Lansing school board and administrators take stand against racist harassment

The Lansing Central School District (LCSD) Board of Education and district administrators are taking a stand against harassment of students following a wave of racist text messages targeting students of color across the country.

The board discussed the issue at its Nov. 12 meeting. Board member Susan Tabrizi said that she had been made aware of the incident, which involved numerous students from across the country, by the president of the New York State School Board Association (NYSSBA). Tabrizi is a member of the organization’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee.

The racist messages primarily targeted Black students at the middle school, high school and college levels in at least 19 states, including New York. CBS6 Albany reported earlier this month that the message states that the recipient needs to gather their belongings and report to a location at a certain time so they can be transported to a plantation. Screenshots of text messages shared on social media show slight variations in the language and the supposed assigned plantation group.

LCSD Superintendent Chris Pettograsso said that she was unaware of any Lansing students being victims of the targeted harassment messages. Some cases of students receiving these messages were reported in the village of Nyack, a suburb of New York City. 

The meeting can be viewed in full here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CeBsr8CzFg.

Tabrizi said that part of her work with the NYSSBA DEI committee was to lobby NYSSBA President Bob Schneider to publicly address the incident.

“The committee expressed deep concern regarding recent reports of online and direct message harassment and threats targeted at students of color across the state,” she said. “It is very disturbing. We urged President Schneider to issue a message to the membership, denouncing these heinous acts and reiterating NYSSBA’s support for students.”

Schneider issued a statement that week, Tabrizi said.

“‘NYSSBA denounces all acts of bigotry, xenophobia and racism that are occurring in New York state and nationwide,’” Tabrizi said, reading Schneider’s statement verbatim. “He included with his statement lots of different resources for our review,” she added, “including a statement by the State Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Kathy Hochul. I urge the board to have a look at that, and for our community to understand that we’re aware and are concerned.”

Pettograsso said that while it is possible that students in Lansing didn’t receive the messages, the district is trying to help families who are distraught by the violent rhetoric ushered in by President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign. Trump has promised sweeping deportations of immigrants as part of his campaign.

“I know our student population. Some of our student populations have fear-based situations happening,” Pettograsso said. “We’re meeting, particularly with some of our English-as-a-new-language [ENL] population, around what services are available.” 

Pettograsso said she will be meeting with teachers and staff who work with ENL students to try to ensure that students feel safe in Lansing.

“And there were some comments and slurs that occurred post election, that brought up some tension,” Pettograsso said. “But we have been addressing them individually, but as a whole, we are really focused on our mission of why we’re here and to continue that purpose of coming together as a district.”

Pettograsso said that the results of the election have affected students.

“We have to make sure they all feel welcome and supported,” she said. “That population in particular right now I know has a lot of fear.”

Gov. Hochul commented on the messages sent to students in Nyack on Nov. 8 in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

“Outraged by the vile, racist text messages being sent to Black middle & high schoolers,” she said in the post. “These cowardly messages aim to scare our communities & sow division. We will not stand for it. If you got one of these texts, report it to the Hate Crimes Task Force: https://ny.gov/programs/hate-crimes-task-force.”

Lansing at Large appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com.

In brief:

Tompkins County will host its Lansing Community Resource Hub meeting Nov. 25 from noon to 2 p.m. at the Lansing Community Library. The hub is meant to bring resources to Lansing residents by granting access to computers and an internet connection. A post on the library’s website advertises the following free services for residents at the hub:

• “Transportation resources and schedules that meet your needs. We’ll help you find reliable transportation.
• Get help finding and filling out forms for benefits and services. Free assistance to fill out online or paper forms.
• Take medical appointments over the phone or internet. Free internet, computer and phone access are available.”

Call 607-793-0473 for more information.