After a school bus aide was arrested and accused of sexually assaulting students with disabilities in September, Spotsylvania Superintendent Clint Mitchell started getting hateful messages referring to the situation.
Mitchell, a former Fairfax and Prince William County educator, became Spotsylvania’s first African American superintendent when he started the job Aug. 1.
He had been bracing for such rhetoric, he told WTOP, because of the increasingly polarized political climate.
In early October, he received a message asking if he’d ever consider hiring infamous rapper P. Diddy, “since he doesn’t have a job now, it’s a perfect time to rebrand by hiring an actual U.S. citizen with no records,” Mitchell said.
A separate message questioned the background check process that school division employees undergo before getting cleared to start working. It said, according to Mitchell, “You should have just hired P. Diddy instead of hiring these monsters who may go after our kids or are targeting kids.”
While those are among the several hateful messages Mitchell said he’s received since starting in the role, he was initially reluctant to speak publicly about them. He’s responding to many of them, thanking the authors for writing to him and wishing them a great day.
But after the election, students in the Northern Virginia district were among those around the U.S. who received messages telling them to report to a plantation to pick cotton.
That was a step too far for Mitchell, who is condemning the racist and hateful messages that he and others in the county have been subjected to.
“It’s the first time in my 28 years in education where I’ve had this group of individuals or people really focusing on not just my character as a person, but the bare essentials of what makes me me,” Mitchell said.
“I’m an African American male. I have an accent, from … Saint Lucia, but I’m an American. This is the first time I’ve actually truly experienced this level of bigotry and hatred and really outright disrespect, not just for me as a person, but even respecting the position of someone who stands in the role of superintendent of the 12th largest school district in the state of Virginia,” he added.
Mitchell, who spent about three years as superintendent in Colonial Beach, said he received hateful messages after the election, too. When it became clear President-elect Donald Trump would win, he got messages asking for his comment or, “‘Clint! President Trump had a historic moment in our country. What are you going to do with your DEI initiatives?'” Mitchell said.
Recently, much of the rhetoric has shifted to focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Some people in the school district, he said, call him “DEI Mitchell.”
During school board meetings’ public comment periods, Mitchell said speakers often speak about him instead of to him: “I get attacked every single time during those public comments, openly by many members of the school community, and as part of the role, we just take it. It’s just what it is.”
The attacks are becoming less about him or his race, and more about his character or initiatives he’s putting in place, he said.
“Being the first African American superintendent in Spotsylvania County Public Schools really comes with a heavy burden, because being the first means that I have to set a standard for anyone who looks like me in the future, in terms of being able to lead the school division,” Mitchell said.
Since starting the job, Mitchell said there have been emails and phone conversations that are “highly inappropriate” and have “no bearing to the work that I’m tasked with.” But, he’s prioritizing the division’s students and staff, and said the hateful messages don’t reflect the majority of the community.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Mitchell said. “I’m here to lead until the board have decided that I’m no longer the person to lead the school district.”
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