To The Editor:
According to the HUUSD Board minutes of their January 27, 2021, meeting, the board is planning to discuss and possibly vote on changing the name of the Thatcher Brook School in Waterbury. This action will take place at their February10 meeting. The board printed links to Partridge Thatcher's life, so, in theory, we can all read why the name change should occur. In addition, they will discuss developing a "flag policy" for the district, as they are considering flying a BLM flag at the schools in the district.
Below is the letter I wrote to the board sharing my thoughts on their proposed actions on both concepts.
To the board of education: I completely disagree with changing the name of the Thatcher Brook School. This tendency that is encompassing our nation to eradicate -- or compensate for -- our nation’s history is absurd. We can’t change what was. We can, though, remember that we righted the wrongs and even fought wars to do so. That, too, is our history.
There is a reason Thatcher’s name is remembered. According to your own links to his life, he was a kind man who adopted two Black children because he and his wife could not have children. He was kind and generous to them and other Black people they acquired through the years, and freed them all -- even before the Civil War did so. Looking at the situation through a lens of the time’s norms, there was nothing malevolent in his behavior, but was, in fact, a benevolence towards Black people at a time when it wasn’t necessarily customary. He and his wife were good, kind people of their time. It makes absolutely no sense that you would even consider changing the name of a school based on the lives the Thatchers lived. It is for anyone to try to compensate for past unseemly behavior based on today’s standards. It indicates a disconnect and a lack of understanding that we have evolved as a nation, triumphed over its shortcomings and have come to be better for it!
As far as flying a BLM flag or any politically charged flag (think LGBTQ flag, AIM flag, Women’s Rights flag, etc.) would be making a potentially biased political statement and could cause friction among the students -- something no school should do or be allowed to do. No flag, other than the United States flag and the Vermont state flag should appear at any school.
Amy Smith
Warren, VT
