The first Black school superintendent in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, said he’s received racist emails since starting the job Aug. 1.
Clint Mitchell decided he needed to address it publicly with a written statement and at a school board meeting after students and some adults in the county and across the country received racist text messages after Election Day, telling mostly Black teenagers they’d been selected to pick cotton at a plantation.
Mitchell condemned the texts and made it clear resending similar texts violates the student code of conduct.
“I wanted the community, I wanted students, I wanted the board members to know we take those matters very seriously,” he said.
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As he reflected on what to say, Mitchell decided he also needed to talk about his own recent experience with racism.
“It’s not the first time I have received these type of racist emails since I became superintendent,” he said at a school board meeting.
Mitchell said he’s received emails that referred to him as “DEI Mitchell” and another that read, in part, “HAVE YOU CONSIDERED HIRING P. DIDDY SINCE HE DOESN’T HAVE A JOB NOW.”
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“When I received these messages, I felt like I needed to go public and let the public know I was experiencing those similar types of messages, types of bigotry and racist emails and phone calls that sometimes comes to my office,” he said. “And I wanted my students to know that I too am facing it and I’m going to fight along with them side-by-side as we address it.”
At a school board meetings, unhappy residents lashed out at Mitchell, blaming him after a school bus attendant was charged with sexually assaulting student even though Mitchell had just started in his new role.
“Clint Mitchell, this is all you,” one said. “All on you.”
Other parents praised him for his efforts so far.
“I’ve never seen dedication like this,” one parent said. “Hours, hours spent to the cause of public education.”
Receiving fair criticism during public comment in a civil fashion is part of the job of leading a school district, Mitchell said, but personal or racial attacks have no place in texts, emails or in public meetings.
The FBI continues to investigate the source of the racist post-election text messages.
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