Employee who wore blackface to school is put on leave, Oregon district says

UPDATE: The employee has been identified by KATU News as Lauren Pefferle, a teacher’s aide. Pefferle said she and other unvaccinated staff were told by administrators that they could not work with students unless they were six feet away from them starting Sept. 16, calling the rules “segregation.” “So on Friday (Sept. 17) ... I showed up to school, and I put on some dark makeup on the parts that were showing my skin, including my hands, and I came in hopes to represent Rosa Parks, who I admire for standing up during her time when segregation was taking place, and I felt like I and others who are unvaccinated were starting to experience segregation,” Pefferle said. The original story is below.

An employee at an Oregon elementary school has been put on leave after wearing blackface to work on Sept. 17, district officials said.

The Newberg school district responded to the incident in a statement Monday, saying that the employee was removed from the school and placed on administrative leave.

“It is important to remember how blackface has been used to misrepresent Black communities and do harm,” the statement said. “We acknowledge the violence this represents and the trauma it evokes regardless of intention.”

The school district did not identify the employee or the reason they wore blackface to school, though media reports say it was to protest vaccine mandates.

The district superintendent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This incident comes after several parents of Newberg High School students discovered that their children were participating in a Snapchat group chat called “Slave Trade,” where students joked about how much participants would pay for their Black classmates in a slave auction, KGW reported.

Tami Erion, principal of Newberg High School, told KGW that the group chat included photos of students and the use of racist and homophobic slurs.

District Superintendent Joe Morelock addressed the social media incident in a letter to students and parents, saying that “racist or bullying behavior has no place in our schools or community” and that the school would “investigate all involved.”

The blackface incident also comes during the school board’s months-long efforts to ban Black Lives Matter and Pride flags among other “political” symbols, The Newberg Graphic reported.

Parents have criticized the district, saying that their children don’t feel safe at school.

Tai Harden-Moore, a Black woman and former candidate for school board who has children in the district, told The Newberg Graphic that the blackface incident mirrors problems in local politics.

“Our county leadership is saying basic public health measures are akin to Jim Crow,” Harden-Moore said.

This story was originally published September 20, 2021 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Employee who wore blackface to school is put on leave, Oregon district says."