Last Updated on February 21, 2023
A California school district recently held an events for “employees of color” at which attendees were urged not to invite their White peers due to “feelings of uneasiness and mistrust.”
The Acalanes Union School District, located in the Bay Area, hosted an event for all employees of color in February. Dr. Lynnā McPhatter-Harris, the director of Student Support Equity & Inclusion for the district and planner of the event, informed White educators that they would not be welcome, according to an email obtained by Libs of TikTok.
“Hello POCC staff, we are ready for out first coming together in 2023,” McPhatter-Harris wrote in the email. “We are looking forward to seeing our people of color in the district. Please invite any employee of color to this event.”
“Be reminded that we have avoided inviting people that are not of color as there remains feelings of uneasiness and mistrust and we need this to be a safe space for our people of color,” she went on to say. “Please reach out to me if you have any questions of concerns.”
The Acalanes Union School District has previously been the subject of controversy in 2020, when the district’s school board opted to hold out and keep lockdown procedures in place while neighboring California districts were lifting them.
“I think that this divisiveness is very unfortunate and it’s counterproductive,” said Mark Woolway, who opted to run for an open board seat. “But again, I think that this is reflective of a lot of the broader issues that are happening in the country.”