Camille Ramey is a friendly, mature 12-year-old girl from Austin, Texas, but she is not racist. Her friends, teachers, administrators, and even some local attorneys have repeatedly testified to that fact. But despite her well-established record of good character, some staff at her former elementary school claim she was inadvertently subjected to blackface at last year’s field day, and others with entirely different motives They argued that the act was racist because people had committed similar acts. In a completely different context.
Blaze News worked with Camille to understand exactly why her actions that day caused such an uproar, and why her family continues to be outraged by the response they received from the school and district regarding Camille’s case. We spoke to Camille and her parents, Jay and Kelly Ramey.
“I’m a football player”: Children paint their faces for sports day
Like most fifth-graders at Eanes ISD’s Bridge Point Elementary School last year, Camille Ramey was excited about “May Madness,” BPE’s designated field day.a memo Some of the ground rules for May Madness are that it promises to be “a fun-filled day with lots of great stations.”
BPE had several 5th grade classes, and each class was able to vote on a special color for the field day. One class chose blue. Another chose orange or pink. Camille preferred gray, but her classmates voted for black. So, on May 12, 2023, Camille showed up to school on behalf of her class wearing black shorts and a black T-shirt.
During May Madness, while many of BPE’s older students painted their faces to show team spirit, one of Camille’s friends also brought what was called a “camouflage stick.” This is a camouflage makeup-like facial application. Hunters and other outdoorsmen. Camille and a few of her classmates then began slathering the camouflage sticks on their arms, legs and faces, especially under their eyes, as they’ve seen many athletes do.
“We were like, ‘Okay, look, I’m a football player,'” Camille explained to Blaze News.
Wanting to show their excitement for the day and their support for Team Black, Camille and a male friend used camo sticks to draw stripes on their faces, and eventually decided to rub the face paint onto their faces, making them look black all over their faces. I made dirt. At that point, Caitlin Schuler, the substitute teacher who was teaching the class that day, glared at Camille and the boy and said, “I know your intentions weren’t racist, but what you did… That’s racist,” he said.
Schuler, a white woman who had previously taught another BPE class but whom Camille had never met until that day, ordered the two to go to the bathroom and scrub the black dirt off their faces. It was a wasted exercise as all I had available was wipes. There was toilet paper in the bathroom. When Camille and the boy reported that they could not remove the stain, Schuler sent the two children to a consultation room.
“As if I’d hurt her feelings”: Camille’s awkward visit to headquarters
Her mother, Kelly Ramey, said Camille later said, “I was really, really embarrassed and I felt like I hurt her feelings. Because the submariner said we were racist, she didn’t want me to… “I’m sure he’ll be angry,” he said.
Eventually, Principal Bryant invites Camille to his office. However, Ms. Bryant did not give Ms. Camille a chance to explain what had happened and immediately began echoing Ms. Schuler’s sentiments about the racist overtones of black face paint, using damp cloth to wipe her face. He handed her a towel, Camille said. When Camille’s attempts to remove the paint were unsuccessful, as was the case with toilet paper, Bryant took matters into his own hands. “At this point the principal is touching Camille and wiping her face,” Kelly Ramey told Blaze News.
When Camille returned to the homeroom area to pick up her lunch, she reportedly saw Sherman, a black school therapist, comforting Schuler, who was still upset about the black face paint. Camille didn’t speak to either woman, but she grabbed her lunch and hurried off to meet her friend in the lunchroom. Just then, I saw Principal Bryant place baby wipes on every table and order the students to remove all face paint, regardless of color. .
In his apology, Bryant denied “coaching” Camille and simply treated the situation as a “learning opportunity,” said Molly Mae, Eanes ISD’s assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and assessment. . Neither Bryant nor Sherman responded to Blaze News’ requests for comment.
“You knew exactly what you were doing”: Homeroom teacher shares his opinion
Camille and her teacher, Molly McAllister, were absent the Monday after May Madness, but when they both returned to class on Tuesday, McAllister received several reports of misbehavior from her substitute, Schuler. mentioned. Kelly Ramey said McAllister told her class that “some people didn’t even know what they were doing, but she knew exactly what she was doing that day.” I said.
