Birmingham Superintendent 'Deeply Saddened And Sorry' About KKK Photo

BIRMINGHAM, MI — In a letter to parents, students and staff on Thursday, Birmingham Public Schools Superintendent Daniel Nerad said he is “deeply saddened and sorry about the very negative race, culture and religious-based bias and harassment issues that have occurred in our district” during the present school year.

On May 27, a picture depicting a white male Birmingham student wearing a white trash bag over his head with the eyes cut out and the letters “KKK” written in red over it were posted to Snapchat. The incident happened while students from Berkshire Middle School’s band, orchestra and choir were on a trip to Cedar Point. An unidentified number of students were disciplined because of the incident, Patch reported on June 2.

Nerad took full responsibility for the incident. In the letter, he referenced other race or religious-based incidents, but didn’t elaborate on the number or nature of the incidents.

“Yet, over the course of this school year and again most recently, we have dealt with a very small group of students that have engaged in a variety of reprehensible and abhorrent racial, cultural and religious slurs,” Nerad wrote. “These behaviors sadden and anger me along with many others in our community.”

(For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Birmingham Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, follow us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

A media report posted on May 29 was the first time the Birmingham Public School District heard about the incident. Berkshire Principal Jason Clinkscale began an investigation on May 31 and concluded a few days later with disciplinary action against students, whom the district declined to identify.

Any future acts of racial or religious bias will be dealt with swiftly and with appropriate severity, according to Nerad. “Students that engage in these behaviors will be held accountable for their actions. We will aggressively pursue disciplinary action reflective of current Board policies when these behaviors occur,” he wrote.

The district will continue to educate students and staff about the importance of mutual respect, Nerad added. He outlined a way forward for Birmingham Schools in his letter. Some of his points included:

• “Our Strategic Plan calls for the implementation of culturally responsive teaching practices. This work is well underway and will continue with the goal that our teaching practices are more responsive to the cultural backgrounds of our students.”
• “Our work with character education has been long standing. We will continue this work as a priority and ask each of our schools to revisit what they have done to date, and to make additional commitments to the eleven principles of character education as developed by character.org.”
• “With any race, cultural and religious bias and harassment incidents, we will take a two-prong approach. We will investigate the alleged misconduct and engage discipline that reflects our policies. We will also use each of these incidents to further teach about diversity and how we can best deal with our differences.”

In closing the letter, Nerad said the community must work together. “We must persist in standing against words of hatred and acts of intolerance,” he wrote.

Photo of Daniel Nerad courtesy of the Birmingham Public Schools