Lauren Pefferle: Mabel Rush Elementary School Teacher Shows Up To Work In BlackFace Pretending To Be Rosa Parks

Lauren Pefferle, a special ed assistant at Mabel Rush Elementary School in Newberg, Oregon decided to showed up to work in Blackface on Friday, allegedly saying she was dressed as Rosa Parks and protesting a vaccine mandate for teachers.

The 41-year-old Pefferle staged her protest against vaccinations on September 17, 2021, the school district said. The district did not name Pefferle.

A local newspaper reported that Pefferle “darkened her face with iodine.” No photos or videos of Pefferle in her Parks’ costume have emerged. Pefferle does not appear to have any public social media pages and has not made any statements about her intentions.

This isn’t the first incident of racism this school district how faced this semester. Reporter Ryan Clarke a currently developing a story about how a group of students at Newberg High School allegedly created a Snapchat group called “slave trade” where they joke about auctioning off Black classmates as slaves.

The superintendent Dr. Joe Morelock released a statement about Lauren Pefferle wearing black face to work. Check it out down below:

We’ve seen some dehumanizing and deeply disturbing expressions of racism in recent days involving our district. As always, our deepest concern is for the wellbeing of our students and our staff. Every day, we work toward building an environment where every student is welcomed and safe, and where there is absolutely no tolerance for racist or bullying behavior.

I am horrified, angry and ashamed that this happened, as is nearly every other staff member. The students of color in Newberg deserve so much more. This goes against everything I and the vast majority of NSD staff believe, and is unfathomably offensive.

If we had the power to entirely eliminate deep-seated racism, we would in a heartbeat. But the painful truth is that clearly, racist behavior exists in our town, in our state, and our world—not just in the major and overt ways we’ve seen recently, but in subtle ways that affect people of color every single day. We must interrupt and respond; we must do better.

It is important to remember the terrible historical context of Blackface: how it has been used to misrepresent and demean Black communities, and how much harm and pain it continues to cause. This behavior represents violence and evokes trauma; it is beyond unacceptable.

It is also important to acknowledge that references to our nation’s horrific history of the slave trade, which were made in the recent social media incident, have devastating consequences to our students whom we love and serve. It, too, is beyond unacceptable.

Each incident report is always taken seriously as we diligently follow our policies to investigate and take appropriate action.

In this context, we say again that Newberg Public Schools and its staff condemn racism in all its forms in the strongest terms possible. Our administration and staff are working hard to create schools where each and every student belongs, as we move forward together in our mission of safely educating students.

When harmful actions like this come to the surface and the traumatic impacts of those actions are recognized, we all, children and adults, can work toward improving the environment and the supports we employ for each and every student, no matter their identity. I am absolutely committed to doing that work. Let’s do it together.