Uncommon Schools has an Apology Problem

The racial reckoning that started with the knee on the neck of George Floyd has reverberated beyond police brutality and calls for criminal justice reform into the world of education. And people are now questioning the worthiness of the content taught and the humanity of the methods used to teach that content.

And Instagram Accounts have popped up as anonymous ways for students and teachers to share their personal stories of racism, abuse, and mistreatment at the hands of No Excuses Charter Schools.

Over 200 students at Uncommon Schools have posted their stories on Black at Uncommon. And their stories describe heartbreaking abuse: verbal, psychological, and physical abuse. The students say they feel like animals. They feel controlled, falsely accused, constantly punished, reduced to a number, embarrassed, and ashamed.

And what many of us feared would happen has happened: so many students are suffering with mental illness because of the culture of fear and obedience at Uncommon Schools. And these students are now old enough to tell their own stories:

• “I’ve been going to Uncommon since 5th grade…going to the high school messed up my physical and mental health…I’ve been very down…I haven’t been acting like myself…I would have breakdowns in school.”
• “My principal scolded me like a dog in front of all of my peers…I felt so humiliated and bad about myself…I cried all the way home and even thought about harming myself because I started to believe his words…I remember feeling so dehumanized.”
• “They made me feel alone, defeated, and helpless.”
• “I had a mental breakdown because I was so stressed and depressed.”
• “My mental health was horrible.”
• “I was messed up.”

And Cynia, a high-school senior and my second grade student, bravely put her name to her testimony: “I was terrified that they would expel me because I told the truth about the pressure we feel…That’s how prisoners feel about complaining about an abusive officer.”

And then there is what the hundreds of teachers reveal on The Uncommon Truth: these abusive practices have always started at the top. They were designed at the top, modeled at the top, and trained from the top down in workshops like “Be the dean of your own classroom.” The President of Uncommon Schools has been named by name repeatedly for yelling in children’s faces and for publicly humiliating students for minor transgressions.

The Uncommon teachers describe a professional adult culture that mirrors the student culture of fear and obedience with an added layer of adult bullying. Uncommon teachers have made infinitely clear that you do exactly as you are told, or you suffer the consequences. A long-time Assistant Superintendent is named by name repeatedly for yelling at and intimidating teachers and principals.

At the top of the organization, the CEO, the COO, and the HR Director have been named by name for threatening, intimidating, and silencing people who speak out against Uncommon’s practices.

With over 500 damning firsthand accounts from students and teachers, Uncommon Schools refuses to take the very obvious and very necessary first step: apologizing.

As the first response to the stories on Black at Uncommon and The Uncommon Truth, Uncommon’s CEO wrote that he was “disheartened, saddened, and concerned that some students and staff have experienced our schools in ways that have left them feeling hurt.”

A few days later, Uncommon’s President of Schools followed up with: “I have been reading and reflecting on feedback about our schools…I am humbled by what I have heard because these experiences do not reflect the community we set out to create.”

These statements are not apologies. These statements do not take any responsibility for the harm inflicted.

And while the people at the top of Uncommon Schools — the people who designed, trained, and maintained these abusive systems refuse to admit fault, the teachers who were made to participate in these systems carry an enormous amount of shame and remorse. On The Voices of Uncommon, former teachers share their stories and grapple with their role in the systemic abuse of Uncommon Schools:

· “I am incredibly ashamed of how I treated children who look very much like me.”

· “I was complicit in all of this and I take responsibility.”

· “I didn’t realize it early, but I conformed to many institutionalized racist practices that I am still unlearning today.”

· “I upheld Uncommon’s vision in my classroom. When I think about this, I am disgusted.”

· “I participated in practices that I am ashamed of. Now I am haunted by the dark reality of the trauma I inflicted on my students.”

But still not a word of personal responsibility from the top. Uncommon Schools clearly has an apology problem. And Uncommon’s refusal to apologize and take responsibility for the harm they caused speaks worlds about the organization and about its leadership.

And what Uncommon doesn’t understand is that apologies matter. They matter because you cannot repair harm that you do not acknowledge.

There are not enough Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives in the world to make Uncommon’s apology problem go away. Because apologies, by definition, are an acknowledgement of harm and an admission of guilt. And it is infinitely easier and cleaner to hire “a nationally-recognized DEI expert” to perform an “internal DEI audit” as Uncommon has promised to do than to apologize for the harm caused.

The hands of all the senior leaders at Uncommon Schools are dirty. No question about that. And so they must maintain their personal innocence or they must resign. And we all know that resigning is not an option for these individuals.

So while it is clear that apologizing is the right thing to do and the only possible way to move forward as a more just and equitable organization, Uncommon will not apologize.

And in the words of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, we should not stay up late at night waiting for an apology from an organization that takes no responsibility for the ways they have personally and systemically harmed children.