Parents confront Altoona school board over alleged racial bullying

ALTOONA, Pa. (WTAJ)– Concerned parents spoke out at the Altoona Area School District School Board meeting on Monday night.

The comments were regarding an incident last month in which 14-year-old Dustin Shields says he was made fun of by two teachers for his hair. Shields claims that when he came into class one day in January there were two pictures at the front of the class behind the teacher’s desk printed out: His student ID photo and a cartoon broccoli.

“What happens if it was your kid that came home and said that,” Shields father Dallas Shields asked board members. “How would you feel? How would you respond as a parent?”

Almost a month since the incident, Shields Aunt Karyn says the bullying still continues.

“He had a girl calling him broccoli head everyday,” said Karyn Shields. “He asked her why and she said because that teacher did it.”

Karyn Shields says that she is still waiting on a public apology from the district.

“If you’re going to publicly shame the child, you can publicly apologize to him as well,” Karyn Shields said.

Also at the meeting was concerned parent and former district student Bridgett Jackson. Jackson told board members that this should serve as a wake up call for racial bullying in the district.

“We don’t really have a lot of representation on our board when it comes to people of color,” Jackson said. “So when it comes to a concern that most of them are never ever going to experience, I want to make sure there’s eyes on that and people are paying attention and we’re not letting it go away.”

Blair County NAACP President Andrae Holsey says that he won’t let it go away. Holsey added that the NAACP’s investigation found the two teachers guilty of ethnic intimidation.

“Completely unacceptable,” Holsey said. “He should be on leave without pay pending investigation and I would like to think that investigation would result in the revocation of a teaching license. Two teaching licenses.”

Holsey says that if no action is taken by the school board they are prepared to contact the state Board of Education and even take the issue to court. WTAJ did ask a school board member for further comment, but they say since it is a personnel issue it is being dealt with internally.

“I’m hopeful,” Holsey said. “You know we’ve seen policy change happening already the implementation of title 6 training that was discussed in the board meeting today is huge. That’s the title that addresses these kinds of incidents.”