October 5, 2021
Dear BFA families:
For those that follow the Growing Green & Gold Pride weekly newsletter, you have seen the beautiful vibrancy that has been the return of active BFA life. However, this rapid return to full-time student school after almost two years of significant disruption has created many issues that BFA cannot handle alone. With only our senior class having experienced a completely uninterrupted year at BFA, and that was as freshmen, we are experiencing more social and behavioral issues than in the past. As I meet with my high school administration colleagues every Monday, this appears true in every Vermont school. Many of these behaviors deal with immaturity and poor decision making, but some others are of the highest concern.
Recently our BFA community experienced a horrific racist attack. I say ‘our community’ and not a student or students, as this type of tragic episode impacts our entire community. While personally appalled and outraged at this attack, I can only imagine the terrible impact this has had on the student and family. BFA must be a school where acceptance is the norm and hate is never tolerated. As we continue to improve our prevention and response to these events, BFA must look longer term as to how we can become an anti-racist and pro-minority school. In order to realize this all-important goal, we will partner with the students, staff, and community in order to create an action plan that BFA will commit to this year and in years to come.
As we progress forward, we are also committed to continually engaging our students, families and community in this work. Once the draft plan is created, we will be looking for feedback on our specific actions. While BFA is committed to doing our part in this school, community, state and national issue, we must have some more immediate help.
All of the greater St. Albans community must engage in these anti-racist efforts, and we must recognize that these efforts have to be embedded not only into our schools but made lifelong commitments. One initial way parents can help is with discussing racism as a family. While BFA works to become an anti-racist pro-minority school, your support at home will go a long way to improving the lives of everyone in our community. These dialogues also need to be ongoing and should be part of your regular conversations. Please see the resources below to help you with these discussions.
Newport Academy's talk about race
National Geographic's Talking to Kids About Race
5 Ways to Start a Conversation About Race with Your Teens
Resources for Talking about Race, Racism and Racialized Violence with Kids
We are determined to ensure that our school community is safe for all identities. We move forward with our commitment to create an anti-racist school and combat prejudices with the understanding that this is both an ethical mandate and a lifelong mission.
Sincerely,
Brett Blanchard
Principal