The comments of St. Cloud schools Superintendent Steve Jordahl and board member Jerry Von Korff in the March 29 Times suggest that they are clueless with regard to the fundamental issues that were the focus of the Somali-sponsored rally on March 29 at Apollo High School.

Reacting to complaints of Somali students (and their allies) about harassment, Jordahl told the Times the district responds appropriately to every complaint and act of bullying against any student. He disputes that staff are not doing enough.

Jordahl also said in his almost two years in the district he has not received any complaint about a staff member nor has any staff member been disciplined for inappropriate behavior toward Muslim students.

According to the Times, Von Korff said Mohamoud Mohamed, executive director of St. Cloud Somali Salvation Organization, is more interested in standing in front of people than working to make things better.

“He has not articulated to me any vision that his main goal is to solve problems. There are a lot of Somalis in our community that are very interested in solving problems,” Von Korff said.

Key issue

The basic issue that the rally and the Somali community are calling attention to is the failure of the administration and board to seriously address the toxic anti-Somali climate and institutional racism in the school system. Jordahl and Von Korff seem to view the complaints as issues of misbehavior of a few individual white students.

But the racial incidents are merely symptoms of institutional racism. The schools were designed to educate and socialize white, Christian, American-born youth. With the recent influx of many Somali students who are black, Muslim and African-born (or children of African-born parents), the schools are facing a clash of cultures.

Many administrators and staff members and some board members do not seem to grasp the significance of the social transformation of their school system.

Failed leadership

The biggest problem is the backwardness and ineptness of the leadership.

The school board and the superintendent have not demonstrated a genuine commitment to the district’s five core values (excellence, learning, leadership, partnership and respect.) And it is quite evident that they have done little in-depth strategic thinking about how to transform their school system to prepare their students for the profound changes in cultural diversity.
Their failure to properly educate our youth has dire consequences. One measure of the failure to provide an environment conducive to learning is that only 18 percent of black eighth-grade students tested proficient in math in 2007-08. That compares with 60 percent of their white cohorts.

Instead of denying that systemic problems exist and engaging in divisive tactics of exaggerating differences among Somali groups, the board and administrators must act on the legitimate grievances of the Somali community and develop a strategic plan based on genuine diversity and social justice, and dedicated to systemically advocating, building and maintaining respectful, collaborative and reciprocal relationships.

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Source: ST Cloud Times
This is the opinion of Luke Tripp, professor and chairman of the Department of Community Studies at St. Cloud State University.

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