By Ayesha Hana Shaji
Texas Metro News Team
In a world where the power of words has never been more potent, a word that has been used to degrade, dehumanize and oppress an entire race of people seems like the norm. But it shouldn’t be.
This is what the new version of the civil rights movement looks like for Black folks in this day and age, said Shavsha Davis, mother of a John Dubiski Career High School student.
The school has come under scrutiny recently for the lack of action taken against five students who recorded a video chanting racial slurs while holding posters with the word “hate,” in a classroom and posting it on social media.
African American students of the school said this is a common occurrence and they’re tired of complaining to the teachers and actions not being taken.
On Thursday, March 23, Grand Prairie NAACP Youth Council held a press conference to address the racism happening at the school and the injustices faced by Black staff and students alike.
Angela Luckey, president of the Grand Prairie NAACP said four Dubiski Career High School teachers contacted the Branch saying the school is “toxic” and the African American teachers experience racism just like the students.
The reports were made by the teachers to the principal, Holly Mohler, who they say took no action.
Luckey urged the school officials to expel and remove the students responsible for the video and demanded the principal hand in her resignation.
Arthur Fleming, a former president of NAACP Dallas, said he hopes the GPISD makes the N-word a profanity in the student handbooks and fires the superintendent as well for creating such an atmosphere of hate within the school.
Fleming said this is part of a greater, statewide problem of racialized education.
Amaia Davis, a freshman at Dubiski High School, said when she saw the video, she wasn’t surprised.
“I’ve been around it and I’ve seen people at this school do this; but when I saw the video pop up, I was just disappointed,” she said. “Like not only are you saying this around [the school], but you decided to go and post it and the whole world can see it now.”
Davis’ mother, Shavsha said, even after their multiple complaints to the principal, not once was it addressed by Mohler that she is aware of the situation and that she will take action against it.
Davis said she has raised her voice to say that this was not an isolated experience or incident, but the culture at Dubiski, but the administration refused to address the issue.
Initially, Davis said she sent her daughter to Dubiski because it is a very career-oriented school but she doesn’t feel safe sending her child to school anymore and has considered changing schools.
“To move my child because of a culture of oppression and racism at school is something that’s very hard to consider,” she said at the press conference. “I don’t feel that we should have to be making that sort of decision in this day and age.”
