A recent East Hampton High School graduate has launched a petition on the website Change.org as a call to action for the district administration to hire more teachers of color.
Wells Woolcott, the class of 2020 salutatorian, created the online petition Monday. "As someone who spent 13 years in the East Hampton Union Free School District, I have had almost 100 teachers across all my classes. Shockingly, only four of them were people of color," he wrote on the website. "My experience is not the exception, but rather the rule. This is not only an issue of representation, but an issue of equal educational opportunity."
The petition, which specifically addresses the school district, the East Hampton Teachers Association, and the school board, goes on to suggest that citing "geographic difficulties" in the hiring of teachers of color is counterintuitive.
"I find it hard to believe that there are not qualified P.O.C. candidates for teaching positions within commuting distance who could be recruited" to East Hampton, Mr. Woolcott wrote.
In June, a group of alumni and students of Southampton High School launched a similar petition to call for changes to what they called a "white-washed" curriculum and policies. It collected more than 700 signatures.
"East Hampton U.F.S.D. has always embraced and celebrated our diversity," Adam Fine, the assistant superintendent, responded in a statement Friday. "We have very detailed hiring practices and have always welcomed all qualified candidates to apply. Sometimes our distance and location on the East End of L.I. is a challenge for beginning teachers. We will continue to look to develop innovative ways to hire new teachers and staff members."
