Penfield Superintendent Accuses Community of Racism Again
As Penfield School Board President Withdraws From Contentious Race
There is a broader local debate going on in the town of Penfield, with some residents pushing back against the racial bias claims, arguing that criticism of school leadership relating to academics, policy, and spending, is being unfairly labeled as racism targeting the Penfield Central School District Board of Education and Superintendent.
And this isn’t the first time the Superintendent has cried racism.
In early 2025, a couple of school board meetings went viral on social media. Claims of racism covered by every local news outlet drowned out the actual concerns of the parents, community members and taxpayers raised at those meetings — one of which the entire school board abruptly walked out on. They are currently being sued for defamation as a result of their media frenzy of statements targeting a community member who attended that meeting.
With lots of activity on this current topic and recent events involving Penfield Superintendent Tasha Potter and School Board President, Aaliyah El-Amin Turner — there is a lot to sift through to get to the core issues and the real story.
You can read the lengthy statement by Superintendent Tasha Potter on the PCSD Facebook page.
TL;DR — In her letter to the Penfield community, Superintendent Tasha Potter expresses pride in her role and commitment to students and staff, while voicing sadness and disappointment over a pattern of harmful, hateful, and racist rhetoric directed at her and Black and Brown administrators.
She condemns online attacks, misinformation, derogatory name-calling, and manipulated/AI-generated images as cyberbullying, discrimination, and harassment that extend into personal and family lives. While attempting to affirm the value of legitimate disagreement and accountability, she stresses these behaviors are unacceptable and erode trust.
Potter acknowledges the behavior comes from a small minority and does not represent the broader community, apologizes to those harmed (including Board President Dr. El-Amin-Turner, who suspended her re-election campaign, citing racism), and validates the “lived experiences of People of Color.” She urges residents to prioritize facts over speculation, support affected staff, questions the cost of free speech, and encourages the community to “actively disrupt hate” to maintain a respectful, “inclusive” district focused on students.
(This was as brief as we could reasonably make it. It was that long.)
But where are the facts? 13WHAM’s article on the subject simply states: “Potter did not share details on specific claims or cases”.
The article doesn’t share any concerns from parents, taxpayers or faculty in the Penfield community relating to the Penfield School District, School Board and the Superintendent’s actions, of which there have been many, like:
Out of control spending and lack of transparency by the district.
Not taking students’ safety seriously enough. Security prioritized for school board members and administrators over students.
High-rate of staff turnover and harmful woke policies.
The proposed Penfield Central School District 2026-27 budget is $136 million (5.74% increase), and includes a 4.33% increase in the school tax levy.
According to a survey the Administrative Union did amongst their members, employees fear retaliation or retribution if they speak up or ask questions.
And that’s just to name a few of the current concerns expressed by Penfield families.
None have been reported having anything to do with anyone’s race or ethnicity.
Dr. Aaliyah El-Amin-Turner’s open letter to the Penfield Community also implies “racism” without any specific evidence to back her claim, in the 13WHAM article.
“Unfortunately, over time, the climate surrounding this work has become increasingly hostile, divisive, and harmful not only politically, but personally. Public service should never require someone to sacrifice their peace, dignity, safety, career, or wellbeing in order to participate. The level of hostility, misinformation, personal attacks, and dehumanizing rhetoric directed toward myself and others has taken a significant toll.
I also cannot ignore the broader reality that many of the tensions we are experiencing are not occurring in a vacuum. Across this country, Black women in leadership are often held to impossible standards expected to lead, fix, absorb, remain composed, and stay silent while simultaneously being questioned, undermined, scrutinized, and attacked in ways others are not. That reality has been impossible to ignore.”
- Dr. Aaliyah El-Amin-Turner, Penfield BOE President
Our research uncovered some screenshots of her social media posts, which one might say appear to be hostile, misinformation and dehumanizing. You be the judge:
It’s also important to note that Penfield Education Association (the local teacher’s union) endorsed candidates challenging the incumbent school board members, like Aaliyah El-Amin Turner, running for office this year.
“Over time, there has been a growing pattern of harmful, hateful, and dehumanizing rhetoric directed toward me and toward members of my administrative team, particularly those who identify as Black and Brown. This behavior has included persistent online attacks, the spreading of misinformation, derogatory name-calling, and the use of manipulated and AI-generated images intended to humiliate, demean, dehumanize, and misrepresent. These actions have not only targeted professionals in their roles, but have extended into deeply personal and family spaces.”
- Tasha Potter, PCSD Superintendent
Some Relevant Facts
There are no lawsuits from the district nor criminal charges made against any community members for threats, harassment, cyberbullying or discrimination. They did refer some threatening messages to law enforcement, but investigations concluded they were not criminal. (New York Laws on cyberbullying.)
There have been no hate crimes prosecuted originating in the town of Penfield from available data that we could find.
No screenshots or full texts of the latest alleged harassment have been made public by the district, Superintendent Potter or Aaliyah El-Amin Turner.
In March of 2025, after school board meetings went viral in January and February due to parent’s concerns over a sexually explicit book in the elementary school library, the board released redacted samples of some messages they received. The messages are clearly a reaction to the controversial and inappropriate content in the library. Reprehensible and condemnable, yes, but there is no overall theme of racism. It’s not clear if any of these messages were from actual community members living in the town of Penfield, as the controversy made national news and went viral online.
Penfield Central School District and Superintendent Tasha Potter are currently being sued in New York State Supreme Court for alleged defamation and for alleged civil rights violations relating to Open Meetings Law and FOIL.
UPDATE: Penfield Central School District voters passed the budget and elected two new candidates to the school board, Susan Kavanagh and Stacy Lonardo.
Aaliyah El-Amin Turner still appeared on the ballot for voters and received 890 votes.