In response to the hate speech incident that occurred earlier in the week, Niles West administrators held assemblies to review the hate speech protocol with students. Assemblies are scheduled during all PE classes on Thursday Oct. 27.

Principal Dr. Karen Ritter addressed first period PE classes, along with Assistant Principals Dr. Antwan Babakhani and Steve Parnther and deans.

“This cannot happen at our school, our school will not tolerate this kind of behavior about hatred and racism. It’s happened in the past and its still happening. We have a banner on our school that says ‘Hate Has No Home Here’, it’s not a joke, we expect everybody to value that,” Ritter said. “This is part of the Wolfpack Mentality.”

The administration communicated that when incidents like these occur, the school follows protocol and investigates the event. Dean Amy Tucker talked through the process the deans follow in an investigation.

“What I want to discuss is what we typically do when we have an investigation in the Deans Office so that we are transparent with all of you and you understand our process,” Tucker said.

According to Tucker, deans investigate each situation by first collecting as much information possible. They determine next steps by looking at the intent of the action and who it affected, whether that be a small group of students, a specific classroom, or the whole student body.

“We also look at the threat to the safety of our community, and safety isn’t necessarily just physical safety, it is also our emotional safety,” Tucker added. “So for example, this incident of hate speech, that makes a pretty big impact on our emotional safety. We take that into account.”

Tucker continued to describe kinds of information the Deans receive, such as statements or social media posts, to help with their investigations. They analyze all the information they have and the intent to determine the discipline of each student. Discipline can range from suspension to expulsion. Eight students have been suspended to date in response to the most recent infractions.

The first step is that when someone reports an incident to the school, the deans refer allegations to the Hate Speech Assessment Team (HSAT), which was formed last year. Members of HSAT meet to determine steps to begin an investigation.

“The purpose of telling you all about this protocol is to make sure you know that this isn’t haphazard, we take this very seriously,” Tucker said.

Dean Tim Dykes discussed the meaning of hate speech and restricted freedom of speech in school as well as the hate speech protocol. A student’s freedom of speech is restricted when it disrupts the educational environment, among other restrictions.

Dykes reiterated that students should be nice, treat others how they want to be treated, and if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.

Babahkani reviewed student privacy rights under Illinois law, offering explanation why the district cannot disclose specifics about individual punishments, duration of suspensions, or other personal details surrounding the hate speech incident.

“Every single one of you is protected by something called the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA protects each student’s education records, including behavioral records, like suspension and expulsion, can only be seen by the student and their parents or guardians. This information cannot be made public,” Babakhani said.