“I made a mistake,” Richard Gist told the Brown County Schools Board of Trustees on Feb. 7.

“I had an err in judgment in the way that I approached a conversation on social media. If I could redo that, I would have taken a different approach. … I just ask that you as the board give me the opportunity prove to you I am an asset to this county.”

Two weeks after Gist, an assistant track coach, posted a photo of himself in blackface to a Facebook conversation thread, the school board voted to approve his termination on Feb. 7.

Gist had been given a “path” to return to Brown County Schools as a substitute teacher and assistant football coach next school year, explained board President Steve Miller Jr. The week prior, Gist and Superintendent Laura Hammack met to discuss a plan.

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The first step was for Gist to resign as assistant track coach this school year in the belief that his presence would be a “distraction.” This would provide a “cooling off” period for the next two steps to be completed.

The second and third steps required Gist to participate in cultural competency training, followed by taking online civility training.

Both training courses will also be implemented for other school staff and lay coaches — people who coach while holding a job outside of the education field.

Gist ultimately declined the offer, which resulted in the school board being tasked with approving his termination instead of his resignation, Miller said.

Gist clarified at the meeting that he did not refuse to take cultural training or other classes; he only refused to resign.

“As educators and role models, we are held to a higher standard,” Miller said. “We have a responsibility make this an opportunity to educate students and the broader community on the issue at hand. That higher standard recognizes that as educators, whether we want to be or not, we are role models for our students; we are role models beyond the classroom door; we are role models in our activities in the classroom and out of the building.”

In a written statement distributed at the meeting, the board said that “the offensive image Mr. Gist posted, as well as the handling of his social media account and the ensuing conversation surrounding the image, showed a distinct lack of discretion and good judgment by a role model. As a school district, it is incumbent upon us to protect that higher standard, because the safety and the future of our students depends on it.”

Heavy rain and flooding made getting to the meeting at Helmsburg Elementary School difficult. The school board allowed comments from members of the public who managed to get there. Nine people stepped up to speak, with the majority speaking in favor of keeping Gist on as an assistant coach. More than 2,000 people had signed an online petition in support of keeping him.

‘True talk’

On Jan. 23, Gist responded to a Facebook post about how white people should not dress in blackface by posting an old photo of himself in blackface as Bob Marley. “What’s wrong with it?” Gist wrote.

Donald Griffin, who is black, wrote that Gist’s photo was offensive. Gist asked what was offensive about it.

“If you think that it’s okay then why don’t you use it as your profile picture for a while? I’m sure you will get the answer to the question you seek. It is racist and it is offensive to most people of African origin,” Griffin responded.

Gist changed his profile photo to the one of himself in blackface the same evening.

Griffin said by phone last week that he wasn’t trying to argue with Gist online, but to have a discussion. “I didn’t want him to get into trouble,” he said.

“I didn’t think he would actually put it on to see as his profile picture.”

Griffin grew up in Bloomington, where he owns a real estate business. He considers Brown County an extension of his community. “I love Brown County. I love its people. I don’t think people are racist there. I really don’t,” he said.

Griffin is also the vice president of the NAACP in Indiana.

“You can’t believe how many personal messages I have received from people in that community who have been hurt for decades,” he said. “… It’s not a Brown County thing. … As great as Bloomington claims they are when it comes to diversity and equality, we’ve got the same issues they’ve got.”

As a real estate agent, Griffin said he’s come across people who have never had a black person in their home or haven’t ever talked to a black person face to face. “At the end of our conversation or the end of our transaction, we’re friends. We were coming from places of differences, but we found common ground. We found common things to like.

“… If we truly love our community and we love our fellow man, I think we have to engage in true talk. We have to be willing to say ‘You know what? I’m offended by this,’” he said.

“That’s where I was wrong. It’s OK for him to say, ‘Why are you offended by this?’ And I should have been more open and tell him, explain to him why it’s offensive. Maybe this would have gone differently if I had done that.”

Bloomington activist Vauhxx Booker applauded the school board’s decision to approve Gist’s termination as assistant track coach.

When Booker saw that Gist had changed his profile picture to the blackface photo, he took a screenshot of it and sent it to Hammack. He is Facebook friends with the person whose status Gist initially commented on.

“Blackface was one of the primary tools employed to portray blacks as subhuman, morally deficient and deserving of the countless atrocities committed against us,” Booker said in an online statement Thursday night. “Mr. Gist, perhaps unknowingly, engaged in this behavior. It displayed a cultural ineptitude unconscionable for an educator. Worse, Mr. Gist remained unwilling to engage in the process of restorative justice — a process that would require his empathy, awareness and good faith efforts at reparation to those offended, not merely empty apologies,” he wrote.

