The is the comment I gave before the HCPSS BOE public hearing on the redistricting on September 26, 2019. It was revised a little bit.

One lady who supported the superintendent’s plan shouted to an Asian American father, in front of his two young children: “go back to Asia” on this Tuesday evening outside this building. It is so sad to see what is happening now. I feel so sorry for the family.  

This kind of racist comment is hurting the community. It has been more than 10 years ago when I was shouted “go back to China” in Montgomery County by little school age kids. I have not heard that for many, many years.  Now the same “go back to Asia” fell on my neighbor in Howard County in front of his young children. This is totally NOT acceptable.

There are other very offensive comments from the opposing side too which should not be tolerated. Let’s respect each other.

Let’s focus on the real issue here. Many schools are over-crowded. High School 13 is scheduled to come online in 2023. As the superintendent Dr. Martirano always says: all Howard County schools are great schools. However, there are still some performance differences across the board. The school system needs to find a correct, efficient and pragmatic way to address this. Unfortunately, the superintendent’s redistricting proposal has led to community pitting against each other, where division and resentment are the worst part we don’t want to see.

Everybody supports diversity, equity and inclusion. However, there are different point of views and various approaches to address the same issue that we are facing. Because we are diverse, we will have different point of views. I wish everybody understand and share this very basic philosophy and we should not expect we have a homogenous opinion.

However, how to treat the diversity as an asset, instead of creating more division, inciting anger or excitement will be a challenging task for all involved.

We will shoot ourselves on the foot if we rush to create a solution. Let’s calm down, take a step back and minimize the school redistricting impact upon on our children and community. For the good of our community, let’s take it very cautiously and seriously.

We can do better. I believe Howard County residents have the courage and intelligence to find a better solution.

Asian Americans will not go back, neither African Americans, white Americans, Latino Americans, nor any Americans on this free land. Instead, we should unite. Everyone of this county should try our best, devote our energy, work and build a better school system together.

Thanks for everybody here tonight.