December 9, 2022

Mrs. Adiamak, Teacher, Westover Hills Elementary School, RPS
Ms. El Koubi, Principal, Westover Hills Elementary School, RPS
Jason Kamras, Superintendent, Richmond Public Schools (Certified mail 7020 0090 0000 0549 7399)

Loc: https://Timism.com/Media/2022/MeetingCancel20221209.htm
Prior Letter: https://Timism.com/Media/2022/RPS_Discrimination2022Dec03.htm

Greatings:

The incident as I recite (and I am an OCD Freudian scatological notetaker.of abnormal events to minimize migrating memories).

1. Ms. Blackwell, the toggler of bus or pickup, saw me and said "Khloi" to indicate a pickup request was sent to the teacher.
2. Sometime later Ms. Blackwell looked at me and said/asked, "Khloi hasn't come out yet?"
3. A few minutes later a Black woman came out and said she had put Khloi on the bus.
4. I asked if I could retrieve Khloi from the bus (#57), in part, because the busdriver and I had three or four short enjoyable conversations.
5. The woman said no because I was not on the list.
6. I said I was.
7. She then said I was not on the list since the start of the school year.
   • Khloi started kindergarden a few days late because of vaccination tardiness. I was the person who drove her to the docs for shots. I was the person who took her to school the first day.
   • Moreover, is it the case, as this woman implies, that care-takers cannot be added or dropped from the list during the year?
8. At this point I knew was in a losing battle like arguing with a cop, a fool or a racist.
9. I walked away.
10. I drove to Khloi's home and picked her up from her mother for a truncated tutor time.

On December 8, 2022, I received a forwarded text from Khloi's mother (Shawndra) originally sent by Khloi's teacher (Mrs.Adiamak)

Hi Ms Lewis, it's Mrs Adamiak. I wanted to touch base about last Friday- I sent Khloi on the bus because normally by the time her busis called, she's already been picked up. Friday when her bus was called before she was called down, I asked if she was a bus rider that day and she said yes. I should have checked with you but I didn'twant her to miss it if she was supposed to be on it! I'm so sorry!

These two stories tell different stories.

Later, I received the following text:

Mrs. Adamiak: Hi! I got in touch with her. Are you available next Tuesday at 1:45? Ms El Koubi and I want to meet with you and Shawndra to make sure we're all on the same page with some of the concerns you raised.

I don't care about who directed Khloi to the bus instead of to me. My "concern" is the way I was treated by the Black woman.

If I did something wrong, please tell me so I can apologize, explain or chide. I think in this CrowJim incident that I was wrong for my being born white. The 1970s National Association of Black Social Workers' “vehement stand against the placement of black children in white homes for any reason,” is alive and well in some closets. I don't want to be treated special, but I don't like being demeaned.

We are not on the same page. The proposed meeting will waste our time. As such for me, it will probably engender personal frustration and despondency. At this crucial moment of my final life's project (T.G.D.T.) and sudden health crises, I can ill afford a motivational purgatory.

If RPS doesn't want me tutoring Khloi, send me a certified letter explaining why. Otherwise, I will pick her up with all of us acting like none of this ever happened though my actions will, henceforth, be circumspect.

In summary, I requested an apology. This matter is closed. I have no memory of it unless I am again blind-sided by racial discrimination which is why it is memorialized. (Six years ago I was falsely accused, arrested and jailed costing me four-digits in legal fees to be exonerated.) I don't think the CrowJim moment was spur-of-the-moment.

Sincerely,

Robert S. Barnett
3600 Anne Street
Richmond, VA 23225

P.S. Mrs. Adiamak, please use Khloi's daily report card which I review to keep me informed of Khloi's personality challenges. My wife objects to my giving Khloi a dollar for each "3" which she can spend whereever when the stash reaches $20.  (Soon, half will go into a saving account.) The bribes are to kindle Khloi's curiosity into a voracious appetite for knowledge and its wise use. And, I see it working. Proudly, as I watched her counting and recounting her earned stash, I asked of this Project money-hungry kindergardener, "Would you rather have money or friends?" After a pondering pause eye-balling me, she said, "Friends."

She said if she had lots of money she would want to help people.

On another positive note, my consistent tutoring of Khloi has rewarded me with personal confirmation of many of the things documented by Jean Piaget, the great cognitive psychologist and child developmentist. Daily, I see concrete progression in Khloi's mental skills. Saturday, while watching the Army-Navy football game with me for four hours, she was completing lessons in an ABC/word workbook. Before going home, she asked if I wanted to hear her spell some words from the book. She would look at an image with letters, close the book, say the word and spell it, e.g., key, king, egg, tiger. Kudos to her for recognizing she had a new skill and for wanting to share it. And, she is getting better at not self-distracting and at counting without fingers. Addition answers come faster.

(Seeing me rooting for Navy, the little imp started cheering for Army.)