Anger over Seattle’s decision to close its schools for gifted and talented students has grown as newly unearthed footage showed shocking behavior by the board that made the decision.
Last month’s announcement that High Capable Cohort (HCC) schools would close because they have too many white and Asian students angered parents who say bright but disadvantaged children of all races will now suffer.
Kiley Riffell, whose two daughters attend HCC school Cascadia Elementary, said, “SPS is eliminating all HC programming and replacing it with empty promises, a zero plan and zero funding. “I’m sad to see so many families leaving the public school system, but I can’t blame them.”
Eric Feeny told Fox13: ‘Don’t give a fake system or half-solution until you have a better system’
Sobbing parents begged Seattle not to close its gifted and talented programs amid criticism that there were too many white and Asian students, newly unearthed footage shows
Parents were further confused when school board president Zachary DeWolf used the emotional ear to recite a poem for his mother
Teachers will now be forced to manage classes of 30 children with different abilities simultaneously, without additional resources or funding. The HCC schools, which cater to the top two percent of students, are now being aggressively phased out and will be gone completely by 2024.
And newly unearthed footage of the board behind the decision showed behavior that will further worry parents, with two of its most vocal leaders since disgraced over bullying allegations.
At the January 2020 meeting, Sara Jones, a high-achieving Black technology leader and mother who thrived after attending an HCC, wept as she begged the board to preserve the schools.
“It breaks my heart that little boys and girls like me may not get the opportunity that I had,” she told the board, in comments first reported by the Seattle StrangeR.
Other parents of all ethnicities made similar pleas, but were sharply cut off by former board member Zachary DeWolf after their allotted time was up.
He and colleague Chandra Hampson, a former principal at the district, were both accused of racial bullying and ignoring parents’ concerns
But DeWolf was happy to waste his time on a very personal indulgence: he forced distressed listeners to listen to a poem he wanted to read on the occasion of his birthday.
He said, “And finally, today is my birthday and I want to dedicate every birthday very early, especially if my mother calls me, while I’m still sleeping, so that I actually read a poem.”
DeWolf then read a flowing poem about the love between a parent and a child. Despite his emphasis on “fairness” and kindness, he and fellow board member Chandra Hampson were later accused of racially bullying two black board members.
The allegations of racism were rejected by an investigation, but the claims of bullying were upheld. DeWolf has since left the board, but the changes he helped implement will now upend the lives of thousands of Seattle schoolchildren.
Hampson stoked further anger by claiming that black parents who wanted to keep HCC schools were “tokenizing” their own children within the majority of white and Asian students.
When the school board decided to end the program, Vice President Chandra Hampson denounced parents of minority students who asked the board to keep the program “tokenized.”
According to Seattle Public School data, among highly able students in the 2022-2023 school year, 52 percent were white, 16 percent were Asian and 3.4 percent were Black.
The new system means teachers now have to come up with up to 30 individual learning plans for each student, based on their academic abilities.
It comes despite growing anger from parents of the few black and Hispanic children already in the gifted program.
“It’s not going to help those kids to just cut the program short,” parent Sirin Parmar told Fox13 Seattle this week. ‘We haven’t done enough maintenance on it. You won’t help by cutting the program.
“What we should be doing is identifying more kids from underrepresented groups who aren’t getting a fair chance on the tests, and doing more to fix that, and bringing these services to more kids in the city.”
Garfield High School is among the Seattle public schools that will be forced to shut down their gifted and talented program
According to Seattle Public School data, among highly able students in the 2022-2023 school year, 52 percent were white, 16 percent were Asian and 3.4 percent were Black (file photo shown)
The move upset parents who accused DeWolf of focusing in the meeting instead of hearing their comments.
The situation was then exacerbated by director Chandra Hampson after she claimed that the complaining minority parents had been ‘tokenized’.
Amid the anger, it was also revealed that Hampson and DeWolf were previously accused of racism.
Both were found to have violated policies against harassment, intimidation and bullying for their treatment of two Black employees working on an anti-racism plan.
DeWolf told the Seattle Times he “completely disagreed” with the allegations, while Hampson admitted there had been some tension but denied he had violated the anti-bullying policy.
Currently, three elementary schools, five middle schools, and three high schools are currently highly capable cohort schools – all of which will be phased out by the 2027-2028 school year.
The gifted and talented program has been replaced by the highly capable neighborhood school model, which requires teachers to devise individualized learning programs for all their students.
According to Seattle Public Schools, the new model will be “more inclusive, equitable and culturally sensitive.”
Critics say this is wrong because not enough resources are being spent on ensuring that students of all levels receive the education they need.
