Dupage Policy Journal

Parents of Hinsdale South High School students are criticizing an email sent by school administrators to Black and Hispanic AP students as exclusionary and racist.

On May 13, members of the District 86 Facebook Group shared photos of an email sent out from Hinsdale South High School administration. The email, which came from administrative assistant Kristin Scamehorn on behalf of Principal Patrick Hardy and his Student Advisory Council, was sent out to Black and Hispanic students who were registered in an AP course at the high school.

The email acknowledged the “unique challenges” that they face and “biases, intentional or unintentional, you experience in these learning spaces.” Students that received the email are invited to accept a “small gift of encouragement.”

"Please report to the Black and Gold Room Thursday, May 11th at the end of 1st period to receive a small token of encouragement," the email read. "You will receive your gift and proceed to your 2nd period class. We promise it will only take a few moments of your time. Please know that we see you! We see the hard work and dedication you bring to these courses every day, and sometimes against all odds. Your hard work has not gone unnoticed. These gifts [and] acts of kindness are for you. Congratulations on being an AP student and completing AP exams this year. Good luck in your AP future, and keep grinding! YOU ARE AN AP STUDENT."

The email received criticism from members of the District 86 Facebook group being exclusionary and racist.

"Mr. Hardy is not inclusive or practicing inclusion if he is purposefully excluding certain races - that is practicing racism and our school principal at South is indeed being racist with this communication and preferential treatment toward only Hispanics and blacks, specifically," read a message from Michelle Cordova-Ptak and posted by Joseph Robert Corcoran, both parents in the district. "His actions are insulting to any race that was not included in his 'gift' giving and his actions of giving a gift because he presumes that Hispanics and blacks should feel inferior or less than or in need of preferential treatment is insulting as well."

According to Patch, Principal Patrick Hardy was hired as principal of Hinsdale South in July of 2022, making this current school year his first in the school and district. Reports from the very start of the school year showed him making a rough entrance, being jeered at by students at their first football game and receiving comments that called him racial slurs and a pedophile. He shared this in district news and said he hoped to be able to rein in the student body and create a safer and more welcoming school climate.