RioSlum Studio

Updated – March 27, 2023

In February 2023, graffiti was discovered in a girls bathroom at Upper Darby High School that read, “Y’all better start hiring more black teachers or five white ones will die.”

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt told the Daily Times that a parent alerted police to the message. Police asked the school to confirm whether the graffiti was legitimate. They were told by the school that the message was in fact real and it was most likely written by a developmentally challenged 19-year-old.

Parents claim they were not told about the threat until days later. Parent Jessica Daphne wrote on Facebook, “I know a post on social media isn’t going to help the situation….but we received an email earlier with no mention of this fancy art work.”

According to WJAC, “Upper Darby High School Principal Matthew Alloway allegedly considered the incident to be a ‘joke,’ but parents are demanding UDSD take the ‘direct threat’ seriously.”

Superintendent Dan McGarry said the district did not feel it was a direct threat at the time, but when they do believe there is a direct threat, they let the public know.

“We don’t go and chase and publicly communicate every single social media or graffiti incident. We investigate them but we don’t put out a communication every single time, unless we know for sure what we have in front of us, and not enough information to vet it.” 

Bernhardt said the police will not be able to charge the student due to her mental capacity and because the incident had already been cleaned up by the time the school contacted police.

In response to the incident, Superintendent McGarry sent a letter to parents saying the district “can no longer tolerate the physical nature of recent behaviors in our schools, on our buses and in our community.” He asked parents to speak to their children about “appropriate conduct” and “treating one another with respect.”

His letter comes after the district has seen an uptick in fights on or near school grounds. ABC6 reports that last fall, two students were arrested outside of a nearby Starbucks. The day before that, six people had been arrested after a student was stabbed outside of a McDonald’s. Parent Yasmine Brown added:

“The minor fights that my daughter says are happening at school, it’s about five or six fights every single day. Every day, it’s a problem. She’s only in sixth grade.”

Published – October 7, 2022

On July 14, 2020, the Upper Darby Board of Education adopted an “Anti-Racism Resolution.” The resolution states that “racism is systemic, and it is unconsciously and consciously rooted into our institutions, policies, and practices.” The board also writes:

“Consequently, we acknowledge that we must look at our own school policies and practices through an anti-racist and equity lens to address any traces of racism and inequity that still exist within our own school community.”

On April 20, 2021, the district published a “Statement of Unity” during the Derek Chauvin trial. This statement re-emphasizes their commitment to the Anti-Racism Resolution, stating:

“…we must center the voices of staff, students, families, and communities who have historically endured discrimination discrimination and marginalization. Their lived experiences and stories require attention, require respect, require empathy, and most importantly require action. Therefore, it is essential that we establish an expectation that a diversity of students, families, and community members, specifically those that have been ignored, discriminated against, and marginalized, are heard and included on substantive school and district issues.”

The Upper Darby School District has a Comprehensive Equity Plan that began in 2018 and runs through 2023. One of the action areas of the plan is in relation to hiring and placing personnel. The district states that it “will prioritize equity-related understanding, commitment, or skills in hiring practices and actively recruits and retains diverse personnel.”

The district also hired Corwin Publishing as an equity consultant. Corwin Publishing uses a “Deep Equity” model to help schools seeking to reduce and eventually eliminate achievement gaps, disparities in graduation rates, and disproportional suspension, expulsion, and disciplinary referral rates.

The organization’s website says that “Deep Equity” differs from other equity models because it focuses on “instructional applications for classroom educators” and “acknowledges the need to change the culture and climate across an organization to achieve long-term, sustainable change that addresses the root causes of educational inequities.”

The Upper Darby School District posted a video as a one-year update on the progress the district has made toward their equity goals. The video details a 4-day ‘Deep Equity’ training that teachers attended in order to help them become “culturally competent teachers” and to be able to recognize “power and privilege in the classroom.” The full video can be viewed here.

Upper Darby School District has 12,420 students enrolled across 14 schools.