MCPS Students See Wake up Call in BLM Protests, Atlanta Shootings
By Dermott Foley
By Dermott Foley
From the Black Lives Matter protests to the Atlanta spa shootings, the past year has brought forth a racial reckoning that is leading to greater action against bias and discrimination in the United States at all sorts of institutions including schools.
At Eastern and other Montgomery County schools, students and staff are working to turn the fear and outrage into a new generation of acceptance.
Eastern is among the most diverse schools in the district. It is roughly 50% Hispanic, 19% White, 19% Black and 8% Asian, and the community has emphasized a culture of understanding and respect across races, ethnicities, religions, and sexual identities. There are several clubs such as the Gay-Straight Alliance that aim to broaden understanding of different groups, and the counseling staff has held several town halls to allow students to support each other in the aftermath of violent events.
For the first time in the 2020-21 school year, everyone at the school took the “No Place for Hate” pledge to be personally responsible for their role in ensuring an inclusive and safe school environment for everyone.
But some say more needs to be done.
One MCPS middle school, for example, reportedly misfired recently with an activity meant to address anti-Asian hate. According to a screenshot posted to Facebook, a parent said his middle school child did not “feel comfortable” with a Kahoot given during homeroom and asked for advice about how to respond.
The prompt given was “All Asian people have…” and the choices were “squinted eyes,” “glasses, “wide eyes,” or “different shaped eyes.”
Kelly Ji, an Eastern graduate who is now an 11th grader at Rockville’s Wootton High School, is director of outreach for the Asian American Progressive Student Union.
Originally formed by students at Richard Montgomery High School around 2020 to give Asian American students a voice, it has since been involved in a number of MCPS initiatives including boundary analysis and it has been advocating for an Asian American history course.
A different MCPS student group, the Minority Scholars Program, which was founded by African American and Latino students, has been similarly asking for a more inclusive history program. They are seeking what they call an antiracist 9th grade U.S. History curriculum that represents more perspectives, events and voices.
Ji said she became involved in AAPSU after a lot of self-reflection and thought about race and racism during the pandemic. One of the things she has thought a lot about was how the Model Minority myth, which holds Asian-American students up as hardworking drones good at math, has been harmful to her personally and to the community at large.
“I spent a lot of my life doing exclusively humanities and refusing to pay attention to any STEM subjects because I was afraid of being stereotypical,” she explained.
Her personal experiences with racism have been mostly micro-aggressions, and verbal insults such as a family that told hers it doesn’t belong. Last year, she overheard a classmate at her school talking about how he’s going to beat up an Asian-American student if he starts coughing. The recent random attacks against Asian-American elders in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Atlanta shootings which led to the death of 8, most of whom were Asian or Asian-American women.
“I no longer feel as safe as I used to in my community,” she said.
One key issue that has been raised in light of the violence against minorities is the difference bystanders can make.
In May 2020, Minneapolis was the center of many anti racism protests following George Floyd’s unjust death. This became national news because several bystanders pleaded with police to stop, and took video that led to the recent conviction of officer Derek Chauvin. In New York City earlier this year, two doormen were caught on video - widely shared on social media- doing nothing when they saw a 65-year-old Asian American woman being assaulted a few yards away.
A 6th grader at Eastern encouraged students at the school to get involved “if you see someone being mocked for whatever reason, if it is for being a member of the LGBTQ+ community, or for the color of their skin, or for their religion, report it or help them or step in or do something.”
He said that he has been made fun of for being Jewish in the past, and did not do anything for a long time. But he said people should not dismiss this type of treatment as “just light teasing.”
“It is cruelty,” he said, “and you should do something about it.”
Image Credit: https://www.ajc.com/resizer/965DZWyLJKl4Xne64AklSfqXMs4=/1066x600/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/ajc/CN3KDMPMSVOZ6GGHIIZO45I5SQ.JPG
At Eastern and other Montgomery County schools, students and staff are working to turn the fear and outrage into a new generation of acceptance.
Eastern is among the most diverse schools in the district. It is roughly 50% Hispanic, 19% White, 19% Black and 8% Asian, and the community has emphasized a culture of understanding and respect across races, ethnicities, religions, and sexual identities. There are several clubs such as the Gay-Straight Alliance that aim to broaden understanding of different groups, and the counseling staff has held several town halls to allow students to support each other in the aftermath of violent events.
For the first time in the 2020-21 school year, everyone at the school took the “No Place for Hate” pledge to be personally responsible for their role in ensuring an inclusive and safe school environment for everyone.
But some say more needs to be done.
One MCPS middle school, for example, reportedly misfired recently with an activity meant to address anti-Asian hate. According to a screenshot posted to Facebook, a parent said his middle school child did not “feel comfortable” with a Kahoot given during homeroom and asked for advice about how to respond.
The prompt given was “All Asian people have…” and the choices were “squinted eyes,” “glasses, “wide eyes,” or “different shaped eyes.”
Kelly Ji, an Eastern graduate who is now an 11th grader at Rockville’s Wootton High School, is director of outreach for the Asian American Progressive Student Union.
Originally formed by students at Richard Montgomery High School around 2020 to give Asian American students a voice, it has since been involved in a number of MCPS initiatives including boundary analysis and it has been advocating for an Asian American history course.
A different MCPS student group, the Minority Scholars Program, which was founded by African American and Latino students, has been similarly asking for a more inclusive history program. They are seeking what they call an antiracist 9th grade U.S. History curriculum that represents more perspectives, events and voices.
Ji said she became involved in AAPSU after a lot of self-reflection and thought about race and racism during the pandemic. One of the things she has thought a lot about was how the Model Minority myth, which holds Asian-American students up as hardworking drones good at math, has been harmful to her personally and to the community at large.
“I spent a lot of my life doing exclusively humanities and refusing to pay attention to any STEM subjects because I was afraid of being stereotypical,” she explained.
Her personal experiences with racism have been mostly micro-aggressions, and verbal insults such as a family that told hers it doesn’t belong. Last year, she overheard a classmate at her school talking about how he’s going to beat up an Asian-American student if he starts coughing. The recent random attacks against Asian-American elders in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Atlanta shootings which led to the death of 8, most of whom were Asian or Asian-American women.
“I no longer feel as safe as I used to in my community,” she said.
One key issue that has been raised in light of the violence against minorities is the difference bystanders can make.
In May 2020, Minneapolis was the center of many anti racism protests following George Floyd’s unjust death. This became national news because several bystanders pleaded with police to stop, and took video that led to the recent conviction of officer Derek Chauvin. In New York City earlier this year, two doormen were caught on video - widely shared on social media- doing nothing when they saw a 65-year-old Asian American woman being assaulted a few yards away.
A 6th grader at Eastern encouraged students at the school to get involved “if you see someone being mocked for whatever reason, if it is for being a member of the LGBTQ+ community, or for the color of their skin, or for their religion, report it or help them or step in or do something.”
He said that he has been made fun of for being Jewish in the past, and did not do anything for a long time. But he said people should not dismiss this type of treatment as “just light teasing.”
“It is cruelty,” he said, “and you should do something about it.”
Image Credit: https://www.ajc.com/resizer/965DZWyLJKl4Xne64AklSfqXMs4=/1066x600/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/ajc/CN3KDMPMSVOZ6GGHIIZO45I5SQ.JPG