Black student told to “quit school before trump sends u back to africa! NO N*GGERS” – School board ignores complaints.

Moving to Gulf Shores:

When Janaya Fraser, a single mother with two mixed (half-black, half-white) children, moved from a relatively diverse city in Georgia to the beach town of Gulf Shores (Alabama), she thought she knew what to expect.

“I thought I knew what to expect when it came to race relations. We lived in the South all our lives, so we weren’t exactly expecting to be welcomed with open-arms in Gulf Shores, but, we weren’t expecting what happened either.”

Her son, RJ, who was 14-years-old at the time, was especially excited to start the 9th grade at Gulf Shores High School (GSHS). Fraser said that RJ spent most of his life in Georgia playing baseball, and had developed skills that set him apart from many other players his age. As the school year began, RJ made the baseball team at school, and hopes were high that they would flourish in their new home and community.

Racism from day one:

Within a few weeks of classes beginning, Fraser recalls her son reporting issues of racism at school. “At first it started out with people calling him a n*gger,” she said.

“He come home complaining about racist remarks that someone said, you know, someone called him a n*gger. So, we talked about how things can be in the South sometimes, and I sort of brushed it off as bullying because he was the new kid, and I figured it would eventually stop. The thing is, it didn’t. Actually, it got worse.”

According to Fraser, between 2014-2016, incidents progressively increased in frequency and severity, resulting in the following complaints being made to the school:

1. RJ had been consistently called a n*gger by students at school since the 9th grade, on an almost daily basis.

2. During “away” games, RJ’s teammates would blow their electric handheld fans on him and joke about “blowing the black off.”

3. RJ was consistently bullied by teammates who were intimidating and pushing him to quit the baseball team.

4. When they couldn’t get RJ to quit the baseball team, they called him terms like the “unpoppable black head.”

5. At a school fundraiser, when students were packing fruit in boxes, students threw bananas at him and made monkey noises.

6. At a school fundraiser where “pulled pork” bbq was on sale, students argued that he should work more because “n*ggers like them some barbecue.”

7. Students in-class and on his team would call him “n*gger” and use other racial slurs on a nearly daily basis while at school.

Fraser even told investigators that she had to personally ask parents of students not to use racist language when referring to her son on the baseball field. “The mother of one of the players on my son’s team was sitting two rows behind me, and when my son came onto the field, she said “I didn’t know we had a little black sambo on the team,” Fraser said.

The school’s reaction:

During RJ’s first 2 years of school at GSHS, his mother addressed the issues directly with the school, initially meeting with the baseball coach, and eventually the Vice Principal, and the Principal.

During one such meeting with the coach, when she complained about her son being called “n*gger” by teammates, the coach expressed genuine concern and assured her that he would do everything he could to prevent it from happening, ultimately telling her that, “people in Gulf Shores are just not really that used to diversity.” He then showed her letters sent to his office by parents of other GSHS students. According to the mother, “he [Coach] pulled out a stack of letters from other parents, no names or nothin’, all typed up, nobody put their handwriting down even, but the letters, some of them were complaining about having a black kid on the baseball team,” she said.

IPJ reached out to the former coach, he did not respond.

When Fraser complained to school officials, the result was that her son got singled-out.

Fraser said: “After we complained to school officials about all the racism, they moved my son’s classes, shuffled him around, changed his schedule to separate him from the kids who were bullying him. They didn’t suspend those kids or move their classes, no, those kids weren’t singled-out or made to feel like they did anything wrong at all. It was like my son was in trouble. In the end, those kids got what they were looking for anyway, they got the black kid to leave the class. Hell, the school even helped them with that after they knew what the kids were doing to him.”

Fraser went on to explain that part of the solution that the school implemented to remedy the racism was that her son was separated from the other students. As a result, her son had a class entirely alone, with no other students, during which he sat in the library by himself.

“RJ had a class all by himself in the library, without any other students. That’s how they solved it. RJ was made to feel like he was the problem, and that the racism was just normal. The racist white kids don’t want him there, and that’s exactly what they got, the school sure as hell made sure of it.”

RJ told IPJ, “I didn’t even want my mom to complain to the school anymore because every time she did, the school just made things harder for me, and I kept getting singled-out, like, you know, they were punishing me or something, for complaining.”

By the time fall try-outs came for baseball in August 2016, RJ was fed up with the racism on the team, and at his school in general.

“I’m done,” he said. And, despite having played baseball since he was 3-years-old, and making every team he had ever tried-out for, he quit the team.

When asked why he quit the baseball team, RJ said, “because of all the racist stuff that was happening. I just couldn’t stand it anymore.”

“I didn’t quit because I didn’t wanna play. I quit because I couldn’t take all that racist stuff anymore. Quitting baseball though, it took part of my life away, I always played baseball.”

Despite being extremely angry and saddened about her son giving-up on his athletic goals because of the racist environment on his team, his mother thought that maybe this might be the end of it. Perhaps now that he was not playing on that team anymore, the problems might finally dissipate.

NO N*GGERS!

