The latest in a series of Hate-Free forums was held in Randolph, Vermont Monday evening.
The events are intended to bring together governmental agencies and the public to discuss racial disparities and seek solutions.
The Hate-Free forums are co-hosted by the U.S. Attorney’s office, the Vermont Attorney General’s office and the Rutland Area NAACP. It was the fourth in a series dating to 2019. This forum, also streamed, began with an overview of the legal aspects of bias related crimes. U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Vermont Civil Rights Attorney Jules Torti explained the legal differences between hate crimes and other civil rights violations.
“Hate crimes is like a buzzy word. It’s a word we hear a lot. But very little of what I hear about qualifies as a hate crime. So, when something bad happens to someone on the basis of who they are, their identity, their race, their sexual orientation, we call that a bias incident. Maybe you didn’t get that promotion. Maybe you’re not getting equal education in your school because of how you look or some part of your identity. That would be a civil rights violation. The largest group: lawful bias motivated incidents. So a lot of what happens is actually not against the law at all. One thing that I really try to underscore is that just because something isn’t against the law it doesn’t make it less bad, less traumatic, less important.”
A goal of the forum is to engage in individual experiences and how the government might be able to help. Randolph resident Kristin Chandler’s children attended the high school.
“One of the things that’s really struck me is about the divisiveness that’s happened here over the last four or five years, racial bias and trans-phobia stuff. We’re not used to being a divided community. That hasn’t been my experience living here 20 years that we’ve had what now feels like a real demarcation between two groups of people. There’s been a lot of efforts to try to make people come together to the table and work things out and can’t we all just get along. It feels like it hasn’t really worked and it still feels painful to live here.”
A substantial portion of the conversation focused on how teachers and the educational community can foster diversity. Social Studies teacher Tevye Kelman said as national political divisions have evolved and escalated it has been harder to navigate such conversations in schools.
“When we’re talking about what do trans kids or kids of color or kids from low-income families or any other group of people,who we know are going to experience hardships accessing their education because of the society we live in, we need to have confidence as educators that we can do what in our professional opinion is needed knowing that that’s not going to be seen as some sort of inappropriate political maneuvering and to really remember that the purpose of a school is to take any kid who walks in the door and give them the tools to learn as much as they can and be the best version of themselves going forward.”
Organizers said they are planning to hold another forum in Chittenden County.