“Tonight, we should reserve our empathy for the members of the community threatened and bullied for speaking out against blackface, for the black, gay and otherwise marginalized students — students who have likely been made to feel othered and ostracized. I applaud the decision made by the school board tonight. It sent a very clear message regarding the worth of those students and the school system’s dedication to uphold tolerance and inclusion. This decision wasn’t so much a measure of Mr. Gist’s character, but a statement of values for the community at-large.”

Teachable moment

Teacher, parent and community member Brenda Ely was one of two people who spoke in support of Gist’s termination, after learning he had declined the plan offered to him.

“It is my opinion that his decision does not align with the mission statement or core values of Brown County Schools. I do not believe that Mr. Gist intentionally set out to cause harm or to be offensive, but the fact remains that his comments on social media did cause harm and were offensive to some. It is my opinion then that in light of the controversy that was caused by Mr. Gist’s social media posts, it is irresponsible to choose not to participate in these trainings,” she said.

“I still believe that good can come from this. There are many lessons to be learned. It would be a failure on all of our parts not to gain powerful wisdom and insight from this. I leave you with this quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: ‘The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.’ Brown County, let’s stand in love, forgiveness and unity as we accept, learn and challenge each other to make this world a little bit better than it was yesterday.”

Ely said these events were “troublesome and uncomfortable” for the community, but that they provide a “chance to model for the nation how to handle this kind of situation. We have an opportunity to share, communicate, accept, love, forgive, heal and grow. We have the opportunity to show our kids and the rest of world that even though we may not always agree, we value each other, we respect each other, we can forgive each other and we unite to bring about powerful change. These are the lessons our children and our nation need to hear now more than ever,” she said.

During the meeting, Gist apologized “to each person in this building who is here” as well as the community. He said he also had reached out to apologize to Griffin first, since Griffin was the man who initially said his photo was offensive.

“I’ve given my entire adult life to the youth, this community and surrounding communities,” Gist said. “Whether I am a part of this school corporation or not, I am still going to give my life to the youth in this country as well as locally in this county.”

Jessica George, a friend and former employee of Gist’s, was one of the people who spoke in his defense at the meeting.

“Were things done untastefully? Maybe. Were they done to cause malicious harm? I don’t think so. … He’s not a racist. That I can say 100 percent. I think I would know if he was. … I wouldn’t be friends with him if he was,” she said.

George said this situation could be a teachable moment for Brown County. “I’ve asked high school students, do you know what blackface is? They had no idea. We need to teach this,” she said.

Jason Blankenship has a child in Brown County Schools and another who graduated. He has known Gist for eight years. He said he believed Gist deserved a second chance.

“I think that’s one thing the students and community members can learn from is, OK, a person has made an error; they have acknowledged it and been put through the ringer, but he is a good person. If he takes the steps the school board deems are appropriate, my hope is he will be readmitted to be able to a part of school system, because he is not a threat, I believe, to the children in the school system. It will be a positive if he is able to come back,” Blankenship said.

Gist’s father, Lamar, also spoke in support of his son. “You have a good person here, an educator. I think losing him as an asset is a big mistake,” he said.

Neil Richards said he did not know Gist very well, but he had watched him interact with a relative of his when Gist was an assistant football coach for Brown County High School. “He took a kid that was a little unsure of himself and built confidence. He’s the perfect role model to these kids,” he said.

“I wasn’t offended. I wasn’t hurt. Did I look at it like, ‘Eh, I wouldn’t have done that’? Yes,” Richards said.

“Some people are (offended). … A minority of the community is hurt. It seems like the minority of the community has taken over the democratic society … where majority rules. To get rid of that man is a mistake. He’s a positive person. It would be a loss for our children not to have him in their lives.”

After the meeting, Hammack said she was pleased to be moving forward. “I think it’s really fair to say that this has been a really difficult experience,” she said.

She, too, said there’s still an opportunity to make this a teachable moment. “As an organization, the idea of repairing harm is extremely important. There was an action that happened. The board believed that harm could be repaired, and there are consequences for actions. Through their action this evening, those consequences were rendered. We’re really committed to the next step, which is repairing through education and coming together as a community,” she said.

The district does have personnel policies that provide direction for personnel recommendations. It also has policies in place for anti-discrimination and harassment. Hammack said this experience has “illuminated” an opportunity for the school district to explore implementing a social media policy.

“That’s really an area where the board will be headed, analyzing and trying to make decisions on best policies for that,” she said.