Open Letter to TJHSST Principal: Resign for Your Complicity in Anti-Asian Hate

From: Coalition for TJ <coalitionfortj@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 18, 2021 at 5:55 PM
Subject: Anti-Asian Crisis at TJHSST
To: <kakeysgamarr@fcps.edu>, <aomeish@fcps.edu>, <rsizemorehei@fcps.edu>, <Megan.McLaughlin@fcps.edu>, <megan.mclaughlin@fcps.edu>, <Elaine.Tholen@fcps.edu>, <elaine.tholen@fcps.edu>, <mkmeren@fcps.edu>, <tdkaufax@fcps.edu>, <rjanderson@fcps.edu>, <klcorbettsan@fcps.edu>, <kvfrisch@fcps.edu>, <lhcohen@fcps.edu>, <sgpekarsky@fcps.edu>, <superintendentbrabrand@fcps.edu>, <lnwilliams2@fcps.edu>, <anbonitatibu@fcps.edu>
Cc: <ralph.northam@governor.virginia.gov>

March 18, 2021

Ann,

On March 17, 2021, you sent a letter to the TJ community condemning violence against Asian-Americans. Normally a letter such as this would engender good feelings.

Unfortunately, your letter has had the opposite effect. The sentiments of solidarity expressed in the letter were noticeably lacking over the last nine months when you, along with Fairfax County School Board members, the Virginia Secretary of Education, certain Virginia State Senators and Delegates, and Fairfax County Public Schools administrators:

• Called for racial balancing at TJ — with you yourself specifically calling for racial balancing in a letter of June 7, 2020, where you “implore[d]” us to check our “privileges”;
• Systematically demonized and shamed the Asian-American community at TJ, calling us “ravenous” test preppers and compared standardized test classes used by some in the Asian community as “performance enhancing drugs”;
• Repeatedly referred to TJ’s “toxic culture” — in the context it was used, a clear dog whistle for “too many Asians”;
• Indicated that Asian Americans were not real minorities, when compared to African Americans (Hispanics are ignored in this by administrators and legislators as well); and
• Last but not least, rolled out a series of proposed admissions changes at TJ that shared one common characteristic — a dramatic reduction in the number of Asian American students at TJ.

For the last nine months, it has been clear that you want nothing to do with the Asian American community. Please do not pretend to show solidarity now that your actions, and the anti-Asian rhetoric of people like you, has spawned a tsunami of violence against Asian Americans.

You said again and again that the diversity at TJ was not the diversity you wanted to see in our halls. When our PTSA survey showed that our families overwhelmingly opposed race-based admission changes, you conspired with TJ Alumni Action Group and the TJ Partnership Fund against the will of the current TJ community. You never hosted a meeting, town hall or presentation to even discuss why you supported these changes and never publicly answered any questions or considered the TJ community opinion.

We were an inconvenient minority in the activism you finally admitted you came to TJ to actualize. And you responded to letter after letter from activist alumni and staff to strike while the “iron is hot” to destroy TJ’s merit-based, race-blind admissions process. Your words shocked and saddened our TJ families.

We deserved much better from you, as the principal of our school. You had a responsibility to represent ALL your students — not just a favored few.

And so with regard to your letter of March 17, 2021, It’s too little. And it’s too late.

We ask that YOU now ponder how your treatment of our Asian community is reflected in the way Asian Americans are now being viewed and treated in our country. You directed hostility toward our Asian American families and students and sabotaged our community. And now Asian Americans are being physically attacked around our nation.

You contributed to shaming Asian Americans — and your own students. You should publicly apologize to the Asian American community, and you should immediately resign.

We immediately seek meetings with school board members, the FCPS superintendent and the FCPS equity officer.

— Coalition for TJ