Teachers told Vitale they were instruct to play a game, A Tribe Called Quest, to show they didn’t understand Black culture and couldn’t teach Black authors because of their implicit bias. What he said to our teachers … some of it is nonsensical,” Vitale said. Vitale said teachers described the meetings as extremely upsetting, and they left those meetings with the message that they are racist. “There is nothing of value that man has to say,” Vitale said. Vitale continued, “He told them he didn’t read it because he refused to read books by white authors.”Īs Vitale spoke Thursday evening, she was visibly disturbed and called Hall a racist bigot. Hall told the teachers, “I know people who have, and they tell me about it.” “They were made to go to … multiple meetings with Sage Wellness and this man Victorious Hall, and try to explain why they loved the book, why they wanted to keep teaching it, and this man tells them he has never read the book,” Vitale said. She described discussions that took place in the meetings. Vitale, who called herself a middle-of-the-road person, said her jaw dropped reading the details from the teacher and she feels they are owed an apology. Vitale said her biggest take away is the poor treatment the teachers received and a lack of feedback about the meetings. The district had chosen Sage on the recommendation of another local district, Saksa said, but it was not Sage’s role to weigh in on whether or not this or any other novel remained a part of the curriculum.įour of the 90-minute meetings Sage Wellness held included Victorious Hall, who on the company website is described as an equity consultant and was an English Language educator in Prince George’s County, Maryland, for over 20 years. Prior to the concern about “To Kill a Mockingbord” the district had contracted Sage Wellness beginning in 2018 for professional development and workshops that focused on a sense of belonging, which were geared for teachers and also had two workshops for parents. “There is a changing landscape about what is going to help all our students belong.” “There are lots of complexities to determining whether or not to include this particular book,” she said. Saksa said people all over the country have grappled with this issue in a changing landscape. In late spring 2019 several building administrators had heard from four or five students objecting to offensive language and themes that were included in the novel. The notes from the teachers, which were released with the approval of the administration, indicated there were four to six meetings with Sage Wellness, which according to the company website is committed to using a trauma-informed and responsive lens to assist agencies in improving services provided to children or families. Haverford School Board member Danielle Vitale from a screengrab of the committee meeting video on YouTube.Īt Thursday’s meeting Vitale referred to notes she had just received that morning from teachers about their interactions with Sage Wellness meeting from 2019-2021, calling them “quite shocking.” The consultant firm, Sage Wellness, said that the evaluations of those sessions by the teachers involved were generally complimentary of the back and forth between the facilitator and the educators.īoard member Danielle Vitale had requested the review of the role of the consultant, Sage Wellness Group, at last month’s board meeting focusing on why the district was not assigning the book in the past couple of years. One school board member and an administrator said they were shocked at what went on in sessions involving teachers and a consultant, including heavy racial overtones, during those meetings in 2019 through 2021 that were only now coming to light. The input an outside consulting group had around decisions to pause the use of “To Kill a Mockingbird” for the eighth grade by the School District of Haverford was the main topic of discussion at a recent Curriculum and Pupil Services Committee meeting.
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