Emails reaffirm Gainesville High School club directly targeted Black male students

Emails obtained by The Gainesville Sun reaffirm the notion that a Gainesville High School club — run by a school board member’s daughter — “hand selected” Black male student members, despite conflicting accounts from district officials.

Club G.A.I.N. has been the subject of a parent complaint and a completed investigation that has not yet been released after approximately 30 Black male students were chosen to be part of the discrete club to better prepare them for graduation while also being given statistics about how they are less likely to succeed.

In one email released to The Sun, Gainesville High School Principal Daniel Ferguson wrote explicitly to a parent that “underrepresented minority 9th grade males” were invited to attend the first Club G.A.I.N. meeting. Three presentations for the club provided to The Sun all contained statistics about Black males, including that five out of 10 “Black males in their 20’s with diplomas are jobless,” and “72% of Black male dropouts in their 20’s are unemployed.”

More: Complaint filed against district employee for handling of parent's concerns over new club

More: Black male students 'hand-selected' for newly formed GHS club spurs parent complaint

The Sun made the initial request for the emails three months ago and was charged a fee to review them. The emails, however, were withheld until the completion of the investigation, though not factored into its results.

The emails shared with the newspaper redacted the names and email addresses of school board members Tina Certain and Diyonne McGraw, as well as Brooksie McGraw, the GHS family liaison who presented during the club meeting and daughter of the aforementioned school board chair. Brooksie McGraw also was the subject of the initial complaint.

The district shielded their names due to the fact that Certain is married to a law enforcement officer and McGraw is a former corrections facility employee, even though both are elected officials and have their names, pictures and emails posted on the district website. Brooksie McGraw had her public email and name redacted because she is Diyonne McGraw’s daughter.

Previously obtained emails showed their names, making them identifiable in the new emails.

The records, however, didn’t redact the name or email of Katy Burnett, the parent who made the official complaint against the club that led to the investigation, despite the district’s rule to not identify a student. The district had previously redacted her information when supplying records regarding the club. The district chose only to redact the child’s father.

Burnett has helped run campaigns for local politicians, including Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward and Alachua County Commissioner Anna Prizzia.

When Burnett asked if Brooksie McGraw could share the presentation that was shown to her son at a club meeting, she was accused of making things “political.”

“Yes, I could but what for? I would like your reasoning and motive behind doing so because I am not comfortable showing you as I feel like you want to turn this good into something bad,” Brooksie McGraw wrote in an email.

“If you truly have a problem with this club’s motives I ask that you speak facts only and be prepared for a battle because I will not let one child’s mother’s political agenda ruin it,” she wrote in another.

About Club G.A.I.N

The Gainesville Sun reported in September that GHS told a group of predominantly Black male students in late August to skip their lunch and attend the “first cohort” of Club G.A.I.N., an acronym that is simply abbreviated for Gainesville. Those who run the program or were involved in launching it initially described it as a new club or branch of Pre-Collegiate.

A similar assembly occurred in Flagler County, also in late August, that resulted in the school principal and a teacher resigning, as well as the superintendent apologizing after parents expressed outrage. The situation, however, has been handled almost entirely differently.

“This was unacceptable,” Flagler Superintendent LaShakia Moore wrote in the findings of a district investigation into the assembly. “We will do better, and that begins with transparency and training for all our staff, administrators, and educators.”

Administrators previously argued the club did not specifically target Black male students, though the emails show otherwise.

Despite the words “son” and “he” being redacted from Burnett’s emails, other messages make clear the program is targeted toward male students. One email from Cody Sheppard, who called himself a mentor for the club, was redacted, but the same email in a different chain was unredacted and described G.A.I.N. as a "freshman male cohort."

State and federal laws say that programs and clubs can't restrict access to others based on their race, color or sex or select participants based on those characteristics. Separating students could result in a Title IV investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights if there is reason to believe that students are receiving different treatment.

After hearing about the club from her son, Burnett sent a list of questions to the district that by law had to be answered within 10 days — they weren’t.

And, despite Burnett's request for the presentations shown, only one of the three full presentations were provided to her. Brooksie McGraw provided just one to Burnett, but later sent the other presentations to Helen Strain, the former chair of Alachua County Democrats and Diyonne McGraw's campaign runner.

Since then a formal complaint has been filed regarding the topic and the investigation into the club and the district’s handling of Burnett’s concerns has since been completed, though not publicly released.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Emails reaffirm GHS club directly targeted Black male students