‘Racism is this country’s original sin.’ Elite Sacramento private school confronts its past

On a late-February morning, more than 100 high school students were joined by teachers and parents as they gathered in East Portal Park in East Sacramento. Some held signs and others chanted, “No justice, no peace,” as they marched toward their destination.

The last year has seen countless scenes like this play out in Sacramento and other cities as people marched by the thousands, demanding social justice and calling out racism. But on this morning, the focus of the demonstration was a new one: St. Francis High School, a prestigious all-girls private school.

The February march was in response to an incident in which a white student drew blackface over a picture of herself on the social media platform Snapchat to mock a Black peer. The white student is no longer attending the school, but school officials have not discussed the circumstances of her departure.

While St. Francis was a new focus in a year of activism, students and alumni say the school has a troubled history in which young people have been targeted with racist acts for decades. Many of those same people acknowledge the school has gone to great lengths in recent years to rectify that past – and yet the incidents continue.

“The student handbook is too vague when it comes to addressing punishment,” said Monet Cook, a 2020 graduate. “And although St. Francis says it doesn’t tolerate racial bullying, there seems to be a lack of accountability.”

Both Cook and Linnea Willis-Smith, a 1995 graduate, told The Sacramento Bee they heard the n-word used on campus numerous times. Willis-Smith notified administrators about the repeated use of the n-word by students and administrators, but said there were never disciplinary actions taken.

“There is still more work to do,” Tina Tedesco, the school’s communications director, wrote in an emailed statement to The Bee. “SFHS will continue to honor the commitment we made to create change within our community and support healing within our students and families of color – specifically our Black and African American students.”

Students share frustrations

Both Monet Cook and Willis-Smith said they heard the n-word used on campus numerous times.

Willis-Smith said that three years ago a girl showed up in blackface and told a Black student, “I look like you now.” The student received a verbal warning, according to Willis-Smith.

Cook said the recent blackface incident didn’t come as a surprise.

Many students said they feel uncomfortable with telling their stories or confiding in staff when they feel unheard on campus. Some students expressed anger, frustration and devastation at the rally near campus, adding that they sometimes felt they were treated differently than other students.

“It severely upsets and angers me to know that white students can do these things (display racism) to other people of color at our school. It is absolutely absurd,” said Sanai Stewert, a junior at St. Francis. “We are consistently ignored, neglected, and we don’t deserve this. We wear the exact same uniform.”

Zoraya Phillips is a senior at St. Francis. She said at the February press conference that some students have had a hard time focusing in class after the blackface incident.

“No Black girl should be threatened because they have beautiful, black, melanated skin,” said Phillips.

Students began advocating for themselves. For years, Black students on campus worked diligently to raise a banner of representation and inclusion on campus.

Willis-Smith, co-chair of the Black Alumni Association of St. Francis, said in past decades, it was difficult to establish the Black Student Union. But today, a Black Student Union exists. Willis-Smith, now a professor, lawyer, and business owner, said she plans to work with the St. Francis administration, the Black Parent Group and Black Student Union to help improve the learning and social environment on campus.

The reckoning

Conversations at St. Francis about racial justice and addressing racism predate the national outcry that occurred in the wake of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of police in Minneapolis, school officials said.

In 2018, after the Sacramento police killing of Stephon Clark, Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, helped develop an anti-racism task force. Executive Director and Superintendent of Catholic Schools Lincoln Snyder said that both the bishop and the diocese are committed to continuing staff training on racism and diversity.

Around that same time, St. Francis hired Dr. Jason Javier-Watson, a former post-doctoral fellow that researched racial empowerment at The University of Pennsylvania. Javier-Watson studied under the renowned clinical psychologist Dr. Howard Stevenson who runs the Racial Empowerment Collaborative, a program that promotes racial literacy in schools and neighborhoods.

“He just came in and flipped everything upside down,” Cook said of Javier-Watson. “He organized the girls older than me, he had administration listen to our experiences on campus – all of that working towards a better St. Francis.”

With a new vice principal’s guidance, Cook helped found a Racial Justice League on campus three years ago. Attendance grew from just a handful of students to sometimes 20 to 40 attendees. Cook said it became a space created for students to share their thoughts and experiences on campus.

“It was for anyone who was interested in learning about our experiences on campus, and just in life in general,” Cook said.

By the summer of 2020, the school met with concerned students and alumni to address accountability and inclusion on campus, in what they called a Racial Reconciliation Plan. The efforts led to the creation of nine committees to look over proposed changes to the academic curriculum: replacing some of the mostly white literature with novels by diverse authors, incorporating African American history into the classroom, and hiring staff from diverse backgrounds.

“St. Francis has been very engaged in conversations with students, alumnae and parents this summer to hear about their racial experiences at or with St. Francis,” read a statement on the school’s website. “We continue to listen to all voices, especially our students of color. We are truly sorry for our actions and inactions that failed to affirm and protect the dignity of our students and families of color. Every time we did not address a racial incident; every time we did not adequately respond to the racial mistreatment of students of color; and by failing to proactively create a more inclusive campus environment, we have sinned.”

The school also required hours of racial sensitivity training for its staff and held listening sessions over the summer.

Javier-Watson said hiring a more diverse staff has been on the forefront of his mind. The school currently has no Black teachers on campus.

“It’s so important that we have diversity reflected on our staff,” he said. “We need additional help on that. We have had some good ideas and made good headway. It’s about finding people and developing relationships.”

The Diocese itself is diverse. The majority of priests in the Sacramento region’s 102 parishes are men of color, immigrants, or both, according to officials. But only about 5% of African Americans are Catholic, according to the Pew Research Center.

Plan forward for St. Francis

Diocese leaders heard students loud and clear: the diversity of the schools needs to reflect the diversity of the church.

“Students need to see themselves and their identity reflected in the curriculum being taught and the professionals teaching that curriculum,” Javier-Watson said. “There is so much research to support that. Racism is this country’s original sin. It needs to be addressed and corrected, and that’s not an indictment of who we are as a school or a country. We are dealing with what everyone is dealing with. I haven’t seen any other plans at any other school.”

But the changes the school made were intended to be made over several years, prompting some students to call for more immediate action.

“The plan looked nice on paper,” Cook said. “But it was too far (ahead) for the current climate at St. Francis.”

Community members and alumni said they intend to continue working with school officials to push for effective and prescriptive change on campus.

The Black Alumni Association, in partnership with the Black Parent Group and the Black Student Union, laid out four key points they want addressed: changes in curriculum to include racial justice and equity; hiring a diverse staff; creating advisory committees to support students on campus; and inviting neutral, third party investigations if and when future incidents occur.

The proposals, community members said, will be the start of systemic change.

Javier-Watson said the school is holding itself accountable.

“When you think of racial justice, you don’t think that Catholics are a part of that, but we have a lot to add that conversation,” he said. “We are nor turning a blind eye to justice. We haven’t always done a good job of that, but we are human and we are flawed.”