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Racial Harassment in Vermont Public Schools: A Progress Report:
Racial Harassment in Vermont Public Schools: A Progress Report:
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In its February1999 report, Racial Harassment in Vermont Public Schools (the 1999 Report), the
Vermont Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (the Committee) concluded
that “racial harassment appears pervasive in and around the state’s public schools,” observing that
“the elimination of this harassment is not a priority among school administrators, school boards,
elected officials, and state agencies charged with civil rights enforcement.”
1
When the 1999 Report was released, there was little comprehensive data with which to assess
the extent of racial harassment in Vermont. But since then, several sources have become available
indicating how serious the problem is.
1. Partly in response to the 1999 Report, the Vermont General Assembly in 2000 passed an anti-harassment and hazing law, commonly known as Act 120,
2
requiring schools to submit annual data on harassment and hazing incidents to the Vermont Department of Education (see
appendix 1). Thus, we now know that 25 percent of the 2,551 harassment and hazing incidents reported for the 2001–2002 school year were race related.3
Given that Vermont’s nonwhite students represent 4.17 percent of the total school population in the 2002–2003 school
year, the disproportionate number of race-related harassment incidents is truly alarming.
Table 1 below shows the percentage of minority students in Vermont schools for the years
1993–2003.
2. Equally disturbing is data derived from the Vermont Department of Health’s 2001 Youth
Risk Behavior Survey that indicates:
Of 773 Vermont students of color surveyed in grades 8 to 12, 46 percent reported that
they had been in a physical fight during2001 (compared with 28 percent of 8,414
white students).
39 percent of students of color had property stolen or deliberately damaged at school
(compared with 26 percent of white students).
14 percent of students of color did not go toschool in the 30 days prior to taking the
survey because they felt unsafe (compared with 4 percent of white students).
4
3. Robert Appel, executive director of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, reported that
one-third of the public accommodations discrimination charges filed between fiscal years
1994 and 2002 were against schools, and nearlyone-third of the 138 cases against schools
were based on race.
Vermont Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (the Committee) concluded
that “racial harassment appears pervasive in and around the state’s public schools,” observing that
“the elimination of this harassment is not a priority among school administrators, school boards,
elected officials, and state agencies charged with civil rights enforcement.”
1
When the 1999 Report was released, there was little comprehensive data with which to assess
the extent of racial harassment in Vermont. But since then, several sources have become available
indicating how serious the problem is.
1. Partly in response to the 1999 Report, the Vermont General Assembly in 2000 passed an anti-harassment and hazing law, commonly known as Act 120,
2
requiring schools to submit annual data on harassment and hazing incidents to the Vermont Department of Education (see
appendix 1). Thus, we now know that 25 percent of the 2,551 harassment and hazing incidents reported for the 2001–2002 school year were race related.3
Given that Vermont’s nonwhite students represent 4.17 percent of the total school population in the 2002–2003 school
year, the disproportionate number of race-related harassment incidents is truly alarming.
Table 1 below shows the percentage of minority students in Vermont schools for the years
1993–2003.
2. Equally disturbing is data derived from the Vermont Department of Health’s 2001 Youth
Risk Behavior Survey that indicates:
Of 773 Vermont students of color surveyed in grades 8 to 12, 46 percent reported that
they had been in a physical fight during2001 (compared with 28 percent of 8,414
white students).
39 percent of students of color had property stolen or deliberately damaged at school
(compared with 26 percent of white students).
14 percent of students of color did not go toschool in the 30 days prior to taking the
survey because they felt unsafe (compared with 4 percent of white students).
4
3. Robert Appel, executive director of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, reported that
one-third of the public accommodations discrimination charges filed between fiscal years
1994 and 2002 were against schools, and nearlyone-third of the 138 cases against schools
were based on race.
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