Healing Justice SB co-founder Krystle Farmer Sieghart’s first-grade son was called the “N-word” at school, and now she is calling on the Goleta Union School District to take actions to stop acts of “anti-Blackness.”
Sieghart told Noozhawk her son was called the racial slur and then choked, just after the bell rang to end recess. Another child reported the incident to a teacher, Sieghart said
“They have no mental-health services for black youth in these schools,” Sieghart said. “The district continues to ignore me.”
Siegart said no adults were present to intervene or even see what happened at the Brandon Elementary School Nov. 4 incident. Immediately after, her son went to the nurse’s office, and staff members assessed him for injuries.
Later, “when I talked to him he sounded kind of sad,” Sieghart said.
Sieghart and the group that she co-founded with Leticia Forney Resch and Simone Akila Ruskamp presented a list of nine demands to GUSD after the incident.
Among them:
» The district must provide an accurate report and statement of the anti-Black violence happening across all of its campuses, and this report must be shared with the public.
» The district must provide access to culturally responsive/Black mental health providers specifically trained in addressing race-based PTSD and racial trauma.
» The district must provide monies and support for the families to seek the support of a mental health professional of their choosing.
» The district must invest and hire Black practioners of restorative and transformative justice to work with students who have caused and perpetuated the anti-Black harm.
» The district must require that all non-Black families, caregivers, and students participate meaningfully in workshops and programming condemning anti-Black violence in all forms.
Click here for a full list of all nine demands.
Siehgart had tried to get responses from the district, but said she was repeatedly denied.
She requested a week of independent study for her son. The District offered a transfer to Ellwood Elementary School. She didn’t accept because she didn’t feel things were safe at Goleta Union schools. She requested a transfer to Santa Barbara Charter School, which is in the Santa Barbara Unified School District.
“I didn’t feel comfortable sending him back to school,” said Sieghart, who also requested a transfer for her daughter who also attends the school.
“I had not received an incident report, a safety plan,” she said. “I had not received anything about steps to move forward. I didn’t feel safe sending my son to school.”
She eventually had a meeting with officials on Nov. 14.
Diana Galindo Roybal, superintendent of the Goleta Union School District, issued a statement through ParentSquare on Nov. 9.
“There has been a recent report of racial slurs being used at one of our schools, specifically the use of the N-word towards Black students,” she wrote. “In GUSD, we take the use of any derogatory and racial language within our schools very seriously.
“We reaffirm GUSD’s commitment to ensure that our schools are physically, socially, and emotionally safe spaces for all children, specifically our Black children. “
The statement also said that “our response to inappropriate and unsafe behavior will be developmentally appropriate to the age and maturity of the individual.”
“We will strive to address and correct behavior in a manner that upholds the dignity of the child,” she wrote. “Elementary school provides a vast learning experience where children will make mistakes. Our job is to model, teach, and support children through those mistakes, so they learn to not repeat them. “
In an interview with Noozhawk, Roybal said: “We are working at all of our schools to be age-appropriate in our responses. We are going to be hard on the behavior and compassionate with the child. In elementary school, kids are going to make errors.”
She said that the district will not share any details of any specific response to the child because it would be a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
Sieghart led a monumental march and rally from the Santa Barbara County Courthouse to the Santa Barbara Police Department headquarters, in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder.
She famously had a verbal altercation with then-Mayor Cathy Murillo, who did not march with the protesters, but then later unsuccessfully attempted to speak amid Sieghart and Ruskamp’s moment speaking to the crowd at the end of the the rally.
Healing Justice SB also pushed city leaders to form a civilian-review system in Santa Barbara, and sought funding for the annual Juneteenth festival.
The group also led efforts to document African-American/Black landmarks in the city, and a Santa Barbara African-American and Black Historic Context Statement that documents the history and contributions of African-Americans in Santa Barbara.
She said it is unfortunate that racist incidents are happening in Santa Barbara. She did, however, stress, that her son’s teacher and the principal have showed great compassion for her son and that she has no problem with the Brandon staff.
Sieghart believes the problem is systemic, and that Goleta Union needs to make changes. More than 300 people have sent emails to GUSD, she said.
“I don’t feel like the district is doing enough to protect Black children,” Sieghart said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
