ST. CHARLES COUNTY 鈥 The same night a parent found a noose in a Francis Howell bathroom, Miranda Bell tried to convince the district鈥檚 all-white school board that racism was a worsening problem in the district.
Bell, armed with a folder stuffed with stories from others, recounted the weeks of racist taunts she said students had hurled at her Black son, a high school freshman.
鈥淭here鈥檚 not an adult who can argue with the fact that there鈥檚 been an uptick in the prevalence of these verbal attacks,鈥 Bell told the board. 鈥淎s a parent and advocate for students of color, the sheer amount of racism points to a need for specificity on how these incidents are handled.鈥
That August night, a Francis Howell parent found a noose in the boy鈥檚 bathroom. Not a day later, the district said the incident wasn鈥檛 racially motivated. But parents say the noose, regardless of its intent, again laid bare a cultural divide in the community. Their children, they say, have been dealing with racism in the school district for years. And it鈥檚 not getting better.
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Parents say their children come home complaining of being called the n-word, 鈥渕onkey,鈥 or, in one case, a 鈥渟un absorber.鈥 The incidents happened on the bus, down school hallways, in text messages and at band camp.
Several parents said they or their children reported incidents to the district, and yet the behavior continues.
鈥淚t feels hopeless that anything will ever change,鈥 said Cherie Magueja, whose 14-year-old son has been called slurs at school, including a slave and monkey. 鈥淗ow many Title VI complaints am I going to fill out? It doesn鈥檛 seem to make a difference.鈥
Board of Education Vice President Randy Cook said he doesn鈥檛 want any student to be bullied or discriminated against.
鈥淚 think, for a school district, it鈥檚 incumbent upon the person who is the subject of that discrimination to report it in a timely manner and then the district investigates it and then fills out consequences appropriately,鈥 Cook said.
In a statement, school district officials said they were aware of concerns brought by several parents and will continue to look into incidents as they happen.
But the district also warned parents that federal privacy laws often bar them from sharing details about a student鈥檚 discipline with parents of other students involved. 鈥淭hat can lead to a misconception that students are not receiving consequences,鈥 the district said in the statement, sent by district communications chief Jennifer Jolls.
Bell, chair of the education committee for the St. Charles County NAACP, is calling on district leaders to address the problem.
鈥淥ur students have learned from our nation鈥檚 political leaders that taunting, mocking and cruel insults can be lobbed at others without accountability,鈥 she said at the August board meeting. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e learned from leaders in our district that developing empathy about the lived experience of African Americans is unnecessary, and they鈥檝e learned from the collective silence and absence of disciplinary actions that these verbal attacks are acceptable.鈥
Bell has now formally requested the district revise its bullying policy to explicitly disavow all hate speech, slurs, ethnic name-calling or racial taunts.
If the district were to take up Bell鈥檚 request, it would be one of the first, if not the only, St. Louis-area school district to explicitly condemn racial bullying in policy.
Superintendent Kenneth Roumpos met with Bell late last month.
She said he was understanding. But he also said the district couldn鈥檛 revise its bullying policy, by state law, to specifically protect some groups of students.
鈥楪o back to Africa鈥
With over 16,500 students, Francis Howell is one of the largest school districts in the St. Louis area. Its student body reflects the population of St. Charles County, where 5% of residents are Black and 4% Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2020 census.
But Francis Howell has become strikingly more diverse over the years. The share of Black students in the district is five times what it was 30 years ago, Hispanic students 40 times higher.
Some moments of conflict stand out.
In 2013, for instance, Francis Howell parents vehemently fought the busing in of students from unaccredited, predominantly-Black schools in Normandy. The Supreme Court had ruled children living in unaccredited school districts could transfer to higher performing schools. Normandy chose to transport its kids to Francis Howell.
At a now-infamous town hall, parents lodged all kinds of concerns. Would the Normandy students harm Francis Howell鈥檚 accreditation? Would the district bring in metal detectors, or drug-sniffing dogs? One mother of three said she worried about her children getting stabbed or robbed.
And in 2020, after George Floyd鈥檚 death at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, some Francis Howell students stood up against racism in the district.
Mya Walker was one of them. In seventh grade, a student told Walker, who鈥檚 biracial, to 鈥済o back to Africa.鈥 At Francis Howell North, she was bullied and felt isolated among her peers, she said. Students had called her racial slurs and a 鈥渓ibtard.鈥
鈥淭hose are normal things you hear in the halls at Francis Howell,鈥 Walker said.
That year, she spoke at a Black Voices Matter rally. Thousands had just marched along Mid Rivers Mall Drive to call for changes to the district鈥檚 curriculum, hiring practices and discipline policies. Walker never had a teacher at Howell who 鈥渓ooked like her,鈥 she said during her speech.
Fed up, she left the district, opting to spend her last two years of high school at St. Charles Community College.
But the protesting sparked change. Black History and Black Literature courses were developed for high schoolers.
Former Superintendent Nathan Hoven spearheaded the formation of an equity committee to assess areas where the district could improve. One of the committee鈥檚 focuses was hiring an equity officer.
