The Glass Schoolhouse: Messages from Bedford High School and Superintendent Sills

May 29, 2015

By Virginia Spencer
Bedford Schools LogoBedford High School Principal Dr. Henry Turner and Bedford School Superintendent Jon Sills both sent letters to parents of students at Bedford High School this week, and in the spirit of community transparency gave The Bedford Citizen permission to share them with our readers. A link to each letter is at the bottom of this story.

The letters are a follow-up to a video shown on BHS Live, a daily student-run TV broadcast at the Bedford High School, on Wednesday morning. The video was created by a student whose intent, according to a letter sent to parents on Wednesday afternoon by Principal Henry Turner, was “not to offend other people…but to spread awareness about how she felt about race at BHS.”  The template for the approach the student used was based on a popular YouTube video entitled “Sh*t People Say”.  In his letter, Turner expressed his concern that “what was intended to educate students around complex and challenging issues” may have offended some who perceived an insinuation that “all white students make these kinds of comments.” A link to the full text of Turner’s letter is provided at the bottom of this story.

As a follow-up to the morning’s video and his letter to BHS parents, Principal Turner led a discussion during the Wednesday afternoon activity block (known as X block) which approximately 150 students attended.

Superintendent Jon Sills sent a letter to parents on Thursday evening, noting that FOX News would be airing a report on the video incident that night.  Among other things, Sills said that as result of the experience, “Respect for diversity is a core value in Bedford and one that we are proud of.  That includes a respect for a diversity of opinions as long as those opinions do not demean or objectify others.” The full text of Sills’ letters are available through the links provided below.

Get The Bedford Citizen in your inbox!



Both administrators applauded the willingness of students who attended the X-block meeting to thoughtfully engage with one another about a sensitive and important issue on which there was a range of opinions expressed in a respectful and open manner.

Links to the text of relevant letters sent to parents of students at Bedford High School:

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Subscribe
Notify of

1 Comment
Newest
Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
DaveLance
May 30, 2015 10:05 am

I’ve provided the links to both the BHS original video, and the Fox News broadcast regarding it. In my opinion, this video is only perceived as racist because weak people allowed it to be labelled as racist. It is not racist. Racist is hate speech. Racist is deciding what someone is, or how they think, or how they will act, based on some arbitrary measure, and then reacting to them based on the prejudgement.

This isn’t racist.

This IS a good beginning of what could be a real conversation. I applaud the student journalists who shot it, edited it, and published it. Maybe it would be better if they had not implied a swear word by writing “ASSume.” (As in, as a white person, I ASSume I know what it is like to be ASSumed to be part of the METCO program, or I ASSume I understand what it feels like to observe the black principal when he is ASSumed to be the janitor.)

But other than “ASSume,” it is a solid piece of journalism, and the students who produced it ought to be proud. It is light years beyond the stuff that Fox News broadcasts in terms of examining a tough issue with daring honesty and with the genuine purpose of arriving at a higher, more enlightened way of perceiving real truth.

This is a BHS issue. I heartily join the producers of the video to ask BHS what WE are going to do about it? My vote is after praising this effort, we should provide this budding journalist with a charged battery and a blank 64 Gig SD card, and some encouragement to produce more stuff, and a stern lecture to never sell your soul to work for Fox News.

The student video is here: https://youtu.be/BZbtDB97B34

The Fox News broadcast is here: https://www.myfoxboston.com/story/29185159/video-about-race-at-a-high-school-sparks-controversy-in-local-town

It should be noted that the title of our BHS student’s piece fits a larger trend
in the social media / video world. I am looking at YouTube as I type this. Here are a sampling of titles from the genre:

Sh*t White Girls Say to Arab Girls
Sh*t White People Say to Asians
Sh*t Southern Women Say
Sh*t People Say to Native Americans
Sh*t Broke People Say
Sh*t Christians Say to Jews
Sh*t White Moms Say
Sh*t Girls Say to Gay Guys
Sh*t Robot Girls Say: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0QL9KZ97ug

The list goes on and on…

(I included the link to the robots one for your entertainment. Apologies to those who consider it anti-robotist.)

Dave Lance
Bedford, MA

All Stories

What’s Bedford Thinking about the Red Sox?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Junior Landscaping
Go toTop