Anger over Seattle’s decision to close its schools for gifted and talented students has grown – as newly-unearthed footage showed shocking behavior from the board who made the decision.
Last month’s announcement that the Highly Capable Cohort (HCC) schools would shutter because they have too many white and Asian students enraged 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 scrapping all HC programming and replacing it with empty promises, zero plan, and zero funding. I’m sad to watch so many families leave the public school system, but I can’t blame them.’
Eric Feeny told Fox13: ‘Until you have a better system, don’t give out a fake system or half solution’
Sobbing parents begged Seattle not to shutter its gifted and talented programs amid criticism they contained too many white and Asian students, newly unearthed footage shows
Parents were further rankled when school board president Zachary DeWolf to used the emotive hearing to recite a poem for his mom
Teachers will now be forced to manage classes of 30 children of mixed abilities at the same time, without additional resources or funding. The HCC schools, which are targeted at 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 displayed behavior that will further concern parents, with two of the most vocal ringleaders since disgraced by bullying accusations.
During the January 2020 meeting, a high-achieving black tech leader and mom called Sara Jones, who flourished after attending a HCC, wept as she begged the board to keep the schools.
‘It breaks my heart that little boys and girls like me may not get the opportunity that I did,’ she told the board, in remarks first reported by the Seattle Stranger.
Other parents of all ethnicities made similar pleas – only to be sharply cut-off by former board member Zachary DeWolf after their allotted time ran out.
He and colleague Chandra Hampson, a former director of the district, were both accused of racist bullying and of ignoring parents’ concerns
But DeWolf, who is now 38, was happy to waste time on a very personal indulgence – forcing distressed audience members to listen to a poem he wanted to read to celebrate his 34th birthday.
He said: ‘And then lastly, today is my birthday and I want to actually dedicate, particularly my mom calls me, every birthday really early when I’m still sleeping so I’m actually gonna read a poem.’
DeWolf then read a gushing poem about a love between a parent and child. Despite his emphasis on ‘equity’ and kindness, he and fellow board member Chandra Hampson were later accused of racist bullying of two black board members.
The racism allegations were dismissed by an investigation – but the bullying claims were upheld. DeWolf has since left the board – but the changes he helped force through are now set to upend life for thousands of Seattle schoolchildren.
Hampson sparked further fury by claiming black parents who wanted to maintain the HCC schools were ‘tokenizing’ their own children within the majority white and Asian student body.
When the school board decided to end the program, then vice president Chandra Hampson slammed parents of minority students who asked the board to keep the program as ‘tokenized’
According to Seattle Public School data, of the highly capable students in the 2022-23 school year, 52 percent were white, 16 percent were Asian and 3.4 percent were black.
The new system means teachers will now have to come up with up to 30 individual learning plans for each student based on their academic capabilities.
It comes despite growing anger from parents of the few children black and Hispanic children who were already in the gifted program.
‘It will not help those kids to just cut the program wholesale, mom Sirin Parmar told Fox13 Seattle this week. ‘We weren’t servicing enough of them. You don’t help by cutting the program.
‘What we should be doing is identifying more children from underrepresented groups that aren’t getting a fair shake in the testing and doing more to fix that and providing these services to more kids across the city.’
Garfield High School is one of Seattle’s public schools will be forced to shutter their gifted and talented program
According to Seattle Public School data, of the highly capable students in the 2022-23 school year, 52 percent were white, 16 percent were Asian and 3.4 percent were black (pictured file photo)
The move rankled parents who accused DeWolf of centering himself in the meeting instead of hearing their comments.
The situation was then exacerbated by director Chandra Hampson after she claimed the minority parents complaining were being ‘tokenized’.
Amid the fury, it was also revealed that Hampson and DeWolf were previously accused of racism.
Both were found to have violated the policy against harassing, intimidating and bullying over their treatment of two black employees who were working on an anti-racism plan.
DeWolf told the Seattle Times he ‘totally disagreed’ with the allegations, while Hampson admitted there had been some tensions but denied violating 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 2027-28 school year.
The gifted and talented program has been replaced with the Highly Capable Neighborhood School Model which requires teachers to come up with individualized learning programs for all of their students.
According to Seattle Public Schools, the new model will be ‘be more inclusive, equitable and culturally sensitive.’
Critics say that is false, as insufficient resources are being devoted to ensure students of all abilities will be taught to the best of their needs.