Good Intentions Turn Into Diversity Backlash at Lakeside School

Racism is present at Lakeside, just as it is everywhere, Walker says. Yet she notes, "Compared to what I went through with the public-school system, it's nothing." Walker's son, now a senior, previously attended the Seattle School District's program for gifted students at Lowell Elementary. Walker believes her son was picked on because of his race by a teacher who questioned him sharply about black history and kept yelling at him to talk louder despite a speech impediment.

"Lakeside has been a lifesaver," she says. Administrators welcomed her son "with open arms," she says. In his early years there, he struggled academically. "They really worked with him," she says. This year, he has brought home mostly B's.

A promotional brochure for the school.

A promotional brochure for the school.

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More About

• Kim Pollock
• Briaan Barron
• Chance Sims
• Bernie Noe
• Racial Issues

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Confusion is something you hear a lot in regards to Lakeside's diversity effort. Everybody seems to be puzzling over why it hasn't gone more smoothly despite the enormous amount of time and money invested.

But does Lakeside even know what it wants? That's a question that Pollock essentially poses as she reflects on the circumstances that led to her departure. "They knew who I was when they hired me," she says, referring to her long history of teaching issues related to race, ethnicity, and gender. That, presumably, was why she got what she describes as a "cold call" from administrator Vassar asking her to come in and talk. She reiterates, "They came looking for me."

nshapiro@seattleweekly.com