against racism, and the last straw was the way the school treated my daughter."
McBrine, though, says, "In the 23 years that I have been head of school at WA, no complaint that I have ever been involved with has ever been dismissed as 'too political.'"
Godin felt that there was disrespect shown towards the international Chinese students. Students made fun of their names. "They weren't valued." Esther Kempthorne also heard racist comments from students about the international Chinese students with statements such as "these Chinese students are bringing the virus." Godin thinks that the school should have a school wide meeting at the beginning of the school year where students and staff can really think about a "talking culture" and cultural differences.
She has her own memories of racist moments and of an overall feeling that many of the staff there during her time would not have thought of themselves as racist. "You can be a good person all day and still be a racist without good leadership and direction."
McBrine does not believe there is a pervasive racist culture at WA. "But I do recognize the need to address these inequities," he says. "Doing so is a major priority for WA in the upcoming school year. Both here in Washington County and around the country, there is a conversation occurring about race and how systematic racism affects and harms institutions. I think that this conversation is long overdue and welcome it. We need to be aware of these problems and fight them wherever we find them."
While 2015 graduate Reuben Grannis had a positive experience at WA, he was a member of the Gay, Straight, Trans, Allies (GSTA) Club for four years and was president for one. As a white male born and raised in Washington County, he was definitely given the odd look for being a member of the group. "My view of the GSTA was it was formed as a support group and to have straight allies. I was definitely looked at strangely and questioned about my sexuality because I was a member." He adds, "There was quite a lot of out grouping from Maine bred boys and girls, some unaccepting and suspicious."
Recently speaking with a Black male friend who attended WA, Grannis relates that his friend talked about how he would allow others to say racial slurs and might even use the same slur towards himself, in a form of "soft racism" that in retrospect he realized he shouldn't have allowed. It would often happen when one minority student was in a circle of white friends, Grannis says.
Neither Grannis or Kaya Pulz, a 2016 graduate, were surprised when they heard of WA students driving trucks with Confederate flags and disrupting a Black Lives Matter march held in Machias in June. A number of years ago Grannis was told that racism runs deep in Maine, and he and Pulz are in agreement that it's still alive and well and in need of change.
Natalia Kempthorne Curiel characterizes the student behavior at the Black Lives Matter event as an organized "anti Black Lives Matter" rally, with some WA students lining up their trucks and driving by those walking many times, "yelling offensive things like 'Go home,' flipping the protest off and playing 'Dixie' loudly over their truck horn." She adds, "The students involved continued to bully and harass me online because I support the Black Lives Matter movement, making offensive comments about immigrants like my mother."
When asked about any actions WA took or is taking to address specific complaints about racist behaviors, including the flying of the Confederate flag, the noose found in the classroom, racist and homophobic comments by students and staff and WA student participation in harassing those participating in the Black Lives Matter march, McBrine responds that WA is investigating the allegations and will respond appropriately to the investigator's findings. "Beyond that I do not believe that it is appropriate to discuss allegations that are currently being investigated." He says that WA internally responded to some of the allegations, but he declines to comment on disciplinary matters involving students.
The Kempthornes' lawyer, Shelby Leighton, says, "The school has told the family that there was an investigation of the WA students' behavior during the Black Lives Matter protest and that the school chose not to take any disciplinary action against the students involved in harassing the protesters. The school has also hired an attorney to investigate the incidents that Esther and Natalia reported, and that investigation is in the early stages. We are continuing to work with the school on implementing the other actions called for in the petition."

Integrating international students
Like Godin, Grannis and Pulz think that integrating the international boarding students with the day students could be done in a more meaningful way. Pulz adds that from comments she remembers from international students, it was clear to her that they were not getting the kind of local interactions that they had hoped for and "that they would love to be integrated into the community more." Grannis and Pulz highly valued their interactions with international students, with Grannis visiting a number in their own countries and hosting them when they came to visit the United States. Pulz and Grannis count themselves fortunate that they were raised in households that value cultural and ethnic diversity, but "a lot of people in that part of Maine are not exposed to [different] cultures," and that can pose challenges, adds Pulz.

Taking stock and developing initiatives
While WA is waiting for the results of the independent investigation and report of recommendations, McBrine says that WA knows "that questions of racial justice can't wait." The school has reached out to the AG's office and has asked to be part of the Civil Rights Team Project and have a team in place for the 2020 2021 school year.
Concerning civil rights teams, Baldwin explains, "We task our teams with engaging their school communities in thinking and talking about issues related to race and skin color, national origin and ancestry, religion, disabilities, gender -- including gender identity and expression -- and sexual orientation. We equip our civil rights teams with an action plan to help them identify specific strategies for how they might do this. For instance, they might look at school policies, or engage their peers in conversations about bias based language or host a guest speaker."
McBrine says that WA is inviting staff to attend the Cultural Competence Institute for Maine educators, and the school plans to "expand the presence and activity of its GSTA Club and its International Club." In addition, it has established a Trustee Diversity Committee and an Educator Diversity Committee and has expanded its existing school wide diversity programming. Starting in 2020 2021 there will be a director of diversity. He adds, "These changes are absolutely necessary, and we look forward to putting them in place over the course of the school year."
(RJ Heller and Edward French contributed to this article.)