Voice-Mail Fallout Still Roiling in Lincoln-Way
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Charla Brautigam, Daily Southtown (Chicago), Mar. 11
While administrators say racist attitudes won’t be tolerated in Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210, a parent confronted the board of education Thursday night and said they do exist and must be remedied.
Less than a week after a board member resigned under pressure, after allegations she left a racially charged message on a Chicago reporter’s voicemail, Yolanda Robles came to the board and spoke of the open harassment her children face in New Lenox’s Lincoln-Way Central High School.
“Discrimination is very much a reality,” Robles said.
It’s not uncommon for her children of Hispanic descent to be peppered with “demeaning comments,” she added.
They’re called “Mexicans” or “Puerto Ricans” or asked for their Green Card, she said, and some students have even asked her children, “How’s the landscaping business going?”
The schools and Lincoln-Way community are “guilty of ignorance,” she continued, and should offer diversity training for students and adults.
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The superintendent pointed out the district started a new diversity training program this past fall called Designing Opportunities to Value Everyone (D.O.V.E.).
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(Posted on March 11, 2005)