After student ousted, some question Providence Day promise to listen to Black voices

Six months before a Black mom raised concerns about a play containing racial slurs — the start of a dispute that led to the school un-enrolling her son — Providence Day was one of many private schools in Charlotte facing a deep reckoning over race.

As protests for racial justice sprung up nationwide this summer, students posted publicly about racist and discriminatory experiences they’d gone through at the school. The awakening following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis renewed widespread activism.

On Instagram in Charlotte, it took form as the Black at Providence Day account, one of many that documented racism at elite, predominantly white private schools and colleges across the country.

Providence Day said it would listen to and act upon the experiences and traumas its Black students had gone through. The school is 70% white and 7% Black.

“The experiences of current students, alumni, parents, and employees leave no doubt that we must take action to move from not being racist to being an anti-racist school,” head of school Glyn Cowlishaw wrote in July. “For the Black members of our community, we see you, we hear you, and we will act. We are truly sorry.”

But in November, the removal of 14-year-old Jamel Van Rensalier from the school left his family questioning how much Providence Day is willing to hear what Black families have to say.

The New York Times first reported on how a disagreement over an English lesson ended with Providence Day terminating Jamel’s enrollment contract. The school said it did not take issue with concerns raised over the curriculum by Faith Fox, Jamel’s mother, but terminated the contract only when she sent emails to staff they considered harassment.

But Fox said the incident was an example of how the school refused to seriously consider issues raised by its Black students and parents.

“They’re just going on their own idea of what’s right. They’re still not listening to anyone but themselves. They don’t trust Black parents, or Black students,” Fox told the Observer this week.

Providence Day said in a statement this week that it had an obligation to protect its staff from harassment.

“I am so sorry that this child’s parent turned her initial concerns about curriculum into personal attacks,” Cowlishaw wrote in a Facebook post in response to the Times article. “We will continue to offer our support to this child as he navigates this transition. We want him to flourish and have the excellent education that he so deserves.”

Fences and Providence Day

In November, Fox learned that her son’s 9th grade class would be reading the August Wilson play, “Fences.” The Pulitzer-Prize-winning play documents the struggles of a Black family in Pittsburgh. It also uses a racial slur repeatedly. In an email to parents, Providence Day said students would read the play out loud, but would substitute “n-word” instead of saying the slur.

Leigh Dyer, the school’s communications director, told the Observer that in prior years, only one parent had raised concerns about the book after it was added to the curriculum in 2017. The school implemented suggestions from that parent as a result, Dyer said, including sending a letter home to parents about the play’s language prior to reading it in class.

The play was added to the curriculum to honor requests from Black parents “to incorporate curriculum that would provide the opportunity to engage students in dialogue around difficult conversations pertaining to race,” Dyer said. She added that the curriculum includes many more examples that teach “about the Black experience via disciplines including art, history, and social science in addition to literature.”

Fox said in an interview this week she was concerned about whether the book’s mature content was age-appropriate for the ninth grade, and she worried that, as one of the few pieces of Black literature she knew of in the curriculum, it would perpetuate negative stereotypes. She said she was also unhappy with a video that the class would watch, in which a Black professor at Harvard repeatedly uses the slur while discussing its history.

“My son is one of maybe two Black people in the classroom,” Fox said. “Everyone is going to be looking to my son for his reaction, whether they realize it or not... That the school is acting like they don’t understand that is infuriating.”

She emailed administrators and met with them, but said she was frustrated when they told her no one else had complained — and that the school intended to keep the book in the classroom. Fox says the school gave her son an alternative assignment and told her the rest of the class will read the book next semester.

She later posted in a Facebook group, which has members from Providence Day families, and asked for others’ opinions.

When she learned that she was not alone (a Black student had written an essay about the trauma of the lesson three years ago), Fox fired off an email. School administrators later described the email as an attack on its diversity and inclusion executive director, who is one of Providence Day’s Black faculty members.

In the email Fox wrote: “You fail miserably at your job and are a disgrace to the Black community.”

Fox said she was angry when she sent the email but stands by what she said. Ten days later, the Friday after Thanksgiving, a FedEx package arrived at the family home. In it was a letter saying that her son was no longer a student at Providence Day, where he had attended since pre-K.

Listening to Black families

Jamel has been out of school for more than a month. He plans to enroll in public school in January, but could not start this semester without having to take exams for classes he would have attended for just a handful of weeks.

“I thought I was going to be at that school my whole life,” Jamel said in an interview Wednesday. “The school kind of didn’t think about the effect it would have on me at all.”

In a statement, Providence Day said that Jamel was removed not because his mother complained about the curriculum, but because she had engaged in a “pattern” of harassing staff.

