LAMS Football Incident

[Kristy Mack]

School Board Members,

I am writing to you today because I am greatly frustrated, and quite frankly, appalled that there has yet to be an official statement from the district addressing the racial epithets that members of the LAMS Football team made after the Santa Fe Indian School game. It has been a week and there has been no mention by the district of this incident, either in a school wide email, Dr. Delfin's newsletter, or to the press and that is inexcusable. 

The incident and cancellation of the last week of LAMS Football is not a secret nor is it something that should be swept under the rug. There has been a lot of talk in town about what happened and many families are angry. I guarantee you there has been a lot of talk about Los Alamos in the surrounding communities as well. I would never be so bold as to speak to knowing how someone else feels, however, from my perspective LAPS's lack of response to these racial epithets is also a slap in the face to all of our Native students, employees, families, and friends. Squeezing an Anti-Racism Anti-Oppression Hotline in the middle of the most recent newsletter does absolutely nothing to address the issue at hand. 

There should have been an immediate public response to everyone in the community addressing the appalling behavior and making it clear, in no uncertain terms, that what happened is unacceptable and will not be tolerated by LAPS, ever. Even if there was time needed to gather all of the facts and find out exactly who was involved there still should have been an immediate response with the assurance that LAPS would get to the bottom of it. Most importantly, there should have been an immediate public apology from the Superintendent directly to Santa Fe Indian School with assurances that this behavior is not condoned by Los Alamos Public Schools or this community at large. Instead, we are a week out with zero public communication. I wonder how our friends and families in our surrounding communities read LAPS's lack of response. 

I was nervous to send this email. Los Alamos is a small town and there's always worry about criticizing the district and how that will be received. One of the issues being discussed in the community right now is that while not all of the football players actively participated in the chanting, other members of the team did nothing to stop it. There was/is still outrage that kids didn't speak up and instead just let it continue. How can I look my children in the eye and explain to them the importance of not sitting idly by while watching something wrong happen, of not actively stopping a horrible act, or of not speaking up when you know there needs to be repercussions and then turn around and sit back and not say a word about the lack of public response from this district? Why are we expecting to hold our children to a higher standard than we hold ourselves?

Kristy Mack

Parent of a LAMS student and an Aspen student