RICHMOND, Va. -- Richmond Public School Superintendent Dr. Dana Bedden issued a public apology to Latino students during an 11th and 12th-grade assembly at Huguenot High School on Monday. Huguenot Principal Jafar Barakat also took part in the apology.
Bedden stood before hundreds of students Monday afternoon, apologizing for an incident that happened two years ago at Huguenot high school.
Bedden and the school's principal called it an attempt at restoration and reconciliation for those Latino students who underwent a controversial search two years ago.
"I'm keenly aware of the adverse impact it had. I sincerely regret the manner in which Latino students were treated" Barakat said.
Jonathan Villatoro was a student there at the time. He says he will never forget the humiliation.
"In the cafeteria, they said if we find anything on you immigration will be called -- deportation was insinuated,” Villatoro said. “They said if we did not comply with the search, then they would call police.”
Parents, students and groups in the Latino community have since advocated for interpreters, demanded all school personnel stop threatening students with deportation and demanded additional cultural sensitivity training.
Bedden says now there is more than $1 million in the budget to address those very issues.
We asked if any disciplinary action was taken against school administration after the incident.
"We made changes but some of those are personnel changes so we can't talk about those," Bedden explained.
While say parents say Monday's apology is significant, they believe there is more work to be done.
Two years ago administrators at Huguenot High School called Latino students to the cafeteria before school let out because they had heard a fight was being planned. A student told RVA Open Source that they used the club, We Are Latino, to get everyone to the cafeteria.
“He started talking about how he loved us and then he’s like, ‘And now the tough love’,” Villatoro says. She says that the students were told that they were being searched because of concerns that they might be preparing to avenge a student recently beaten, allegedly by a group of black students.
“He told us he didn’t want to call the police, because then they’d discover the [undocumented immigrant ] illegals and then immigration would come.”
According to a published report, 15 of the students were searched for weapons. Then, in a "controlled dismissal" students were led to their buses in groups of six. In June 2013, the principal told reporter Ned Oliver that the situation wasn't ideal, but he thought he "was responding to a credible threat the only way he could, considering the limited time and information."
Students, community organizers, and the NAACP all staged protests over how the students were treated.
Organizers with the Wayside Center worked with students, families and administrators at the school to help with support and interpretation services as the Latino community responded to the incident. The group said that since Dr. Bedden has taken office as superintendent, the community has observed changes being implemented, but the Huguenot High School principal has not apologized as he promised, two years ago.
Kristen Larson, Vice-Chair of the School Board told CBS 6 that Dr. Bedden and his team have been working hard to make sure that resources for the Hispanic community are available, including more resources for ESL students and translators for both students and parents.