Dyer said this week the school has a documented history of harassing interactions with Fox, but declined to share them with the Observer, noting the school wanted to be mindful of privacy.

“I am devastated that we had to terminate an enrollment agreement adversely impacting a PD student,” Cowlishaw wrote in a public Facebook post on Dec. 15. “However, the school will not tolerate bullying, harassment, and racially discriminatory actions and language by parents towards our faculty or staff.”

Jamel said he was not looking forward to the lesson, and that being singled out as one of the few Black students in a classroom was a feeling he had experienced before.

“There’s definitely times where we’re talking about Black culture and Black history, the other kids make jokes and whisper,” he said. “It doesn’t feel good to sit there.”

Other parents at Providence Day recalled lessons on race that they took issue with. Braxton Winston, a City Council member and Providence Day parent, said he went to the school administration in the past with concerns over a reenactment of colonial times that failed to address the realities of slavery.

Winston said he appreciated how responsive school leadership had been to his concerns even before he became a public figure, and how Providence Day supported him when his participation in the Keith Lamont Scott protests went viral.

“Providence Day is one of the most responsible, diverse and culturally sensitive institutions I’ve been a part of,” he said. “They’ve never shied away from what society needs to be heading towards.”

Dyer told the Observer that the school enlisted an outside entity to investigate every incident described over the summer on the Black at Providence Day Instagram page. She said actions were taken where necessary, but did not specify details, noting personnel issues were confidential. In response, Providence Day expanded a number of diversity groups for students, reviewed its curriculum and hired an additional diversity officer, Dyer said.

“Several of the incidents occurred many years ago involving faculty no longer at the school, and some we were unable to substantiate,” Dyer said. “However, the school, as stated in our statements at the time, heeded the call to hear from our communities of color and redouble our work toward anti-racism.”

While texts like “Fences” can be powerful learning experiences, they must be taught with sensitivity, said Tracey Benson, an education professor at UNCC. Because white school leaders may not fully understand the emotional and psychological weight of these lessons on Black students, it’s essential they listen to any issues raised, said Benson, who is Black.

“You have to listen to those concerns from Black people,” he said. “When Black students are such a small percentage, it will be the same Black parents who are invested and raising concerns, but the school should not demonize Black parents who come with issues.”

Benson said the entire episode showed the school leadership did not have the racial literacy to understand the root of Fox’s concerns.

“They could have reacted one of two ways, either taking action, looking at the curriculum, or in this case, shell up and say ‘we’re right’ and jettison the parent from our system,” he said. “Those who have the responsibility to take charge don’t have the racial literacy to understand the context of (the lesson).”

Fox said she felt the school was painting her into the trope of the angry Black woman. She recalled an incident early on in Jamel’s time at the school, when white parents complained about the inclusion of Barack Obama’s memoir on a summer suggested reading list. The school quietly removed the title, Fox said, saying it was too political.

“A book called ‘The Audacity of Hope’ is not appropriate, but they’re going to die on this ‘Fences,’ hill?” she said. “You have this whole carve-out about why it’s OK to call black people a slur word?”

Dyer said the school could not comment on a decision from a previous administration, referring to the reading list.

“Nor has it ever been our intent to embarrass Ms. Fox,” Dyer said. “Our singular goal has been to respond to untruths with truths so that false narratives about PD being racist in its decision are not propagated.”

Words vs. actions

After word of Jamel’s removal from the school spread, other parents began voicing their disapproval with how the school had handled the incident. In an open letter on Dec. 9, Lauren Carter, who is Black and whose daughter graduated in 2020, said that she felt like the school had failed to listen to its Black students and parents.

“I share this to say that there is a glaring conflict between written or spoken words and demonstrated actions at Providence Day, as it relates to a true commitment to equity... inclusion... and racial justice,” Carter wrote. “... I would implore those community members who remain at PD to be diligent in pushing for real change and to not allow yourselves to be placated with empty promises and or misled by bullying and intimidation.”

She says no one from the school has responded. Carter is an administrator on the Facebook group where Fox took her concerns last month.

In an interview with the Observer this week, Carter said a school administrator asked her why she did not delete a post Fox wrote criticizing the diversity director at Providence Day. Fox had written in the group: The faculty member “couldn’t be more of a disappointment; she quietly condones more of the same, forgetting the Black experience, if she ever in fact had one.”

Carter said she refused to moderate Fox’s words, and that she understood Fox questioning the diversity director’s understanding of Black students’ lived experiences, noting that Black people are not a monolith who all share the same perspective.

“The school is more concerned with being right than being better,” she said. “It was very much shutting her up, sending a message to their Black families, shut up and get this education. It’s sending a message to the entire community that Black voices are not welcome.”