Girl Scouts subjected to racial insults after speaking out at county board meeting

A group of Girl Scouts were subjected to racial insults when they spoke out at a meeting of the Animal Care and Control Oversight Commission in Cecil County.

The girls had read a newspaper article about bad conditions in animal care and wanted to speak out.

“I felt really bad for the animals because that wasn’t a really good home for them,” said 10 year old Amayah Spurlock.

“We thought that it wasn’t right to treat our animals the wrong way, so I wanted to give reasons why they shouldn’t,” said Tamara Spurlock, 11.

But when the girls arrived to say their piece, they say they were met with insults, and some of them were caught on video.

“They were saying, ‘Go back to Baltimore, where you belong,’ and they started pointing out me and my sisters,” said 13 year old Arianna Spurlock, who is African-American.

“I was like sad and mad at the same time,” Amayah said.

“They were calling us, like animals and stuff,” Arianna said. “And I didn’t really know why because if they are calling us animals, aren’t they supposed to be helping animals?”

A male co-leader of the troop tried to defend his girls. “You guys, no racial comments, okay?” he said. “Saying that they belong in Baltimore because they’re black, that is wrong. Please don’t say that okay?”

But the insults continued, with some accusing Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich, the troop leader and animal rights activist, of coaching the girls.

A Buddy for Life Co-Director Jen Callahan dismissed the girls’ comments because they had never visited the facility. “The Girl Scouts came out and had some things to say, I understand that they were coached with what to say,” she said.

“Miss Jayne never told us what to say,” said Lily Talley, 11, who made a public comment during the meeting. “And we actually thought of it by ourselves.”

“We, as kids, we always were taught, if you didn’t have anything nice to say don’t say it at all,” Lily said. “They should have done that.”

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