In the past three weeks, there have been two major protests on IHS grounds concerning the Ithaca City School District (ICSD)’s handling of Amelia Kearney’s racial discrimination lawsuit. First, on Monday, October 1, a rally consisting largely of community members marched in the courtyard outside the ICSD administration building. Then on Wednesday, October 10, following a Board of Education (BoE) meeting the night before, IHS students marched through the halls and rallied throughout the day.

The Student Protest

According to Patrick B. ’09, one of the organizers of the student protest, he and fellow juniors Tanisha J. ’09, Kierra W. ’09, and Greg J. ’09 had attended the BoE meeting on October 9, where they were frustrated by the board’s inaction. Although the BoE came close to granting protesters’ wishes that the district remove the injunction on hearing the Kearney case in court, it ultimately decided to deal with other matters and refused to return to discussion of the case. At this point, the students decided that if the school district was going to ignore the issue, “We’ll take action,” said Kierra W..

During first period on October 10, about 10 students stood outside the IHS main office in J-Building. From there, they began walking through the halls, chanting, “No justice, no peace!” They marched through H- and G-Buildings, eventually reaching the ICSD administration building, and soon discovered that the school had been put into lockdown. The lockdown was lifted when the administration and the protesters agreed to meet in the Activities Building to discuss the issue further.

Patrick B. said that he and the other protesters were wary of this compromise, since the BoE had refused to revisit the case the night before. After spending a few periods in Activities speaking to the media, the protesters marched again between fifth and sixth periods. This time, a group of around 50 students demonstrated in the quad and marched back to the administration building, chanting, “Stop the injunction! Stop the appeal!” The protesters spent the first half of sixth period speaking and chanting outside the building before returning to class.

At IHS, the issue also evolved into a discussion about race relations. Student protesters handed out fliers that asked, “When will we all be treated equally?” During the discussion in the Activities building, one student advised fellow protesters that if they wanted others to listen to them, they would have to “talk white.” And some students said that while they were protesting, people called them derogatory names.

Reactions to the protest were mixed. One IHS staff member was heard saying, “It’s the same group of kids who don’t even go to class. It was just an excuse. I’m sick of it.” However, Superintendent Judith Pastel said, “I am very proud of all the students who have been staying focused on their school work. I am also proud of those who have in a peaceful way been expressing their frustrations.”

On Thursday, October 18, the protesting students achieved one of their main goals: the administration set up meetings during eighth period to allow students to express any “concerns or ideas” they had about issues at IHS. Principal Joe Wilson had promised student protesters this forum at their rally, sparking what the students called the “seven-day countdown” to a discussion about racial equality at IHS.

Rumors about the countdown abounded in the week before the forum, and some feared that the countdown anticipated an outbreak of violence. The administration’s investigations into these rumors found them to be unsubstantiated.

The Kearney Case

The issue that set off the protests stems from Amelia Kearney’s allegation that the school district was negligent in following up on her complaint that two years ago, white boys used racial slurs to harass her daughter, a black student at DeWitt Middle School. Kearney took the case to the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission (HRC). However, Pastel and the ICSD asserted that the HRC wasn’t “the appropriate arena” for the case to be heard, and they have stopped the case from proceeding until it becomes clear whether the Commission has jurisdiction over the school. According to Attorney and Executive Director of the Tompkins County HRC Shawn Moore, a higher-level court ruled in 1983 that the Commission did have jurisdiction over the school. But Pastel asserted that since 1995, these cases have been more appropriately handled in the Office of Civil Rights or by the Commissioner of Education.

The problem, as Pastel explained, is that in the HRC, the school records of students involved in the case in any way are open to the public, which is both illegal and unfair. The Office of Civil Rights and the Commissioner of Education, however, allow for records to remain confidential, and for this reason, Pastel said she would support moving the case into one of these two venues, despite the technicality that the time for bringing up the case has officially expired. Moore said that the judge of the case would “try to extend confidentiality as far as it could go,” although Pastel said that the district’s attempts to close the hearings from the public were denied.

According to Moore, if the Commission is awarded jurisdiction the case will continue, but if the ICSD wins the ruling, the implications will extend beyond just the Kearney case: millions of other students across New York State will also lose the protection of the Commission.

The Original Protest

While the IHS students’ rally was a mix of racial discussion and protests against the district’s attempts to halt consideration of the Kearney case, the rally by community members on October 1 was much more oriented around the latter issue.

A group of roughly 30 community members circled the courtyard between K-Building and the ICSD administration building, holding signs that proclaimed, “Our children must be respected and protected” and “Ithaca Demands Better.” Some protesters even called for Pastel’s resignation for her actions in the case. One protester, Tycho Dan, said, “Every step of the way, [Amelia Kearney’s daughter] has had to fight for this, and a lot of us feel that if she wasn’t black, that wouldn’t have been the case.”

Another protester, Cornell student Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, asked, “This 12-year-old girl has been violated and has no defense. Who’s going to be on her side? If the school district is so concerned about the rights of the child, why are they doing this?”

After marching for close to an hour, the protesters entered the ICSD administration building and began walking through the halls and “pounding on the glass,” according to Pastel. The protesters asked to speak with Pastel, but were told that she thought their actions were “rude” and that she didn’t want to talk to them. Unbeknownst to the protesters, Pastel said, she had left the building several minutes earlier and had been instructed by police not to return.

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