Exclusionist Policy at the Seattle Public Schools
A newly adopted board resolution forbids any principal or teacher from discouraging Chinese pupils, yet the paper reports on the city's ongoing anti-Chinese agitation.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At the meeting of the Board of Directors, the following was adopted: That it is the sense of this Board that principals, teachers or employees in the public school department of this city refrain—especially regarding the Chinese—to in any way, by bill or word, promote their grievances or to discourage the scholars under our charge today. In this connection, the School Board is under intense pressure from the anti-Chinese movement which has gripped the region.
“refrain... to in any way, by bill or word, promote their grievances or to discourage the scholars under our charge today.”
This reflects the volatile period of the 1885-1886 anti-Chinese expulsions in the Pacific Northwest. It reveals the role of public institutions, like schools, as sites of struggle where local officials attempted to manage institutional order amidst a wave of xenophobic violence.
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