SNOW HILL – Community members expressed their frustration this week with the school system’s actions related to an incident at Snow Hill High School.
More than 100 area residents filed into Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church Wednesday to share their disappointment regarding a racially charged social media post and the school system’s subsequent reaction to the incident.
“People are fed up,” Rev. James Jones of the Caucus of African American Leaders said.
Worcester County Public Schools Superintendent Lou Taylor, Chief Safety and Operating Officer for Grades 9-12 Annette Wallace and Snow Hill High School Principal Kim Purvis joined a representative of the Tri-County Mediation Center Wednesday at the church in Snow Hill for a discussion regarding a social media post made in March by members of the high school’s baseball team. Purvis, who has been a Worcester County educator for 30 years, said she hoped attendees would gain a better understanding of each other’s viewpoints during the discussion.
“How can we grow from this experience to ensure we do not find ourselves in this place ever again?” she said. “That is my goal.”
When asked for an explanation of what really happened at the school, Purvis said a group of students brought to her attention a social media post made by another student.
“The picture that the young ladies brought to me was a picture of six students in baseball uniforms, Snow Hill baseball uniforms, and they had on ski masks or ninja masks and their full uniform,” Purvis said.
What made the post offensive, she explained, was the caption, which featured the word “Them” followed by six ninja emojis.
“At face value I did not understand the picture,” Purvis said. “At 52 I don’t get it all.”
She said the students told her why the ninja emoji was typically used.
“If you put in what is ninja code for, it is the N word …,” Purvis said. “The first thing I did was mention it to one of my staff members, she put it in her phone. Immediately an article comes up about how TikTok is banning the N word and kids have started to use the ninja to say the N word. Additionally, if you know anything about the iPhone, you can change the color or the shade of a face. The natural shade of that face is gold or something to that effect. This had been changed to a darker hue.”
Purvis continued to investigate the matter and spoke to the students, who acknowledged they were aware of the ninja emoji’s connotation.
“If you knew it was used that way, you’ve seen it used that way, then why would you use it?” Purvis said.
She told community members she reviewed the code of conduct and suspended three students — the one who created the post and the two who shared it — for a game. She communicated her decision to Wallace, who she said supported the action.
The principal said she then talked to the students’ parents and had what she thought were good conversations.
“When you’re imposing a consequence, I don’t expect people to be happy with the decision,” Purvis said. “I don’t expect that. Kids want to play baseball. They want to play their sport. I don’t expect them to be happy. But I do expect you to respect the decision. In actuality we have had kids dismissed from teams for the whole duration of the season for doing something such as this.”
When Taylor became aware of the incident, however, he recommended the use of “restorative circles.” A restorative circle is a technique to restore relationships that involves participants talking together and being honest about their perspectives.
He said he wasn’t given all the information Purvis recounted when he made that statement.
“I wasn’t given any information other than it was a post made with some ninjas on it,” he said. “I, like Dr. Purvis, don’t sometimes understand emojis.”
The superintendent said he directed one of his executive team members to visit the school.
“I said maybe restorative circles will work in this,” he said. “I didn’t even know there was a suspension that had taken place at that point.”
Taylor said that was when a breakdown in communication occurred, as Purvis, when approached by executive team member Dwayne Abt, felt she was being directed to drop the suspension in favor of a restorative circle.
“I was told and I quote “Dr. Purvis you don’t want something like this to tarnish your 30 year career,’” Purvis said. “That is what I was told. What do I do with that? I was also told ‘Dr. Purvis, I’ll be very honest with you. you can take this to the board but I don’t think the board will support you.’ So what decision was I to make?”
To make matters worse, Purvis said she was then excluded from the restorative circle — which didn’t even include all of the relevant parties — at the direction of Abt.
Community members asked Taylor what he was doing to correct the situation. He said the suspensions Purvis initially recommended had been carried out. He said he visited the school when some students protested the entire situation on March 23. He said he talked to parents as they showed up during the protest and returned the next morning to speak with the students who had protested.
Jones, outlining the efforts of the African American Caucus, recalled Purvis initially worked as an educator in Pocomoke and that community members had expected her to be appointed principal of Pocomoke High School in 2012, when Wallace was appointed instead.
“Now, 10 years later, you’ve succeeded again Worcester County Board of Education to undermine Dr Purvis and her ability by overturning a disciplinary decision designed to teach these young people not a lesson but etiquette and how to conduct themselves,” Jones said.
Jones said there were few African American educators in central office positions.
“We’re at an all-time low for African Americans applying for teaching positions in general,” Taylor responded. “It’s across the board, it’s not just in Worcester County. We have a very small pool of applicants.”
Taylor added that the school system made efforts to recruit African American educators and had created initiatives focused on that. When Purvis pointed out that she’d applied for three positions at the central office and hadn’t received any of them, Taylor said two of those spots were filled with other African American educators.
Roxie Dennis, also of the caucus, said countless students had reached out to her in the wake of the incident. She praised the protest they held March 23.
“I applaud them for peaceful demonstration,” she said. “We are demanding that something be done and it be done quickly before it really gets out of hand.”
Attendees said racial issues were on the rise among athletes nationwide. A parent in the audience said there had previously been racially charged incidents at local schools. She said a note referencing the KKK had been circulated in her son’s class when he was in seventh grade at Snow Hill Middle School. She said administrators there tried to smooth the incident over with a pizza party.
“This has been going on for far too long,” she said.
Snow Hill resident Eddie Lee said the dozens of people in attendance this week should reiterate their concerns in front of school board members at their next meeting on April 18.
“The change is going to come when this kind of energy is put in front of the board of education,” he said. “They are an elected body.”
He added that he’d reached out to Taylor previously asking him to apologize to Purvis publicly.
Taylor said he was sorry for the missteps that had taken place and was sorry Purvis felt the way she did.
“I take full responsibility,” he said.
When asked about Abt, Taylor said he couldn’t discuss personnel matters.
“I will tell you that people make mistakes,” he said.
Purvis, who pointed out that Abt was not present to speak for himself, said she felt he was just a messenger.
“I do not believe Dr. Abt came to me on his own accord,” she said. “I think he was directed to come to me and smooth the situation over after phone calls unfortunately were made to the superintendent’s office. … A designee does what you ask them to do. I believe in this case Dr. Abt was a designee.”
