By MATTHEW GRAY
Los Alamos

I am a parent of a LAHS student and would like to say that I am disappointed in the outcome of the recent assessment conducted at LAPS concerning the DEI complaints in the Daniels case. To say there were no substantiated claims is concerning, considering what has transpired and what I have witnessed since I’ve been here. Since moving to Los Alamos three years ago, my family has experienced some questionable behavior and seemingly unfair practices at LAHS, and I have addressed it with multiple levels of LAPS leadership.

There have been times when I felt patronized or that I wasn’t really being heard. I never left a meeting feeling that my concerns would be addressed, and despite requests for follow-up on how the district would make strides to improve, I have yet to be contacted. I can confidently say something is missing in LAPS regarding DEI issues. Maybe it is hard for them to understand my position because I am a white man with a blended family, raising a son from a marginalized demographic. Honestly, it is hard for me to understand sometimes because I never had to face these issues personally, let alone on behalf of a minor child who depends on me. But here I am, in a town rife with the most educated people on the planet, with a very diverse workforce right next door that supports this community, in the year 2024, having to tell people how to behave and instruct them on the delicate nature of teaching and raising children.

My son has been subjected to profiling and inconsistent application of policy/discipline for the last two years and has had learning difficulties ignored since day one. I have witnessed faculty make false statements about students based on assumptions and received reports from my child that white kids have been punished less severely than other children for similar violations. To put it bluntly, this district seems to care more about kids who are either high-performing or white, but it seems to be more of the latter.

My child and his (non-white) friends have expressed to me that they feel targeted in school and that the majority of the interactions they have with faculty are borne of disciplinary or otherwise negative reasons. One night a few months ago, to put things in perspective and help me understand, my son posed a hypothetical scenario to me: “Let’s say a teacher walked into a bathroom, and it was obvious someone had been smoking in there. And there’s me and my (non-white) friends in there, and another kid who’s white; the teacher would immediately begin to question us and take us to the office and not say a word to the white kid.” Something tells me this was not a hypothetical scenario, but an account of something that happened.

I’m not a DEI expert and won’t propose to be. But if children and parents are being made to feel this way, something is amiss in our school system. It doesn’t matter if the school’s behavior is intentional. Perception is reality; something doesn’t have to be intentional to cause harm. The fact is, this IS happening in our schools. Children and parents don’t just feel this way and bring up issues for no reason, which is why I question the validity and objectivity of the assessment commissioned by the district.

One of two things is occurring in Los Alamos: either the school system is intentionally causing harm, mistreating students, and covering it up, OR they are failing to provide the proper training and monitoring to ensure they are maintaining an environment that is protective of the civility and equal treatment afforded our children by law. It’s time we started asking the hard questions and figuring out how to fix the problem. As long as this community keeps its collective head in the sand, these issues will persist. We should reject the notion that Los Alamos could be a place where someone would be treated differently or feel unwelcome. Especially our children. They deserve better from us.