Dear Pine Bush staff and parents,

I write to you tonight with a heavy heart. I have watched the news over the past week with a mounting sense of frustration and horror, and over the past few days I’ve seen some sickening social media posts from some of our very own students. Forget the coronavirus for a moment, the virus of racism has again raised its ugly head and in a most tragic and horrific way. 

And it hasn’t just been frustration and horror I feel. So many other emotions have also been swirling inside of me. I’m incredibly angry and terribly sad. I feel protective and defensive. As the leader responsible for this entire district, what could I say to all of you knowing that words will do little to change the reality that was exposed in Minneapolis last week, and in Georgia and Kentucky just weeks before that. But I know that I must not be silent.

So, no matter how inelegant this may be, there are some things I want you to know and others I want you to remember. I want our African-American students, staff and families to know that most of us have been shocked and dismayed, just as I believe most of you have been. I have personally faced blatant discrimination and harassment, numerous times in my life. But quite frankly, I can never truly know, understand or fully appreciate the subtle and pervasive ways that one can be mistreated based solely on the color of their skin. For me, bigotry and intolerance have been an occasional experience, not an on-going reality.

I’ve known many police officers in my long life and most of them have been good, upstanding men and women who truly care about the people in the communities they serve. We have many Pine Bush parents who work in law enforcement, and many graduates who hope to enter that profession. To all of you, I want to say that we appreciate your service, but I know you recognize that it only takes one among your ranks to shift people’s perception of you and your fellow officers. Let us be careful not to judge all police by the actions of a few. But when those actions are lethal, we should all be willing to demand reforms that will identify those individuals for whom a gun and a badge provide a license to kill, long before they are ever able to be given either that gun or that badge.

Racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia are all strains of the same disease – bigotry and intolerance. This is a disease from which Pine Bush is not exempt. Dr. Joy DeGruy said, “no one is born racist; it is modeled, learned, and passed along through generations where it poisons and paralyzes its victims and corrupts its perpetrators.” But I believe the vaccine for bigotry is education, and, given the depth of racism that recent events have revealed, we most certainly here in Pine Bush will renew and refocus our efforts to explore how we might become more effective in this critically important mission – educating all of our staff and students to value diversity.

Finally, I want you to know that earlier today a group of high school teachers taped a message targeted especially to our students of color, though I hope the sentiments will be appreciated by all. It’s a poem written by Dr. Raucci entitled I Know Where To Stand.  It should be posted sometime tomorrow morning on the home page of our website as the featured video.

Thanks for listening to tonight’s message. I know these are difficult times for our country and our community.

Tim O. Mains, Pine Bush Superintendent