Dallas principal removed after blaming black students for school rating

A Dallas high school principal was removed from her job Monday after holding a meeting Friday with black students where she blamed them for her school not receiving an “A” rating. 

Chandra Hooper-Barnett of Woodrow Wilson High School reportedly pulled black students out of class to tell them they were the reason the school had a “B” in the state’s academic ratings instead of an “A.” Last year, the school of 2,000 students – 6% of them black – was given a “C.” 

“It was not like ‘oh you guys helped raise it to a B,’ it was ‘you guys are the reason we are not an A school,’” a parent told Fox 4. 

Jennifer Bush, whose 10th-grade son has a 3.5 GPA and is taking advanced courses, told The Dallas Morning News she was “livid” – especially because Hooper-Barnett is also black. 

“You have a historical position … and this is what you do. That’s insane,” Bush said, adding that trust had been “broken” between the school and families that had been targeted. 

Hooper-Barnett issued a letter calling the meeting “not appropriate” and taking “full ownership and responsibility for what occurred,” but she added a line that it was “never my intent to single out or cause harm to any group of students,” despite meeting only with black students. 

The Dallas Independent School District announced Monday the principal had been removed from her job and an interim principal appointed. It also said the meeting wasn’t sanctioned by the district. 

Bush told WFAA she was pleased with the district’s “rapid response,” but that she didn’t know how the meeting “was allowed to happen in the first place. I don’t know how she felt comfortable enough to do that.” 

Image credit: Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth