Vermont school district deluged with threats after raising Somali flag in show of support
WINOOSKI, Vt. — A small Vermont school district has been hit with racist and threatening calls and messages after flying a Somali flag on campus to support Somali American students following President Donald Trump’s remarks referring to Minnesota’s Somali community as “garbage.”
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The Winooski School District began displaying the Somali flag on Dec. 5 outside its K-12 building, placing it beneath the U.S. flag and alongside Vermont’s state flag. Superintendent Wilmer Chavarria said the gesture aimed to affirm a diverse student body in which about 9% are of Somali descent.
“We invited our students and community to come together for a little moment of normalcy in a sea of racist rhetoric nationally,” said Chavarria, a Nicaraguan immigrant. “We felt really good about it until the ugliness came knocking Monday morning.”
District administrators said videos of the flag-raising, stripped of context showing the U.S. and Vermont flags also flying, spread quickly on right-wing social media platforms. What followed, they said, was a wave of vitriol: phone calls, voicemails and posts targeting district employees and students. To protect staff, the district temporarily shut down some phone lines and its website.
“Our staff members, our administrators and our community are overwhelmed right now, and they are being viciously attacked,” Chavarria said Tuesday. “The content of those attacks is extremely, extremely deplorable.”
Mukhtar Abdullahi, a multilingual liaison for families who speak Somali and a related dialect, said the rhetoric has frightened students. “No one, no human being, regardless of where they come from, is garbage,” he said, adding that students have asked whether their immigrant parents are safe. “Regardless of what happens, I know we have a strong community. And I’m very, very, very thankful to be part of it.”
Winooski police have increased their presence at school buildings as law enforcement investigates the threats, according to the district. Chavarria said his role as superintendent allows him to authorize flying a flag for up to a week without explicit school board approval, and he intends to continue celebrating the community’s diversity. The district also hosted an event with catered Somali food.
Winooski is a former mill town of about 8,000 residents near Burlington, roughly 93 miles south of Montreal. Somali refugees began arriving in the area in 2003 through a U.S.-approved resettlement program, according to the Somali Bantu Community Association of Vermont.
Responding to the backlash over the flag in Winooski, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the calls and messages were “the actions of individuals who have nothing to do with” Trump. In an email, she added: “Aliens who come to our country, complain about how much they hate America, fail to contribute to our economy, and refuse to assimilate into our society should not be here. And American schools should fly American flags.”
Federal authorities last week began an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota focused on Somali immigrants living unlawfully in the United States. Trump has claimed “they contribute nothing” and said, “I don’t want them in our country.” The Minneapolis mayor has defended Somali newcomers, saying they have started businesses, created jobs and strengthened the city’s cultural fabric. Most Somali residents in Minnesota are U.S. citizens, and more than half were born in the United States.
Chavarria said many Winooski students cheered and clapped when the flag went up, telling administrators the gesture mattered. “I felt sorrow for the students, the families, the little kids that are my responsibility to keep safe,” he said. “It’s my responsibility to make them feel like they belong and that this is their country and this is their school district. This is what we do.”
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
