SALT LAKE CITY — A teacher at a Salt Lake private school was the victim of a burglary, but she is more troubled by a note that was left behind.
In March, Shannon Foy-Sundo moved to Millcreek from Virginia so she could return to in-person teaching, something that wasn’t an option at her last school due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Tuesday morning, her welcome to Utah was literally shattered. Someone broke two windows on her car and stole several valuables.
“I was like, you gotta be kidding me,” Foy-Sundo said.
But under all that glass was a piece of paper more unsettling than the burglary.
On that paper was a one-word racial slur.
“I turned back around, picking up pieces of paper off the ground,” she said. “I flipped it over and that's when I read that word that I don’t even say.”
Sadly, she has experienced this type of racism in every city in which she’s lived.
“I hate that I was almost numb to it,” Foy-Sundo said. “You hear that word, it still hits.”
Shannon’s school community at Garfield School rallied behind her and started a Gofundme page to help her pay for the repairs and to replace the stolen items.
“There is an entire community that cares about her,” said Kristie Woods, the school’s communications manager.
“I said to her, ‘it’s kind of overwhelming.’ She was like, ‘it’s coming from a place of love,’” Foy-Sundo added.
Shannon believes that message of love is more powerful than the hate.
“This is what America should be. You see someone in need, big or small. This is what it should be,” she said.
