Meet Sam

Situation: One minute, Sam was a normal first-grader enjoying himself on the playground. The next minute, he was withdrawn, angry and on a path to self-destruction. Three students who he thought were friends called him a racially derogatory name. When Sam told his teacher, the teacher responded that the children shouldn’t have said what they did. As far as Sam knew, nothing else was ever done or said. A once-promising child no longer wanted to go to school, became disruptive and even got into a fight, something that had never happened before.

Action: After two unsatisfactory meetings with the principal and school superintendent, Sam’s parents approached St. Cloud Area Legal Services (SCALS) for help. SCALS staff worked with school administrators to show the direct impact of racism. Sam’s decline was not only the result of a derogatory name, but the perceived lack of response by the people responsible for bringing justice to the situation. When the principal gave a presentation on racial harrassment to Sam’s class, he yelled out, “Nobody cared!” and “You didn’t do anything!” The offending classmates then piped up from the back of the room about how they had been punished.

Result: The punishment had been determined before SCALS stepped in because the school had been operating under a confidentiality policy. Because Legal Aid stepped in, Sam was able to see that the school’s silence was not due to its indifference, but due to this policy. Justice had indeed been served, and once Sam learned that people did care about his situation, his disruptive behavior and lack of interest in school disappeared.