The Superintendent of the Winooski School District said officials are continuing to take steps to ensure students and staff are safe after a series of “racist and hateful” calls about a Somali flag being raised on campus. The district faced intense backlash online in recent days for a video showing the Somali flag being raised on school grounds. While the flag raising was meant to be a show of solidarity with members of the Somali community in Vermont, it faced scrutiny from groups on social media.The video was shared on Monday by conservative social media pages, including Libs Of TikTok. The page, which has more than 4.5 million followers, shared the video along with the district’s phone number.It was also reposted by Benny Johnson, a frequent contributor to Fox News.On Tuesday evening, Winooski Superintendent Wilmer Chavarria posted a message on the district’s social media accounts, saying that while there are no threats to students and staff, officials are continuing to monitor the situation.Chavarria also said that in the midst of a quickly evolving situation, the district did not communicate with families as promptly as they should have. He said in the age of social media, it can be difficult to get ahead of other narratives.”We struggled with the idea of what to communicate or how to communicate it simply because our law enforcement partners were telling us there were not credible threats yet even though there was a lot of hateful and racist rhetoric,” Chavarria said in part. “We did not want to scare the community into thinking that the students were in danger.”On Tuesday, the Vermont State Police said the Vermont Intelligence Center is reviewing hundreds of messages that came in about the flag raising.The flag of Somalia is still flying on the school campus. It was raised on a pole next to and below the American flag. The district has said that the flag will stay up until the end of the week.
The Superintendent of the Winooski School District said officials are continuing to take steps to ensure students and staff are safe after a series of “racist and hateful” calls about a Somali flag being raised on campus.
The district faced intense backlash online in recent days for a video showing the Somali flag being raised on school grounds. While the flag raising was meant to be a show of solidarity with members of the Somali community in Vermont, it faced scrutiny from groups on social media.
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The video was shared on Monday by conservative social media pages, including Libs Of TikTok. The page, which has more than 4.5 million followers, shared the video along with the district’s phone number.
It was also reposted by Benny Johnson, a frequent contributor to Fox News.
On Tuesday evening, Winooski Superintendent Wilmer Chavarria posted a message on the district’s social media accounts, saying that while there are no threats to students and staff, officials are continuing to monitor the situation.
Chavarria also said that in the midst of a quickly evolving situation, the district did not communicate with families as promptly as they should have. He said in the age of social media, it can be difficult to get ahead of other narratives.
“We struggled with the idea of what to communicate or how to communicate it simply because our law enforcement partners were telling us there were not credible threats yet even though there was a lot of hateful and racist rhetoric,” Chavarria said in part. “We did not want to scare the community into thinking that the students were in danger.”
On Tuesday, the Vermont State Police said the Vermont Intelligence Center is reviewing hundreds of messages that came in about the flag raising.
The flag of Somalia is still flying on the school campus. It was raised on a pole next to and below the American flag. The district has said that the flag will stay up until the end of the week.