Mr and Mrs Ramey told Blaze News that Ms McAllister did not specifically mention the black face paint during her public address to the class, but that she did look pointedly at Camille and the boys at key moments.
Mr. McAllister then handed out papers and instructed students to write notes apologizing to Mr. Schuler. Camille was unsure what to do at this point as his parents had told him not to talk about the incident with anyone at school, including his friends and teachers. However, when McAllister accused Camille of downplaying Schuler’s report, Camille immediately wrote him a letter saying, “I’m sorry for what I did and for being a racist.” Ta.
Kelly Ramey then emailed Mr McAllister, with whom she corresponded regularly, asking for a copy of Camille’s letter, but Mr McAllister replied that he no longer had the letter. Deputy Superintendent May’s statement claimed that McAllister “read and reused” the students’ apologies without sharing them ostensibly with “anyone else,” including Schuler.
Schuler and McAllister, who no longer work for the district, did not respond to requests for comment from Blaze News.
‘Disgusting’: District defends ‘blackface’ hysteria
Jay and Kelly Ramey say Bridgepoint Elementary School staff were eager to target their daughter, who, like dozens of other BPE students, had her face painted for May Madness. I was shocked. So they hired attorney Stuart Baggish to fight their cause at the district level.
If anyone is to blame for racism in this case, it is McAllister, not Camille, who knows that her students voted for black as their class color, and some even painted their faces black. Mr Baggish argued that he should have expected some students to be reluctant. Following the customs of May Madness. She and the other adults “should have known what was going to happen beforehand,” but instead they “just waited.”[ed] “Until kids are already doing it,” he said.
Finally, Mr. Baggish called out the substitute teacher, Caitlin Schuler, whom he called a “privileged white woman.” for her role in instigating the problem. Schuler’s “irrational, misguided hypersensitivity and political hyperactivity led her to actively incite discord, where nothing would have happened otherwise, and where she was unwarranted.” This led to a huge failure,” Baggish wrote.
His offensive language may have actually struck a nerve, as Corey Rush, the district’s attorney, sought to downplay the political nature of the case. Rush disputed claims that the adults involved were a bunch of “social justice warriors” and denied that the incident was an issue of “wokeness” and “white fragility.”
Mayes granted the Rameys’ request to remove all references to racism from Camille’s permanent record, but Mayes said the Rameys did not address “racism and the circumstances surrounding the May Madness incident.” No such mention existed in Camille’s records, making it a rather hollow concession. first place.
Ms. Mays also submitted a written response on behalf of Principal Bryant, effectively an apology to Mr. and Mrs. Ramey. If the Rameys refused to accept her apology, she offered to arrange a meeting between the Rameys and Principal Bryant “to resolve this matter.” The Rameys do not accept this response as a proper apology. However, they told Blaze News that no meeting with Principal Bryant has been scheduled to date.
The Rameys also criticized Mayes’ so-called investigation, which attorney Corey Rush described as “rich,” but which consisted only of interviews with three witnesses: Bryant, McAllister and Schuler. Mays never spoke to Camille or any other students, including those who reportedly supported Camille’s claims.
Eanes ISD Superintendent Dr. Jeff Arnett, who is an acquaintance of Jay Ramey, did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.
‘The court of public opinion’: The fight to clear Camille’s name continues
They had the option of filing a lawsuit with the Texas Education Agency, but the Rameys knew they had little chance of winning there. So they chose to stop “draining assets” in the legal system and instead “win in the court of public opinion,” Kelly Lamy said. To that end, the Rameys teamed up with Blaze Media to share their story and begin exposing what happens in public schools, even in red states like Texas.
Camille is currently doing well at Eanes Middle School, but she just wants people to know that what happened to her was “not okay.” “people [should not be] They called kids racists who didn’t know what they were doing and didn’t even try to be racist,” she told Blaze News.
She also said she wants the adults involved in the situation to admit they made a “mistake” in blowing the face paint out of proportion. She suggested that a simple apology, no different than the ones the adults had demanded of her, would go a long way.
“Then all will be forgiven.”
