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“I reassured him every single time, be proud of who you are … your skin is beautiful, your hair is beautiful, you are and you always will be a good person,” she said.
For decades, many Metco parents have sent their children to predominantly white suburbs with trepidation, knowing their children would likely encounter racial discrimination, a reluctant trade-off they felt compelled to make in an effort to avoid substandard academics and violence in Boston Public Schools.
But as racial tensions have intensified nationwide, including a surge of discrimination complaints in public schools, Metco children have experienced increased racism from classmates and educators, parents and advocates say, prompting some like Holder to seek legal recourse.
Holder is one of two Boston parents this month who have filed civil rights complaints with the US Department of Education regarding the racial discrimination they say their children experienced in Melrose schools. The other complaint alleges a Black fifth-grader was racially harassed this past school year, including by a classmate who cut off one of her braids.
Elsewhere, Marblehead Public Schools got hit this month with a superior court lawsuit that alleges a 9-year-old Black Metco student was repeatedly restrained illegally by staffers. Southwick Regional School District also is facing a civil rights complaint, which was filed in May and involves a 13-year-old Black student who is attending that district through the Springfield Metco program. The complaint contends the student was one of two students targeted in February by an online mock slave auction created by their peers overnight in a group chat following months of racist bullying. Six Southwick eighth-graders in March were criminally charged for their involvement in the group chat.
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Fearful for her son’s safety, Holder withdrew him from Melrose schools in March. He finished the seventh grade at Ruth Batson Academy, formerly called BCLA-McCormack Pilot School in Dorchester, part of BPS, where she says the staff and students appreciate and respect him.
“You enter the Metco program so you can learn from each other’s cultures and somewhere along the lines that got muddled in the water,” Holder said. “They see us as charity cases. They have to educate us because our schools are not good, and basically, we are relegated to second-class citizens.”
Melrose Mayor Jennifer Grigoraitis, who also serves on the School Committee, vowed to make the school system welcoming to all students.
“Melrose students, whether their families live here or in Boston, should never have to face racism and bias in school,” Grigoraitis said in a statement. “As a community, we need to commit ourselves to engaging in serious, reflective and critical conversations on race and racism, even when those conversations are uncomfortable.”
Melrose Public Schools has launched outside investigations into the middle school case, which began in February, and more recently the one involving the fifth-grader at Winthrop Elementary School, according to school and city officials.
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“We have a lot of work to do to prevent future incidents of racism,” said John Macero, Melrose’s interim superintendent , in a statement.
Jason Webb, who is Black and has two children in Melrose schools, said discrimination in the town is more common than it was when he was growing up there, even though it’s more diverse. Black and biracial students, he said, are being called monkeys, gorillas, and apes, and white friends will ask for an “N-word pass,” permission to use the racial slur.
“True empathy and understanding is lacking, and that hurts,” said Webb, adding that teachers and administrators are not doing enough to address racism. “When something goes wrong, someone needs to be held accountable, but there has been a complete lack of accountability.”
Erika Richmond Walton, an attorney with Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston, which is representing the Metco families in their legal fights, said districts, including their overwhelmingly white workforces, are failing to adequately respond because of a lack of cultural understanding.
“These administrators and teachers do not understand what it feels like to be bullied based on one’s identity and haven’t taken the time to understand these students and don’t really value their concerns,” she said. “And by not addressing these students’ concerns, they are allowing these incidents to escalate.”
Among Melrose’s approximately 520 school employees during the 2023-24 school year, about 30 identify themselves as Black, Latino, Asian, or multirace, according to state data. Students of color represent about a quarter of the nearly 4,000 student enrollment, but they can feel racially isolated because they are scattered across eight schools.
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Kerrin Gibbs and Damarco Dooley found that out when they enrolled their daughter at Melrose’s Winthrop Elementary School last fall through Metco. Their daughter was the only Black student in her fifth grade classroom, according to their civil rights complaint. Within two weeks, a white classmate called her a “monkey.” In December, another white student, referring to a character on a math app, told their daughter, “that monkey looks like you.” Another white student later called her an ape in the cafeteria.
The bullying persisted, the complaint said, even as she repeatedly raised concerns. Last month, a classmate cut 10 inches off one of her braided hair extensions while she was doing classwork. None of her classmates came to her defense and her teacher blamed her, the complaint said, suggesting that maybe it fell out while she was playing with her hair.
The racial harassment “impacted her grades and mental health, left her traumatized, and made her miss significant periods of school,” according to the complaint.
“My daughter should never have to deal with being called a ‘monkey’ or an ‘ape’ or having her braids cut, but the fact that the school did nothing to prevent future incidents makes the problem even worse, and it emboldens the racist bullies,” Gibbs said in a statement.
Meanwhile, at the middle school, Holder said the school’s failure to remedy the increasing discrimination left her son vulnerable to attacks by other students last September and January. Administrators initially claimed Holder’s son started the January fight with the white student, who previously called him the N-word. One administrator wrongfully alleged he got off the bus that morning and “just started swinging,” the complaint said. They immediately removed her son from school that day.
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However, Holder eventually discovered a student video that captured the entire incident and it showed that the other student started the fight. Administrators dropped the charges against her son, but they did not initiate an investigation at that time against the other student, even though Holder considered the attack against her son to be racially motivated, Holder said.
“They had no accountability for themselves,” she said. “They didn’t even apologize.”
The federal government has previously faulted Melrose for mishandling racial discrimination when a middle school teacher in 2014 directed a racially-charged term at a Metco student during class. The USDOE found additional evidence that revealed the incident was not isolated — as Melrose officials contended — and that, taken together, created a racially hostile environment for the student, according to a determination letter in 2016.
As part of a settlement agreement, the district was required to investigate all complaints and ensure it had policies and training programs for employees and students aligned with federal discrimination laws.
But with a churn in faculty and administration, the district’s commitment appears to be waning, parents say.
Metco, which primarily oversees the application process for the program, notified its more than 3,000 families earlier this month that it is exploring ways to engage an outside consultant focused on responding to and repairing racial harm in schools. Metco has been urging suburban districts to step up efforts to address racial bias in policies and programs.
“Metco remains committed to ensuring that every Metco student receives an education that is equitable, inclusive, and antiracist,” Milly Arbaje-Thomas, Metco’s president and CEO, wrote in the June 7 letter.
The incidents have sparked soul-searching among some Melrose residents about the community they want to be.
“For the most part, everyone of our school administrators and city leaders have the best intentions and want to do their best, but if we don’t prioritize this work and don’t pay attention to the pitfalls, then we will continue to have these things flare up,” said Alastair Moock, a white Melrose parent and cofounder of Melrose Racial Justice Community Coalition.
A rally earlier this month at Melrose City Hall, organized by Moock’s group and Friends of Melrose Metco, drew about 100 participants, including the mayor and superintendent. Participants urged greater accountability and transparency from Melrose schools, more robust cultural sensitivity training, and more frequent in-depth conversations with students about school values.
“One thing you can expect when you sign up for the Metco program is that your children will encounter racism,” Demia Allen, a Metco parent with two children in the Melrose schools and two others who graduated from there, said in an interview. “That’s not just specific to Melrose. It’s all towns. It’s a privilege for our children to go out there for an education and the towns should be equally privileged to have them there.”
The Great Divide team explores educational inequality in Boston and statewide. Sign up to receive our newsletter, and send ideas and tips to thegreatdivide@globe.com.
James Vaznis can be reached at james.vaznis@globe.com. Follow him @globevaznis.
