A former student’s father is suing St. Paul Public Schools after an elementary science teacher referenced the achievement gap in response to student misbehavior in his classroom.
Dennis Verrett Jr. said in a U.S. District Court complaint that the incident created a hostile learning environment for his fifth-grade daughter, who is black. The family, which had gone out of its way to attend the school, moved to another district after officials failed to meaningfully address the situation, he wrote.
Expo Elementary science teacher James Hinkley, 59, made similar comments during two class periods of fourth- and fifth-graders in June 2017, a school district investigation found.
According to a discipline letter the school district released in response to a Pioneer Press request, students were socializing instead of focusing on school work when Hinkley asked them what kind of students they wanted to be.
“You stated that the achievement gap is a horrible situation across the District and Minnesota and it’s based on skin color,” the letter from Principal Darren Yerama read, in part.
“Multiple students became upset, attributing this comment to singling out students based on race and their actions to the cause of the achievement gap. You used your hands to motion on either side of you, as if gesturing to one group and then the other.”
Hinkley told a district investigator he’d intended to get the students to “look forward to next year and ask them what they hope for the future.” He said he regretted referring to the achievement gap.
Hinkley was given an oral reprimand for the incident.
“While the achievement gap is a very real and unfortunate truth in our profession, discussing it with students must be done sensitively and with appropriate audiences,” Yerama wrote.
The principal added, “Singling out any student … based on race is never appropriate. The achievement gap is complex and multi-layered, and its impact on others should always be considered before discussing it.”
Last November, Hinkley received a written reprimand for briefly sending a disruptive student into the hallway alone and then grabbing him by his jacket while directing him back inside.
Hinkley, who started working for the school district in 1989, now is on leave and has not been assigned a school for the 2018-19 school year, district spokeswoman Toya Stewart Downey said.
Verrett said in his complaint that his daughter was one of three African-American students sitting together in class that day. The other two children were off task, he wrote. But after the teacher spoke about the achievement gap, his daughter left the classroom in tears.
Then, in the school office, Verrett said the assistant principal showed his daughter statistics on the achievement gap between black and white students and required her to complete a “behavior reflection form.”
The form asked, among other things, what she did and what she could do differently next time.
“It was really (upsetting) and he (should) never be talking to 10-11 year old about race,” his daughter wrote.
The St. Paul Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity investigated Verrett’s complaint and in July authorized him to sue. The department concluded that the teacher and assistant principal left Verrett’s daughter feeling unable “to thrive in the school.”
Stewart Downey said the school district does not comment on pending litigation.
Hinkley and Verrett could not be reached Thursday.