If you were wondering how we got to the point to where an entire group of chaperoned white kids from Covington Catholic High School felt bold enough to openly harass a Native American Vietnam veteran in front of everyone, it’s because racism and hatred aren’t just openly tolerated in certain schools—sometimes they’re even encouraged.
Warning: This story is about something vile, but it needs to be told.
Camille Sturdivant is a young, driven black dancer who started dance training when she was 4. If you see her performances, you will agree that she is pretty damn good. She was a senior at Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park, Kansas.
Carley Fine is the studio director for the Perception Dance Company in Lenexa, Kansas. She was not a teacher, was not attending university, and had graduated from Blue Valley NW only two years earlier. This matters, because dance was an elective at Blue Valley NW, and students get grades for dance classes that count towards their GPAs.
Fine was hired because the district superintendent said it was hard to find dance coaches. As a student, Fine had been present at Camille’s freshman tryouts, along with fellow graduating senior Kevin Murakami. Her freshman year was the only year Camille didn’t make the team.
After she arrived, Fine let it be known that she was not going to follow standard practice. First, since she did not participate in tryouts, the girls would have to audition for every performance. In addition, she encouraged the girls on the team to come and pay money at her dance studio for private lessons or to take classes—which sort of defeats the entire purpose of having Fine work as a dance coach at the school. Furthermore, Fine had the students pay a fee to use Perception Dance Company studio instead of practicing at their school.
When Camille auditioned, things got ugly:
According to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed in December by Camille Sturdivant, Fine and Murakami pulled then-16-year-old Camille aside, and Murakami told her she was being removed from the dance because “her skin was too dark, and the audience would look at her and not the other dancers.” She was also told that her “skin color clashed with the costumes.” [Emphasis added.]
As awful as that sounds, what the school allegedly did next is even worse.
Camille’s parents rightfully demanded a meeting with Amy Murphy Pressly, the high school’s principal. Also present at the meeting was the associate principal, Tyler Alexander. The Sturdivants brought up the racist reason her daughter was told she could not perform.
So what was the principal’s response?
Melodie Sturdivant says the principal’s sole response to the skin color comment was that “Carley is allowed to pick who she wants in her own dance.” It was a weird, out-of-body experience, Melodie Sturdivant shares. “You want to make a scene, jump on a table, but you know the people involved won’t get it.”
Furthermore, the principal reportedly also dismissed the questionable grading practices for the dance team. Essentially, it appears that Camille’s parents were told to shove it. Pressly and Alexander, who are both still in their positions, seemingly gave a green light to more racism. And that’s exactly what resulted.
Fine was promoted to head coach. I won’t go into all the racist slights and incidents that Camille was subjected to, according to 435 Magazine. Suffice it to say, she suffered quite a bit at that disgusting school. Yet she rose above. Camille, unlike her favored classmates, made a highly competitive and nationally ranked collegiate champion team, the University of Missouri Golden Girls.
(Well done, Camille!)
But in a parting shot comes the most disgusting piece of vile filth to be seen yet in this story. Camille was allowed to use the head coach’s phone to play music for dance practice. The words below come from a picture that Camille took of what was on the screen, from a text discussion between Murakami and Fine lamenting that one of their girls didn’t make, but Camille did.
Murakami: I can’t believe Maggie didn’t make it again. I’m heart broken.
Fine: AND CAMILLE MADE MENS. I can’t talk about it.
Murakami: THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. I’m so mad.
Fine: It actually makes my stomach hurt.
Murakami: HA HA (emoji)
Fine: Bc she’s fucking black. I hate that
Murakami: me too. [Emphasis added.]
According to The Hill, when the principal was presented with the text exchange, it was finally enough to spur her to do something about Carley Fine.
And yet:
The texts resulted in Fine’s firing after Sturdivant discovered them, but the suit alleges Fine was back on campus working with members of the school dance team several times.
For the final spring show, one of the dancers’ mothers made purple ribbons for all the white dancers to wear, with the initials C.F., to show their support for Fine—because she apparently was the real victim in all of this. The principal, who Camille’s parents say had promised to be at the show to ensure Camille’s safety, did not attend. The principal did cancel the team banquet, but a private one was held off-site—and Fine was invited, and showed up for that one. Camille was not invited. Katie Porter, a district teacher, also showed up.
Don’t worry about Fine. She started a new high school dance group, the Dazzler All-Stars. As of Jan. 8, she still claimed to be studio director at Perception, where I can only assume she will continue to degrade minorities in peace.
Pressly, the principal of Blue Valley NW, is still overseeing a school where she can ensure that dark-skinned students don’t clash with the uniforms. Camille Sturdivant, on the other hand, left that nasty, backward school behind. She is currently a rising star who has a very bright future. Oh, and she filed a civil rights lawsuit against Carley Fine, the Blue Valley School District, Amy Murphy Pressly, and Katie Porter.
As I watched the smug face of the kid from another bigoted school, Covington Catholic, while listening to his peers in the back shout, “Build that wall!” I felt pure disgust. Not so much for the perpetrators, but for the true culprits: the adults who are supposed to be teaching and guiding them to become better. We can clearly see that bigotry is learned and reinforced. It falls on all of us to help make the young people unlearn it.
Well done, Camille. We are so with you.