On December 15th, 2016, a few months after her son quit the baseball team, RJ called his mother from the office of the school and requested that she comes to the school immediately.

“When your child calls you saying ‘momma come to school right now’ you just do it, you don’t think twice,” she said. “As soon as I got to the school and walked into the office, RJ pulled out a note from his bag and handed it to me. I just stood there and read it, not believing what I was looking at.”

IPJ obtained a photo of the original note that was left in her son’s backpack. The note reads: “hey n*gger thanks for quitting our team! now u should quit our school too before trump sends u back to africa! NO NIGGERS GSHS! just go__”

Fraser told IPJ that after reading the note (and getting over her initial shock), she asked Vice Principal Mark Glassford to meet with the Principal, Ernie Rosado, regarding the contents of the note. During the meeting, Fraser says that the principal tried to confiscate the note, but she refused, and insisted on keeping the original copy herself.

According to Fraser, “he [Rosado] tried to take the original, and when I told him no, he offered to make a photocopy of it for me, but I just told him, no way, I’m keeping the original. You can take the copy of it. So that’s what he did, and I kept the original.”

Complaint to School Board (1st Attempt)

Fraser remembers immediately calling the school board offices from the parking-lot of the school as she walked-out of the meeting with the Principal. Fraser that she was connected via telephone with Sheila Janes, an Office Administrator at Baldwin County Board of Education (BCBE).

“I got Sheila Janes when I called, and I told her everything that had been going on to my son since the 9th grade, from him being called n*gger, throwing bananas at him, the monkey noises, blowing the black off, unpoppable blackhead, n*ggers love barbecue comments, and all the way up to him being pushed to quit the baseball team, and the note left in his backpack that day. She was shocked, told me that McRae and Tyler weren’t available, but that she’d have one of them call me back real soon.”

Complaint to School Board (2nd Attempt)

By February 2017, two-months after Fraser’s call to the school board, she still hadn’t heard back from anyone yet, so she decided to called them herself. Fraser once again spoke with Sheila Janes, who displayed surprise that she had not heard back from McRae or Tyler yet.

“She told me that she gave the message to McRae and Tyler, and she seemed really surprised that neither of them had contacted me yet. She told me that I should send the complaint through the mail, so that’s what I did,” Fraser said.

According to Fraser, Janes advised her to mail a copy of the note left in her son’s backpack, including contact information for officials to reach her.

Fraser says that the following day, at the suggestion of Janes, she mailed the information to the school board and waited for a call-back from Tyler or McRae – which she was promised for the second time.

Complaint to School Board (3rd Attempt)

Approximately 2-weeks later, Fraser had still not gotten a call-back from McRae or Tyler, so she decided to call back (for the third time) to check and confirm that they had received the letter she sent, and to try to make contact with an official.

Fraser explained: “I called back for the third time and I got Sheila Janes again, for the third time, and I basically just confirmed with her that they got what I sent them, which she told me ‘yes’ they did get it. And she was, again, surprised that McRae and Tyler did not get in touch with me. I asked her if they were getting the messages that I had been leaving with her, and she said ‘yes.’ I asked her if there was someone other than her that I needed to speak-to. But, she [Janes] just kept telling me that McRae and Tyler got the messages and that they received the letter that I sent, and that one of them would call me back.”

Complaint to School Board (4th Attempt)

Another month passed, and by late March 2017, the mother had still not heard back from McRae or Tyler regarding her complaint. So, for the fourth time, Fraser re-contacted the school, and for the fourth time, she spoke with Sheila Janes.

Fraser elaborated: “This time I was a little pissed off. I still hadn’t heard back from McRae or Tyler at all the months of me calling and even after sending them mail. It’s already my fourth time calling, and nobody is ever available to talk, and they never call me back. She [Janes] just told me again that one of them, either Eddie Tyler or McRae would call me back. So I hung up, and just waited. Again.”

When asked why she thinks they never responded, Fraser replied, “I feel like they were ignoring me and waiting for me to just give up.”

I can’t stand going to school!

Fraser reports that her son became increasingly disillusioned with attending school ever since quitting the baseball team in August 2016, and especially since receiving the letter in his backpack in December 2016.

RJ told investigators: “I just didn’t want to go to school anymore because there was always someone calling me a n*gger or I was being talked-down to about being black.”

In April 2017, Fraser was contacted by Lorry Reddit, Attendance Officer for BCBE, who asked her about her son’s increased absences. Fraser explained about the extensive racism that RJ was facing at school, and that he was becoming disillusioned with attending classes at Gulf Shores High School for that reason.

IPJ contacted Redditt, who declined to speak with IPJ in any specificity, but said that, generally speaking, “absences are often symptoms of other issues.”

Both Fraser, and RJ himself claim that the only reason RJ did not want to attend classes at GSHS was because of the racism he endured while at school.

Fraser says that she requested her son to be transferred from GSHS to a virtual schooling program for the remainder of that school year, but was told that it would not be possible because the school year was almost complete. Therefore, RJ would have to complete the year at GSHS. The mother said, “I figured we’d give it one last shot before moving, since, you know, he had to finish off the school year at Gulf Shores anyway.”

