Wayne High School parents take concerns about racial tensions to school board

HUBER HEIGHTS, Ohio (WKEF/WRGT) – Parents are speaking out to Huber Heights Board of Education, looking to ease racial tensions at Wayne High School.

Parents and school board members who talked to FOX 45 said they were glad to be opening up the issue for conversation at Thursday nights meeting, but said there is work to be done to make everyone feel included.

The issues stem from incidents surrounding Wayne’s homecoming weekend.

A Wayne parent told FOX 45 some of the high school football players decided to kneel in protest during the national anthem him played at the school pep rally.

A group of parents wrote a letter to the district, saying they were unhappy with the districts response to those students actions.

The following week, parent Pervis Parker said his son, a Wayne football player, was called an idiot [racial slur] by a group of parents when he chose to sit in protest during the anthem at a girls soccer game.

Parents spoke during public comment at Thursday’s board meeting, explaining their love for the community, but that they would not tolerate insensitivity to issues like these.

Board members said it had been a while since there have been public comment at one of their meetings, and they are taking actions to improve inclusiveness.

“When you go down that rabbit hole of racism you have to be prepared for the ugliness that comes with it,” said Wayne parent Will Smith. “So I stand resolved I stand convicted, passionate to fight for any child, any parent.”

“We talked about training this evening actually we need to do a little more, do a lot more,” said school board president Mark Combs. “Training to be able to help implement those types of things in our district. The policy is in place, the policy is right, that we need to make sure that we are implementing it better than we are today.”

Combs said there are not any specific plans to change district policy as a result, but they said they will be working with teachers and the community, and said their doors are open to any parent who has an issue.