NEW ULM — The Human Rights Commission is looking for a presenter to speak on racism and bullying at New Ulm Public Schools this fall.

The measure was addressed by Commission member Kristi Sprenger. She said she started the search on her own, but had not been able to find a suitable crop of candidates for the commission. She explained the background of the situation and asked for advice from the board.

“We did some education last year with diversity training,” Sprenger said. “We haven’t really done anything since. I would like to explore some options for a speaker presentation to tie to this subject about racism or bullying regarding racism in schools or small communities.”

Commission member Casey McMullen suggested they invite admins and school board members to speak on this topic and give suggestions as to what the commission should do. Sprenger agreed and reiterated the importance of bringing this topic up given coverage from media and the community’s response.

Commission member Obehioye Okojie said bringing a speaker in would provide the commission an opportunity to highlight an issue than can be hard to identify and stop.

“I think it’s a great idea to have to address race-related bullying,” she said. “I know the schools are always working on bullying but race-related bullying may be something that’s not on their radar. It can slip underneath the radar pretty easily, because it can oftentimes be something only the person that’s being bullied understands or feels the impact of.”

Sprenger agreed and said a motion would allow them to start looking for possible speakers to meet this need. Commission member Jyneal McCrea suggested going further, integrating it into their yearly spring poster and essay contest. Sprenger capped the discussion by touching on something Okojie had expressed in a previous meeting as a healthcare professional.

“I was struck when you said at our last meeting you don’t have a patient of color that has not had this experience,” Sprenger said. “I think we should make an effort to bring that to the forefront. I think there’s a lot of not purposeful ignorance in the community of ‘well that doesn’t happen here’ and it does happen and I think it slides under the radar and that stuck with me.”

Okojie made the motion to pursue finding a speaker to discuss racism and bullying with New Ulm Public School students, which McCrea seconded.