Massachusetts Middle School Offers Racially Segregated 'Safe Spaces' for Students to 'Process' Rittenhouse, Arbery Verdicts

Bigelow Middle School in Newton, Massachusetts, hosted racially segregated “safe spaces” in order for students to be able to “process” the verdicts in the Kyle Rittenhouse and Ahmaud Arbery cases.

“The Kyle Rittenhouse conclusion will likely be seen as yet another unfair reality for many Bigelow families, staff, and students—particularly our community members of color,” a December 1 letter to students from Principal Chassity Coston reads, continuing, “while the Ahmaud Arbery conclusion may be seen as a glimpse of hope and justice.”

Coston offered three sessions: a forum for discussion with peers, a case information session, and a separate “Questions & Discussion for Students of Color,” in which students of racial minority groups are encouraged to “Come together with other Bigelow students of color to process and get answers to any questions you have regarding these two cases.” White students are apparently not allowed in the discussion.

Coston appears to be a proponent of racial activism and an adherent to Critical Race Theory. At a conference, she claimed that she “enjoyed the learning, unlearning, safe spaces, and unapologetic advocacy & support for our students of color,” and posted a picture of a slideshow apparently titled “How Systemic Racism Works: Educational Inequality in an Era of ‘Equality.’”

My first @METCOIncHq Conference! I enjoyed the learning, unlearning, safe spaces, and unapologetic advocacy & support for our students of color.

I love this work, simply. Thank you, @newton_ps. pic.twitter.com/RjlonPBwv1

— Ms. Coston (@ChassityCoston) December 3, 2021

In another Twitter post about the district’s “Fall BIPOC [Black, Indigenous Persons of Color] gathering,” Coston said she “remember[ed] a time [she] feared repercussion for wearing this shirt to work,” implying it was brave to wear a shirt that reads “black educators matter.”

I thoroughly enjoyed our district’s Fall BIPOC gathering, & even more enjoyed the affirmations from my students, faculty, & colleagues who appreciated the unapologetic representation within a space where we make up less than 5%. Lord, I thank you daily for placement & purpose.✨

— Ms. Coston (@ChassityCoston) October 17, 2021

Racial segregation is not a new phenomenon in Newton Public Schools, however.

As Breitbart News previously reported, Newton North High School Principal Henry Turner responded in a similar way, offering racially segregated spaces over the Rittenhouse verdict. In his justification, Turner appeared to “have a fundamental misunderstanding of the Rittenhouse case, where the then-17-year-old shot three white individuals in self-defense, killing two of them, during riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin,” saying, “There is a long history of acquittals such as this when white people get off for murdering black people. To ignore racism in these situations just empowers racism.” [Emphasis added].

Turner also explained that the “divisive case will be seen as a blow particularly to black and brown people who are regularly reminded that their bodies are treated as less than others.”

Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.

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