The NAACP has sent an open letter to Attorney General Andrew Bailey regarding alleged discrimination in the Hazelwood School District, calling for an investigation.
Re: Your Irresponsible Conduct Concerning Notice of Investigation of the Hazelwood School District and HSD Board of Education
Balancing the duplicity of public service and human interest with the need to uphold the law is no easy task. I sympathize with the responsibilities of your office, and I offer prayers and support to both families of those involved in the March 8, 2024, incident between the previously mentioned Hazelwood School District students.
As one who serves the State of Missouri in workforce development programming while leading St. Louis County’s branch of the oldest and largest civil rights organization, I sympathize even more so with you, in your recent error of judgment.
I find your notice of investigation of the Hazelwood School District and its Board of Education appalling and more plainly, irresponsible.
To increase communication efforts and bring awareness to you, and your office, I bring to your remembrance and call attention to the original intent of the United States’introduction of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Originally introduced during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, DEI’s were to address racial inequality in education and the workforce.
How unconscionable of an act to spend taxpayer dollars, resources, and emotional capital on fishing expeditions with open requests of documents from a district that, through its reputation of maintaining, “A Culture of High Expectations and Excellence ” for its students, faculty, families, and stakeholders, has upheld its commitment to the original intent of DEI programming to address racial inequality in education.
Where, Attorney General Andrew Bailey, have you upheld such a fight?
To date, our NAACP St. Louis County Branch office, nor the State Conference office of NAACP, which is a stone’s throw away from your own office in Jefferson City, has yet to receive a request from you to discuss this issue before launching an investigation.
Wouldn’t it stand to reason, that the less politicized approach, to receiving justice and resolve for all parties involved, would be to reach across the aisle to those who fight the fight of advocacy, and civil rights daily?
Race relations are not a political issue. It is a humanity issue and should be treated as such. I propose that, in place of an investigation into one school district based on one issue that landed on your desk, you open the door for talks about all issues relating to race relations in Missouri that have come across our desks.
We have hundreds of families still seeking justice for hate crimes and race-related grievances under your tenure as Attorney General of the great state of Missouri, starting with Ferguson, Missouri. More specifically, we are currently navigating contractual transportation challenges in the St. Louis Public School district due to race related incidents, which has resulted in the loss of hundreds of jobs, and loss of transportation for hundreds of minority families.
I only hear silence from your office concerning these, or any other issues about our minority communities.
My door is open to you, and your office to have ongoing solution-based conversations on moving forward in peace, equity, and inclusion for every Missouri resident through thoughtful use of the Attorney General’s enforcement authority, and the right to investigate all probable violations of Missouri’s Human Rights Act.
In Solidarity,
John Bowman Sr.
John Bowman Sr., president
NAACP St. Louis County
cc: Cormsby@chgolaw.com, Media outlets
For press inquiries: P. Fryar {admin@naacpstlouiscounty.org}
#NAACP #HazelwoodSchoolDistrict #Discrimination
