‘It's the climate': Mom says son repeatedly encounters racism in middle school

A Northern Virginia mother says her son repeatedly has experienced racism from other students at his middle school and nothing has curbed the behavior.

Ashleigh Williams said students at Thoreau Middle School in Vienna have called her son the N-word so many times he’s lost count.

“There are children who will use the hard R N-word, and when he has addressed it, there has been times where these individuals have then gotten in his face and said it over and over and over again in his face,” Williams said.

A few weeks ago, Williams said, a group of girls allegedly poured water on her son’s hair.

“And when he asked them, ‘Why did you do that?’ Like, ‘Why would you do that?’ And their response was that they wanted to see what would happen to a Black person’s hair when it got wet,” Williams said.

She said she’s met with school administrators multiple times to share her concerns, but the racism keeps happening.

Williams shared eight emails sent from Thoreau’s principal to parents over the past two school years describing different racist or antisemitic incidents at Thoreau, including:

• Swastikas drawn on bathroom walls, post-its and a student’s hand
• Students circulating a racist website with slurs and hate speech
• Students using racial slurs in the hallway.

“This is a problem, and emails won’t fix it, right,” Williams said. “This racism is like the weather. It’s the climate; it’s everywhere.”

According to one of the emails sent by the principal to parents, Thoreau held a lesson in April for seventh graders on the history of the swastika and a meeting with eighth graders on the consequences of hate speech.

“We want to be absolutely clear that this type of behavior is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated at our school,” the principal wrote to parents. “Every student deserves to feel safe and affirmed in our learning environment.”

Every one of the principal’s letters reviewed by News4 included the same line: “Every student in FCPS has the right to feel safe and affirmed in our schools.”

Williams said she asked the school to set up a group for students of all backgrounds to talk about overcoming racism but was told there weren’t enough resources.

She hopes parents will address it at home.

“If you’re a bystander and you’re watching these things happen, you have to teach your children how to have these conversations, how to be an ally,” she said. Fairfax County Public Schools sent News4 a statement saying in part, “We are continuing to speak directly with the family so we can listen to their experiences, better understand their concerns, and ensure their voice is heard. What they share will help inform the steps we take moving forward.”