School board member under fire for racially insensitive comment during board meeting
November 02, 2022
Parents in Wisconsin's Hartland-Lakeside school district are outraged over a racially insensitive comment made by a school board member, WISN reports.
On Oct. 17, the board was discussing the district’s social and emotional learning curriculum and the possibility of race being entered into the curriculum when board member John Harter said, "My point is you should be judging people on their personality and their merit, not their skin color."
"We always talk about, 'Oh, we've got colored students in our school.' That's indifferent to me. I appreciate people from different backgrounds, I've traveled to 20 different countries."
Speaking to WISN, meeting attendee Darcy Sobczak said Harter's comments were "horrible" and "unacceptable."
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"My impression is that he is very out of touch. He’s claimed that he’s traveled extensively, yet if you travel extensively and really appreciate the cultures, you shouldn't use terms like that. It’s degrading," she said.
Ann Grevenkamp, another parent in the district, also spoke out.
"They're racist comments. You don't speak like that about anybody. You especially don't make those comments when you're trying to justify diversity and say he himself is diverse," Grevenkamp said. "It was mortifying, start to finish. There was no part of that statement that made sense."
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