To the Editors:

Cincinnati — As one of the principal people who has stood to learn from my actions at Oberlin High School on March 20, I appreciate the clear thought and fairness that has gone into the letters written on this subject. I would like to answer some of the questions and concerns that have been raised by OHS sophomore Anna-Claire Stinebring and OHS graduate Grace Hammond.

Please know that I hear you both deeply, as I have heard the sadness and anger of many students, faculty, police officers and residents over the past month. I am grief-stricken at the effects of my climbing through the high school window. As you guessed, I never wished to frighten, intimidate or cause a rift in what I have long known to be a very delicate, hard won trust. I too have worked to see relations between the town and the college strengthen, and it breaks my heart that I’ve put such a dent both in my own work and in the work of others.

My intention on Day X had been to teach an arts workshop on peacemaking in collaboration with local artists and store owners who kindly donated all of our supplies. I nearly didn’t go on the march in order to prepare this workshop, but I got caught up in the feeling of elation that we were going to join the high school students, a plan I’d been pleased about for weeks and had understood to include the hopes of many high schoolers and the agreement of the OHS administration (both of which were true, but with a tragic subtlety of difference in details).

A lot was very confusing when we did arrive at the high school, of course, but in defense of the OC students, the section of the crowd I could see didn’t seem angry to me — many of them were smiling, enthusiastic, respectful to the police (who were very patient and human to us) and just seemed reluctant to abandon the body of students who had prepared permission slips to come to the teach-in, a body we believed to be still inside the building. (Among 700 people, a great majority of whom were about 18 years of age, nine high school students already in the ranks were not as obvious as one might have hoped.) Even the “window-bangers” I observed didn’t seem violent as much as excited and happy to finally encounter students inside. As we walked around the building, people were also chatting and joking with each other — I don’t think anyone was thinking of themselves as menacing, or trying to intimidate.

I was the only person to climb into the building, a fact which I’ve told to all concerned and would like more people to hear. Once inside, I considered finding Principal Valentine and exchanging information with her so that the crowd would better understand the school’s side, and vice versa. I’m pretty kindly and open-minded; I figured she might speak to me better than to a sea of 700 faces. However, I stood by the window for too long listening to people’s suggestions, and was arrested there, in a heated environment that overwhelmed a chance for speech (as one might say the violence of my action did equally — and to which I bow my head). I am very grateful to Principal Valentine and to superintendent Bev Reep for stating to the prosecutor recently that I did not seem to have violent intentions, despite their having to deal with me under such intense conditions.

It was while I was under arrest in the high school that I first heard reports of students crying. I was startled and very dismayed. All the teachers I saw seemed very concerned about their students’ safety; the staff were clearly very caring people and not at all evil autocrats, not (as both Hammond and Stinebring point out) the enemy. The Oberlin and Lorain County police, too, treated me very civilly throughout the following 23 hours. They were just doing their job, protecting the school community from what could have been a real terrorist threat, especially considering the proximity of the FAA.

I wrote to Principal Valentine and the high school as soon as I could to apologize, and have offered to do community service there. I also wrote to Dean Goldsmith to find out if there was anything I could do by taking responsibility or anything else to start undoing the damage to the college-community relationship. I apologized to the high school students I knew by phone. Finally, I asked OCAW to join my reflections about some of the issues the march had raised. I would like the community to know that OCAW slaved over some very difficult questions for over three hours, and produced some of the most inspiring and responsible minutes I’ve ever read.

I want more than anything to begin to patch up what I’ve broken. Unfortunately, I am banned from Oberlin until my sentencing in June, so I am giving all my time to youth-oriented community service here. I would love to hear long-distance patching ideas from anyone. I absolutely agree that if you make a mistake, you should try your best to repair it.

The high school is not the enemy. The marchers are not the enemy. OCAW is not the enemy, nor are the men and women of the police. And I am not the enemy. If there is anything I can do to ease the divisions that make things appear this way, please let me know.

—Claire Miller
OC ’02