‘A Complete Abuse of Power’: Catholic School Principal Fired After Calling Cops on Black Parents Whose Young Son Was Called the N-Word, Then Expelled Days After Racist Incident
A principal of a Catholic school in Oregon was fired from her job weeks after she called the police on two Black parents who met with her to address an incident in which their fourth-grade son was called the N-word by a classmate.
The Madeleine School in Portland, Oregon, made headlines earlier this year after Mike Phillips and Karis Stoudamire Phillips spoke out about a racial incident they said ended in a heated confrontation involving the school’s principal, Tresa Rast.
The parents said that they were called to the school in March after their son’s classmate called him the N-word.
When they met with Rast, they demanded accountability and pointed to a previous incident involving their older son that they claimed was insufficiently handled.
Rast requested the couple leave school grounds, but when they refused, she called police.
In the 911 recording obtained by KGW, Rast can be heard requesting officers’ presence at the school because of “parents yelling at employees and refusing to leave.”
“Do you know what their names are?” asked the 911 operator.
“Uh, no,” answered Rast.
“Okay… and are they white, Black, Hispanic, Asian?” asked the operator.
“Uh, second one,” replied Rast.
Rast requested to stay on the line with the dispatcher, and the recording caught snippets of her conversation with the Phillips.
“You want to nail me to a cross over and over and over again, and it’s not productive,” Rast said in the recording. “I’m right here advocating for your child who did come sit in my chair in my office and does trust me.”
When a voice in the background says, “He does not,” Rast replies, “OK, that’s fine, he acts like he does.”
Days later, the Phillips’ son was expelled, prompting backlash from the Madeleine school community.
The Phillips’ demanded that the school apologize for the incident, dismiss Rast, and investigate the racial slur said to their son. Several community members joined their campaign and demanded that the school re-enroll the Phillips’ son and amend its policies. The family’s petition garnered more than 5,000 signatures.
In response to her termination, Rast told KPTV she felt “deeply betrayed by her priest and the archdiocese.”
Mike Phillips previously told The Oregonian that Rast’s 911 call was “a complete abuse of power.”
“You have to understand that a Black man having the cops called on him is a totally different implication. It’s a complete abuse of power, a ‘Look what I have over you,’” Phillips said. “You’re calling the cops on me and kicking out my son because of what he heard? My family is the victim in this. There is no cross you can hide behind.”
It’s unclear whether the school has launched an investigation into the racial slur.
Shortly after the incident, a student witness came forward and stated that he overheard the slur, but Rast diminished the child’s claims. When that child’s parents met Rast, she told them she suspected their son had made up the entire incident, and recommended he see a therapist to be “deprogrammed” from the anti-racist training he received during his previous enrollment at a public school in Portland.
Neither officials at The Madeleine School nor the Archdiocese of Portland have responded to local outlets’ requests for comment on Rast’s firing.