Worcester Mother Says Children Faced Racism, Then Removal By Principal

WORCESTER, MA — Two Midland Elementary School students lost their spots at the school last month in what their mother believes is an act of retaliation after she confronted school officials about racist incidents.

The removal of the students has also exposed a larger problem for other parents at the school, who say their children were disenrolled after confronting Principal Christina Guertin about other incidents at Midland.

The mother said the family lives in Burncoat, but her 4th and 5th grade son and daughter have been able to attend Midland — located near the Newton Square rotary — through the district's voluntary transfer program. The program allows students to attend schools outside where they would usually be assigned based on their home address.

The son and daughter excelled at Midland, the mother said, getting good grades and participating in activities like robotics and chorus. Midland is one of the highest performing elementary schools in Worcester, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

At the same time, the two students, who are Black, have been called the N-word by their peers, their mother said. Her daughter was called the N-word this spring, and made to apologize "for being racist" to the student who used the slur, the mother said.

A more troubling incident involving her son happened this spring when another student in his art class made monkey noises at him and another Black student. The mother said Guertin investigated the incident, but in a way that exposed her son to more racism.

Guertin, the mother said, called the 4th grader into her office and asked him to imitate the monkey noise the other student had made. When the boy declined, Guertin played videos of monkeys and asked if he could pick out the sound the other student had made, the mother said.

"She ignored hundreds of years of history of that being an extremely racist thing to do," the mother said in a recent interview. She was granted anonymity to protect the identities of her children.

Asked about the incidents the mother described — the monkey noise incident in particular — the district issued a blanket statement.

"The Worcester Public Schools works tirelessly to ensure that every school environment is safe, welcoming, and inclusive for students and families of all backgrounds. The incident in question involved young children and was investigated when it was alleged to have occurred, and the families involved were communicated with at the time," Chief Communications Officer Dan O'Brien said.

The mother said she didn't receive much communication from Guertin about a resolution. The mother escalated the incident to Ellen Kelley, the executive director of schools for the quadrant where Midland is located, but was unsatisfied with the district's response.

"There actually wasn’t any communication initially, my son told me about it after leaving school. And no, there was no real resolve," the mother said.

At the end of May, the mother received a letter from Guertin informing her that her children would lose their voluntary transfer privilege and would have to return to their home school for the 2024-25 school year. The news was especially devastating for the daughter, who expected to finish her final 6th grade year at Midland with her friends.

The letter said the students were losing their voluntary transfers over absenteeism issues. The mother said the students are often tardy, but their absences have not been much different from previous years. Both children had fewer tardies compared to the 2022-23 school year, and the girl had two fewer absences, according to figures Guertin sent to the mother.

Two other Midland parents, Billie Kenyon and Lindsay Grumbach, said their children also lost their voluntary transfers at the end of May. The two parents also had confrontations with Guertin, they said.

Guertin sent letters to Grumbach and Kenyon telling them their children were losing their voluntary transfers due to address changes, but neither Grumbach nor Kenyon moved. Guertin later told them that the transfer losses were due to district budget problems. The district's form letter on rescinding voluntary transfers does not have a line for budget problems, so Guertin selected the address change option, the parents said.

In December, Kenyon confronted Guertin after a person dressed as Santa Claus read to kindergarteners. Santa's appearance at the school was supposed for a fundraiser for the principal's discretionary fund, and not planned to include classroom time. Kenyon, who is Jewish, let Guertin know she felt uncomfortable with a character associated with a Christian holiday meeting with students from an array of religious backgrounds without parents knowing first.

“I was told that Santa is not a religious figure, and, as a first time Worcester parent, I should get use to this,” Kenyon recalled.

Grumbach was one of several parents who spoke out when Guertin allowed former school committee member John Monfredo to read to Midland students. Monfredo has been accused of sexual assault by a former Worcester student, although he has denied the allegations.

The three parents have a total of four students at Midland between them. Midland had seven total rescinded voluntary transfers this school year, compared to zero in 2022-23. Of those, three were second-graders, and then one each in kindergarten, first, third and fourth grades, according to the district.

At the end of the 2023-24 school year, principals across the district rescinded 170 elementary and 99 secondary school voluntary transfers. That's up from the 2022-23 school year, when principals rescinded 119 elementary transfers and 88 secondary school transfers.

"Every year, schools will send notices of rescindment of the voluntary transfer to families based on the frequency of absences or tardies, residential address changes, or if there is a lack of available classroom seats," O'Brien said. "Principals are advised to have continuous dialogue with the families about a potential rescindment well before a notification letter is issued. We understand that receiving such a notice is upsetting, and families should know in advance that a notification is forthcoming. This year, the form letter was revised and inadvertently did not include lack of classroom seats as a reason for rescindment. Some families were incorrectly informed that it was due to a change of address. We will fix this error for next year."

All three parents appealed the loss of their transfers, and all of their children will be allowed to stay at Midland, the parents reported this week.

O'Brien said the district doesn't have any evidence to suggest that Guertin targeted the students due to the interactions with their parents. The parents said they feel the voluntary transfer process needs to be revised to be clearer so that parents know, for example, how many tardies or absences puts a student at risk of losing their transfer.

The voluntary transfer process aside, the mother of the two Midland students who experienced racism said she wants to shed light on "how insidious racism" still is inside schools.

The incidents her children experienced come alongside other high profile incidents nearby this spring. The Boston-based group Lawyers for Civil Rights is suing Marblehead after a 9-year-old Black student was restrained 11 times over four months, triggering several asthma attacks. The group is also suing Melrose after an 11-year-old Black student was subject to racial bullying, including having a white student cut off her braid. In Connecticut, officials in East Haddam are investigating after a group of students sent hundreds of racist messages to a single student of color.

The mother hopes sharing her story will help change school policy. She said she recently learned, for example, that Midland doesn't have any specific policy on students using racial slurs.

"I want to call out the system that punishes kids like mine," she said.