The Vigo County School Corp. assembled an outstanding task force to help address the causes of racial harassment at West Vigo High School.
Its formation of the VCSC Equity Leadership and Advisory Team was a promising step toward healing tensions.
All of that potential swirled down the drain Thursday, thanks to a rash, poor decision by VCSC leaders.
School district officials curtly dismissed 10 task force members for wanting to examine the full report of an investigation into the incidents at West Vigo. Those 10 task force members understood that some information in the report might have to be redacted. Their call to see the full report came after the 15-member task force received a summary report on the racial incidents investigation on March 10, compiled by the law firm representing the school district. The summary’s “brevity and lack of specificity” was problematic and unsatisfactory in most task force members’ eyes.
The majority of the task force members believed they needed to study the full report of the investigation to properly do their job.
Think of it like a high school advanced-placement English class assignment. Students are supposed to read the book, not just the Cliffs Notes.
As task force member Teri Lorenz — an alternative dispute resolution lawyer, no less — wrote in a letter to the VCSC on behalf of the task force’s majority, “Said members believe that their not being privy to the entire report undermines the credibility of their work.”
In response, the VCSC could have provided the full report, redacted if necessary. That would have been the right thing to do. In fact, the full report — redacted if need be — should be made public. Perhaps the district is getting legal advice not to release it; it should happen, nonetheless.
The district also could have discussed the impasse with the 10 task force members and come to a compromise.
Instead, the VCSC ousted those 10 volunteers from the project by email. It stated “sufficient information could be gleaned from a summary” in the view of other task force members, and that those bumped from the group were moving the project’s goalposts by demanding to see the full report.
Those sacked include a superior court judge, a principal, a parent, a lawyer, college faculty members and the president of the local NAACP chapter.
“I think we had an all-star group that could have really accomplished some things and set out some goals to make the school corporation better, and it’s just disappointing we are not going to be able to complete that task,” Vigo County Superior Court Judge Chris Newton aptly told Tribune-Star reporter Sue Loughlin. Newton added, “It’s a little stunning and hurtful they didn’t try to discuss this with us.”
Another ousted task force member, Sylvester Edwards — president of the Greater Terre Haute branch of the NAACP — called it “a slap in the face.”
Edwards also asked relevant questions in the wake of the members’ ouster. “We wanted to to see the results of the investigation. … If we don’t know what are the wounds or the illness, how can we heal?” he asked. “Who are they going to get to solve this problem in the community? What better than the people already selected to do so? Who will they replace us with? Or are they going to replace us?”
The only positive answer to those questions is for the VCSC to admit its mistake, apologize, invite back the ousted task force members and present them with the information needed to properly address the problem.
And it is a problem. Racism is insidious. It scars and alters lives. The response to it from the VCSC must be transparent, frank and perpetual.
Let the task force do its work.
© 2025 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.