By M. W. Schwartzwalder, Walden
I don’t shock easily in the era of brown babies being separated from their mothers and locked in cages by the federal government, but I was shocked by the front page of the 10/14/20 edition of the Wallkill Valley Times.
Before reading “Racism alleged at VC” I naively thought that Valley Central School District had moved forever beyond that as a systemic problem, because of the fix that was put in place decades ago. After it was discovered that the Grand Dragon of the New York State KKK was a substitute teacher at VCHS a yearly anti-racism program was started. I figured the anti-racism program would be incorporated into the curriculum of all the schools in the district, and racism in the district would be under control.
I’m no longer sure the high school program is still in effect and I don’t know if it was ever expanded into other schools in the district. Obviously, if the Valley Central Parents for Social Justice feel racism is a problem in the district, the fix for the district’s racism problem at the high school needs to be revisited and expanded upon.
Racism is an extreme form of ignorance and the cure for ignorance is education.