Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Equity topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
New Haven Unified to ask students and staff to stop casual use of n‑word, rolls out student compact and restorative tools
Summary
New Haven Unified Superintendent John Thompson and Director of Equity Zetha Noles outlined a district initiative to curb casual use of the n‑word in schools, saying materials — a student compact (QR sign-on), classroom pledges and staff guidance emphasizing restorative responses — will be shared with families and staff this week.
New Haven Unified School District Superintendent John Thompson and Zetha Noles, the district's director of Equity, Access and Achievement, outlined a new phase of the district's dignity-and-belonging work that asks students and staff to stop using the n‑word in school settings.
Thompson said the initiative grew from repeated reports that the word had become normalized among students and was "impeding our work" to build dignity and belonging. "...the n-word initiative," he said, "we're going to have a conversation about one of our initiatives that we launched earlier this year but the next phase is coming up which is our n-word initiative." He said the district will share materials with families and staff later this week.
Noles described the program's goals and tactics, saying the work aims to protect African‑American students from verbal harm while taking an educational, restorative approach rather than a primarily punitive response. "Our goal has been to get it out of our schools," she said, and explained that staff will receive resources and guidance on how to address casual use when it occurs.
As part of the rollout, the district will send a resources-and-guidelines document to families that includes the board resolution, a student compact and materials for staff. For middle and high school students, the compact will be digitized and accessed via a QR code so students may sign an agreement not to use the word in school; for younger students classrooms will take a pledge together and display posters as reminders.
Noles said the initiative builds on a broader 'Dignity and Belonging' program, including administrator training and equity walks to gather aggregate classroom data about whether the work is taking effect. She noted the effort began after parents and staff raised concerns and after New Haven leaders discussed the issue with other educators: the district presented resources at a Kasa conference and more than 40 California districts requested the materials.
Thompson said the school board updated the district's nondiscrimination policy and passed a resolution committing to the dignity-and-belonging work in September; the transcript does not specify the vote tally or mover. He also said Noles will present the initiative to Alameda County superintendents in the first week of November to encourage multi-district collaboration.
District leaders emphasized that the initial approach will focus on education and restoration: staff will be given tools to determine whether language was used casually or in a racist context and how to respond. "Our approach is not going to be punitive... when we hear it used in a casual context how do we address it... and trying to take an educational approach and a restorative approach to this," Noles said.
Thompson invited families and staff to raise questions by email and said the district hopes the program will reduce casual use of the word in schools and strengthen belonging for all students. The district plans to distribute the materials to families and staff this week and will pursue county-level presentations in early November.
