MARYSVILLE — The Marysville School Board at a Monday night meeting joined the call for board member Michael Kundu’s resignation.
Kundu connected learning ability to racial genetics in e-mails sent June 3 and 7 among the board and school administrators.
“A lot of damage has been done, but hopefully we will be able to fix this,” school board President Sherri Crenshaw said.
Kundu, who was absent from Monday’s meeting, has said he will not resign. He was re-elected to a four-year term in November.
On Monday, the board’s other members individually said Kundu should step down.
The board did not officially ask him to resign. That may come at its June 21 meeting, after an item can be put on its agenda.
Instead, the board, by a 4-0 vote, approved an apology for his remarks and reaffirmed its commitment to all students.
“We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard,” board member Chris Nation said.
Also, a group of 23 lawmakers sent Kundu a letter on Monday that called on him to apologize for the e-mails. The lawmakers — a bipartisan group from the state House of Representatives — all signed the letter.
“Mr. Kundu, as a member of the Marysville School Board, you at least owe your students a sincere apology for your inappropriate and injurious claims,” read the letter, a copy of which was e-mailed to the Herald on Monday night.
“This is not a political issue at all,” said Rep. Maralyn Chase, D-Edmonds, one of the signers. “This is to send a very clear message that his comments are not of the intellectual level or moral principles of the people of the state of Washington.”
While the letter doesn’t ask Kundu to step down, Chase said she thinks he should resign.
At the Marysville School Board meeting, board members’ comments were met by applause at times.
More than 40 people sat through a typically quiet budget session to hear the apology. Still more came to an earlier meeting between the board and the Tulalip Tribes officials.
Along with the state branch of the NAACP and some residents, the Tulalips are seeking Kundu’s resignation. The Tulalips also may pursue a recall election if he doesn’t leave office.
The comments from the board encouraged the members of the Tulalips.
“Together, we’re on the right path,” Tulalip tribal chairman Mel Sheldon said. “It’s going to take some time, but we’re going to get there.”
Sheldon added that he wished Kundu had come to the meeting.
Kundu, who grew up in Canada and is of East Indian and German descent, sent the offending e-mails as part of a broader discussion on the achievement gap — the way some minority groups lag behind their peers in school.
Nearly 12,000 children belong to the Marysville School District. Roughly one-third are minorities.
Kundu said racial genetics were among the factors that contribute to a child’s learning ability. He pointed to a study by J. Philippe Rushton, a psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario who ranked the intellect of the races.
“There is a definitive factor played by racial genetics in intellectual achievement,” Kundu wrote.
Experts in the field of psychology said Kundu was wrong to cite Rushton, whose theories are extreme, disputed and unproven.
Kundu did not return requests for comment Monday.
Last week, he called Rushton racially motivated. He apologized for hurting people’s feelings. He said he didn’t consider the impact his remarks could make.
He did not apologize for broaching the subject, however. Instead, he said politically incorrect issues need to be discussed.
“I didn’t intend for this to happen,” he said.
That hasn’t satisfied Kundu’s critics, who want him out of office.
“Whether intentional or unintentional, the damage is done, and there can be no healing until the cause is removed,” Tulalip tribal member Glen Gobin said.
Karen Anderson, a mother with two children at Quil Ceda Elementary School, agreed. She told the school board that Kundu needs to resign.
“I cannot understand how a person of character could give credit to, or even bother to read, obviously racist dogma,” Anderson said.
Racially charged e-mails have landed Kundu in trouble before.
Kundu, an environmentalist, participated in a heated exchange in 2000 with the Makah Tribe.
He called them a “cryptic and dying culture,” saying it was no surprise they succumbed to colonialists.
He apologized for the remarks weeks before he first won office in 2003 as part of the Marysville teachers union’s slate of candidates.
Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455; arathbun@heraldnet.com
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