The school board also passed an anti-racism resolution. It was the only resolution to hang on school walls, said Michelle Walker, Mya鈥檚 mother and a board member at the time.
鈥淚t didn鈥檛 hang on the walls because the board or administration said it needed to,鈥 Michelle Walker said. 鈥淚t hung on the walls because as soon as we did it, teachers were asking if we could print posters.鈥
But Hoven left in 2022. The equity officer was never hired. And the equity committee hasn鈥檛 met since 2021.
Undoing 鈥榲ery charged鈥 decisions
Equity Committee member Harry Harris, a parent in the district, said the group鈥檚 work was cut short because of political pressures.
鈥淣ot only had the situations we were looking at gone unresolved,鈥 Harris said. 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 more that鈥檚 been added to the fire.鈥
Even as Superintendent Hoven was leaving, a political upheaval was reshaping the Francis Howell board.
Over the past few years, five members of the school board have been elected with the backing of the Francis Howell Families political action committee, a PAC openly hostile to 鈥渓eftist principals.鈥
Last year, the new board rescinded the anti-racism resolution. This year, it stripped the Black studies courses of their social justice teaching standards.
Cook, the board vice president, said in a recent interview that the board was simply undoing things done in a 鈥渧ery charged鈥 political environment.
The anti-racism resolution, he said, 鈥渟hould never have been passed in the first place.鈥 He said it was hastily put together, not well thought out, and inflammatory for some community members.
鈥淚t鈥檚 as if the district was calling the community racist,鈥 Cook said. 鈥淭he vast majority of us are not racists, despite how many times people will say it.鈥
And some parts of the resolution, such as a sentence that said the board 鈥渟tands firmly against all acts of individual and systemic racism,鈥 would have compelled the board to stand against big, national issues, Cook said.
鈥淚鈥檓 not interested in fighting that battle,鈥 he said.
Board members said they鈥檇 rewrite or modify the resolution.
But no public action has been taken since then.
Parents speak out
Mitchell Long found the noose on Aug. 15 during his son鈥檚 football practice at Francis Howell Central High School. It was hanging from a bathroom stall.
Cottleville Police Chief Dave McCune said district staff notified him that a student 鈥渨ell known鈥 among school faculty had hung it as a 鈥渃ry for help.鈥
鈥淗e didn鈥檛 know it was a racially sensitive symbol,鈥 McCune said.
Fierce debate followed on social media. Several commenters chastised those who 鈥渁ssumed鈥 the noose was placed with racist intentions.
鈥淚 find it hilarious,鈥 one wrote on Facebook.
鈥淥ur children are scared,鈥 wrote another. 鈥淲here is the leadership?鈥
Parents who had previously filed complaints with the district were surprised by the speed at which the district determined the noose wasn鈥檛 racially motivated.
They hoped administrators would address the wounds it opened, or at least discuss them.
Parents say their children have experienced vicious name-calling for years.
For Bell鈥檚 freshman son, tensions escalated at band camp this summer.
She said one student called him 鈥617-dog,鈥 a reference to a black Labrador retriever named after the N-word, the mascot for the Royal Air Force鈥檚 No. 617 Squadron in the 1940s. In a group chat with band members, a student commented on picture of her son, saying, 鈥淎ll I see is a hungry monkey looking for a banana.鈥
Bell said her son didn鈥檛 handle it the right way and sent a physical threat, triggering a three-day suspension for him.
鈥淗e was heartbroken because these were his friends,鈥 Bell said.
Bell later filed a Title VI civil rights complaint, believing the frequent taunts had violated her son鈥檚 civil rights. The district agreed, writing in a letter to Bell about three weeks later that harassment, discrimination and/or retaliation did occur.
鈥淢y question to the district is: 鈥榃hat are you doing to protect students of color from retaliation, from future words like this?鈥欌 Bell said.
Still, one student responded in the group chat: 鈥淚 got three days out-of-school suspension because some soft people can鈥檛 take a simple joke.鈥
鈥淔or posting a picture of a monkey,鈥 another student commented.
The band camp comments came after Bell鈥檚 son stood up for another student, a biracial girl, who was also at the butt end of racial jokes. According to the girl鈥檚 mother, Erin Burgos, kids started 鈥渁cting like monkeys around her.鈥
鈥淭hey showed her a picture of a monkey they were trying to emulate,鈥 Burgos said. 鈥淎 third kid said, 鈥極h, that looks like [Bell鈥檚 son].鈥欌
Another student had called Burgos鈥 daughter 鈥渁 sun absorber.鈥 She鈥檇 also been asked by white students to say the N-word to 鈥減rove her Blackness,鈥 and if a mark from a black sharpie would show up on her skin.
Other parents of Black or multiracial students have described similar encounters.
Rev. B.T. Rice, a local civil rights leader, said his granddaughter was repeatedly called racial slurs while attending Francis Howell. She transferred to a different district this year for unrelated reasons, Rice said.
鈥淢y view of the Francis Howell School District,鈥 Rice said, 鈥渋s they have got a good way to go for understanding the plight of African American students.鈥