Ex-Principal Roblee: Reading “White Fragility.”
Releasing a previously withheld investigatory report, school officials revealed that the principal of a majority-minority school had used the “n‑word” at least four times on two occasions with staffers, in addition to incidents involving “hysterical shouting” and “slamming on the desk.”
The report concerns two incidents in March involving Laura Roblee, at the time the principal of Pre-K‑8 Brennan-Rogers School in West Hills. until last week.
Months after the Independent first reported on the incident, the school board was told last Monday night about an investigatory report confirming the use of the word in a conversation with fellow white educators at an anti-racism training, as well as on another occasion. The school board voted to demote and reassign Roblee.
But officials did not release the report, even as the mayor, one of the participating board members, sent out a campaign fundraising letter praising his actions in the controversy without detailing what happened.
That led to a public chorus of demands for its release.
Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey released the report on Monday afternoon and addressed its findings with the media.
Click here to read the report.
Roblee did not appear at the press conference with Tracey.
Tracey did read a letter from Roblee, in which Roblee is quoted apologizing for her remarks.
“I am horrified, disgusted, and embarrasssed” by the remarks she made, Roblee is quoted as stating. “I don’t speak this way.”
She reported plans to engage in counseling and further training. She apologized for harm she caused people. She said she has been reading the book White Fragility.
She understands, she stated, that “there have to be consequences” for “the disgusting thing I said.”
The report was released after half the people who worked for Roblee signed a letter, published Friday in the Independent, casting the incident as part of a broader harmful climate at the school under Roblee. Staffers said that they were given no information about Roblee’s absence and no resources for healing from the incident.
“Initially, I didn’t hear that anyone was harmed. Now that I have heard this, I will address it,” Tracey said on Monday.
Tracey said she is bringing in a more objective, third party to talk with the assistant principal and two teachers in the initial conversation with Roblee. This third party will help create a plan to heal and work through any harm they, other Brennan-Rogers staff members and students are feeling from the situation.
Tracey explained why she chose to demote rather than fire Roblee.
“Had the principal called someone that word, it would have been a different story,” Tracey said. “Still, we want to validate the concerns [of those involved]. As a Black superintendent, I know that word creates a lot of emotions for us.”
The report explains further:
“As a leader, it was careless of Roblee to use such racially charged hurtful language with her subordinates in the workplace. Her actions, in this context are inexcusable,” the investigatory report concludes.
“Through her actions, Roblee caused hurt, confusion and disdain amongst her staff. She offended her Assistant Principal who reported she identifies as an African American.”
On March 16, according to the report, Roblee “entered a teacher’s office, seemingly upset” at the school, seeking to “process something amongst ‘white women’” about the use of the term “whiteness” at a March 8 training.
“During the conversation with the teachers, Roblee is reported to have said if I said ni****, we would have a problem. Roblee expressley used the ‘n‑word’ while speaking to the teachers.”
On March 19, according to the report, the teachers reported discomfort about that conversation to the school’s assistant principal, who proceeded to speak about it with Roblee. “Roblee was upset and loud in her response,” the report stated. “Reportedly, Roblee denied ever saying the ‘n‑word’ to the teachers. However, in her denial, she reportedly used the ‘n‑word’ at least twice directly to the Assistant Principal.”
Civic and political leaders have been calling for the release of the report since last Monday when the Board of Education voted to demote Laura Roblee from her role as principal.
Even board members had no written information about what happened. Instead, they spoke about the issue out of public view during a two-hour executive session.
Goldson: More Action Needed
Emily Hays Photo
Board member Darnell Goldson: Report, actions inadequate.
After reading the report Monday, Board of Education member Darnell Goldson called for Roblee to “admit using the term with the assistant principal” and apologize to her; and to “face the entire New Haven Community herself, not though some written documents through a third party.”
Goldson also called on Tracey to release a attorney’s memo that listed options for actions in this case. “Dr. Tracey and Mayor Elicker are trying to backtrack claiming that they only had the options of demotion or doing nothing. That is absolutely untrue since the lawyer contradicted that in discussions with the board,” Goldson said. He took issue with Tracey’s characterization of the incident as a “one-off” “slip of the tongue” rather than a larger problem with the principal and her “ongoing treatment” of school staff. He called the reassignment to central office “essentially a promotion” rather than demotion and “a two-month vacation.”
Mayoral candidate Karen DuBois-Walton issued a statement criticizing the scope of the report and criticizing incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker, a school board member, for not more fully explaining his “thought process” in voting to demote Roblee.
“This Mayor’s lack of clear reasoning around this decision was striking then, and it’s even more striking now that we’ve read this report,” DuBois-Walton said. “The full scope of the investigation appears to have been three fact-finding conversations and the solicitation of six written statements directly about the incident. What we’ve learned since the vote last Monday demonstrates how completely this investigation failed. We heard from more than half of the staff of Brennan Rogers school last week, in which they said that, despite years of complaints, there was no deeper investigation into the school’s culture or leadership. And I’ve had conversations with Brennan Rogers school staff over the past week who were and are more than willing to share their experiences.”
Elicker responded that he has repeatedly described his decision-making process, in “over a dozen media interviews” including a 45-minute chat Monday on WYBC FM. At a two-hour Black Lives Matter rally on the subject, he said, “I listened to people’s frustrations and spoke to people for nearly two hours.”
He said he has no intention of returning campaign donations raised from the letter last week referencing the incident. “I was responding directly to my opponent attacking me” on the issue, he said, noting that she too has mentioned the incident in campaign email.