Are you sure he’s not a criminal, or on drugs?

After realizing that her son would have to complete the school year in Gulf Shores, and that virtual schooling was not an option, Fraser went into the school to talk with school officials.

“I went in and talked to Carpenter [Vice Principal] and he told me that I should get RJ a drug test. He [Carpenter] was basically saying that because my son was absent, that he might be on drugs. I was freakin’ pissed because RJ was only absent because of the racism and intimidation that they kept ignoring, and now they were trying to say his absences was because he was on drugs.”

Fraser explained, “Of course they think every black kid is on drugs or something. They even have posters in the hallways with that kind of racist stuff showing black kids as being druggies. I guess they think that if a black kid is absent, it’s because he’s on drugs or something. Not like it has anything to do with what we’ve been complaining about for the last year.”

Fraser also said that resource officer at GSHS has implied that her son was a criminal, wrongfully accusing him of misdoings around the school.

Nevertheless, after hearing the “drug test” suggestion from Carpenter, Fraser immediately went to her son’s doctor and had them run a full drug-screening on her son. “I asked them to check for everything. Everything.”

When the test results came back “negative” (no drugs in his system), Fraser went back to the school and gave them the results.

“After all that happened to my son, the racism, him losing interest in school because of it, then them asking for a drug test because he was absent. It’s messed up.”

Fraser went on to say, “I figured we’d just wait and see if someone from the school board would eventually contact us about the racism that started it all of this in the first place. So, I waited to see if someone would call before the year was up, or during the summer maybe, but nobody ever called.”

They drove us out of town!

Once the school year began in 2017, it was clear that nothing was going to change. Fraser said, “my son was coming home saying that the same racist stuff was happening. That’s when I knew I couldn’t count on the school board at all, and I had to take matters into my own hands.”

Concerned about her son’s education and future, Fraser came to the realization that the only way for her to provide her son (a mixed-race student) with even the slightest semblance of a fair education was for her to leave the city of Gulf Shores – so that’s exactly what she did. In September 2017, after 10-months of her complaints being ignored by school board officials, she made the decision to move her family to another city, and most importantly, to enroll her son into a different school.

“They drove us out, from the students who did it, to their parents who taught them to be racist, and the school that let the racism go unchecked, and lets not forget about the school board who completely ignored all my complaints. They’re all guilty of letting racism into the schools, they’re basically encouraging it.”

The mother went on to say, “those kids got everything they wanted, which was for [my son], the black kid, to quit the team and for him to leave the school. They got that to happen. And the school system, from the school itself all the way up to the Superintendent and those people on the board, they all just sat back and let it happen to us.”

As of the publication of this article, (over a year since the mother first complained to BCBE), she has still not heard back from anyone.

Would you believe it — They didn’t respond to us either.

Angie Swiger held the board member position representing Gulf Shores on the Baldwin County School Board (BCBE) until January 2018. IPJ reached out to Swiger regarding this incident of racism that occurred within her district. Swiger said “I have nothing to do with that, you’re going to have to speak to the Baldwin County Board of Education.”

When IPJ reminded Swiger that she (herself) was the Board Member for the district of Gulf Shores during the timeframe of the complaint, Swiger hung-up the telephone.

IPJ reached-out to Swiger’s replacement on the board, Norma Lynch, who now represents Gulf Shores on the Baldwin County Board of Education (BCBE). Lynch said, “I can’t comment on this because I really have no idea about this happening.”

It may not surprise readers to find out that Gulf Shores, like some other majority white communities in Alabama, are breaking away from their larger and more diverse school districts. The NAACP has labeled similar actions by other school districts in Alabama as an attempt to get around desegregation laws by segregating school districts, instead of segregating the schools themselves.

IPJ attempted to reach former Principal, Ernie Rosado, who could not be reached. IPJ reached out to Vice Principals Mark Glassford and Joe Carpenter, neither of whom responded.

IPJ reached out to the president of the school board, Cecil Christenberry, who refused to speak with IPJ investigators, saying only, “no comment.”

IPJ reached out to Tyler and McRae, but instead got connected to Sheila Janes, who refused to answer any questions. Janes took down IPJ’s message and told the investigator that she would give them the message to call back.

Three days later, BCBE has still not returned any of IPJ’s calls, nor responded to any requests for comment.

The mother of the student from GSHS told an IPJ investigator, “I’ve been hearing that we’ll call you back nonsense from them for well over a year and they still haven’t called me back yet, so, don’t hold your breath.”

Update (05/29/2018): This article was updated to reflect the sources names. The sources had perviously requested confidentiality out of concerns of retaliation by the school system. However, now that RJ is done with high school, the family asked to go “on” the record with their story.

The mother has also created a GoFundMe page to raise money for RJ’s first year of community college: https://www.gofundme.com/next-stopcollege

As of May 2018 (almost 2 years since the incident) school officials have still not responded to Fraser’s complaints, and nobody has ever called her back. Similarly, IPJ has not received a single response from school officials regarding our numerous requests for comment.