Parent tells Vermillion School Board son was excluded from native honoring events, urges district action

Renee Halper, a parent and community member, told the Vermillion School District 13-1 Board of Education on June 9 that her son was excluded from native honoring events in 2022 and again in 2025 and asked the board to acknowledge the incidents and act to ensure other native students are not similarly treated.

Halper said district leaders acknowledged the 2022 omission but that the same staff member involved in that oversight took part in the 2025 event, which she described as a repeated pattern of exclusion and retaliation. "No child or family should ever be treated this way," Halper said during public comment.

The complaint described a sequence of phone calls and messages in the week before the 2025 honoring. Halper said the superintendent called to suggest a separate ceremony (which the family declined), later asked that they not attend the meal portion, and then confirmed that other native students had withdrawn in a boycott of her son. Halper said a Title 6 program coordinator contacted her but did not disclose that she herself would not attend the school event.

Halper said her son was the only native graduate honored at the school ceremony and that she later discovered a separate event at the University of South Dakota organized "standing in solidarity" to exclude and protest her son's presence. She said a social-media post and another parent’s account indicated district personnel may have attended that alternate event, contrary to the district’s written response stating no district personnel were present.

Halper also described harassment and an apparent violation of a civil protection order at the Coyote Sports Complex on graduation day, and said her son’s name and photo were omitted from the local newspaper’s graduation section despite having been submitted on time. She said the exclusion led to emotional harm and withdrawal by her son following the ceremonies.

Halper asked the board to take the matter seriously and to commit to ensuring no other native student or family experiences similar exclusion. No board action was taken during the meeting; the district’s regular public-comment rule was in effect, and board members did not announce any follow-up direction during the public-comment portion.

The allegations referenced a civil protection order and sealed juvenile-court matters; Halper said those matters should not have been used against her son. The complaint included dates and prior district responses: she said the superintendent and principal acknowledged the 2022 error in messages she received on May 16–17, 2022. Halper asked the board to acknowledge what happened and to prevent future occurrences.

The board received the public comment during its open meeting; the item did not result in an immediate motion, vote, or directive recorded in the meeting minutes for June 9.