East Penn Black students feel unwanted, says group calling for anti-racist training
Black students at Emmaus High School made their voices heard at a School Board meeting Monday night.
One said they felt “unwanted, excluded and different from my white peers.” Another was “unable to express myself without being judged for being an angry, aggressive Black girl.” Another reported: “I am not rare, confused or just feeling emotions. I don’t feel safe as a person of color knowing I’m in an environment full of allies and enemies I might not know of.”
Those statements and others were read by white students, a 2020 graduate and a parent, who said the Black students didn’t feel comfortable speaking for fear of backlash.
Together, they form a group called East Penn School District Equality. They called on district officials to provide ongoing, yearly, anti-racist training to staff. They said the district wasn’t living up to its own statements of belief that it address the educational needs of all students in a safe and supportive environment.
The demand is the first of several from the group, which is focused on changing the environment at East Penn.
The group was formed in the wake of George Floyd’s death in May at the hands of police, said Mariska van Aalst, a parent involved with the organization, which includes current and former students, parents and educators.
Sydne Clarke, a junior whose statement was read anonymously at the meeting, said EPSD Equality aims to create a better environment in the district by tackling biases and addressing a divisive racial atmosphere in the district.
Black student groups around the Lehigh Valley and the country have been created or galvanized by Floyd’s death and the months of racial reckoning that followed. Students have been taking aim at school resource officers, the way American history is taught in schools, and have had conversations about the Black Lives Matter movement.
Members of EPSD Equality said they plan to unveil their list of demands over time and make sure the conversation with the district is ongoing.
Clarke, who also founded Emmaus High School’s Black Student Union this year, said teachers, who can influence a diverse group of students, should have a mindset that doesn’t harm students.
Clarke said she’s felt misrepresented and misunderstood, and the staff and environment at Emmaus High School isn’t welcoming for students of color to be themselves.
“I feel like teachers don’t understand that as Black students, we’re carrying so much other than just worrying about homework,” she said. They also worry about innocent Black people dying, whether at the hands of police or for systemic reasons, such as disparities in health care.
“In so many classes, there’s not an environment where you can express those things,” she said.
Shonta Ford, an African American parent, said she supported the initiative.
“No one wants to be invisible in a school system and nobody wants to be treated differently because they look different,” she said. She said she’d like to see the district recognize when it needs to make changes, whether it’s changing the racial makeup of teachers and board members, or not overlooking opportunities to express Blackness or other groups.
Her daughter, senior Cerise Whitlock, said it’s painful to know there are freshmen whom she’s mentored and told: “It’s OK to be a person of color, and your culture is meaningful.”
“We still feel invisible, like a shadow, like something you glance at ...” she said. “It hurts, because I look at the board, I look at my teachers, I look at all of you as great advocates of us as students, but I feel like it’s only a percentile that get seen.”
East Penn Superintendent Kristen Campbell said the district has a committee tasked with developing a framework for equitable decision making, and for providing professional development opportunities for staff.
“We sincerely appreciate their sharing their perspectives with us and look forward to them continuing to be a part of the work of moving our organization forward,” she said at the Monday night meeting.
Board member Ziad Munson said he agreed that the district hasn’t lived up to its commitments.
“I think the discussion of equity and race make a lot of us uncomfortable, and that’s one of the reasons we don’t talk about it as much as we should,” he said.
He said a focus on regularly, sustained anti-racist training would be useful, given that many people don’t have the words to express what they want to, or are fearful they’ll be misinterpreted.
“It’s a clarion call for support of a much more active and aggressive set of efforts to make equity and diversity a key issue in this district,” he said.
Board member Naomi Winch agreed, saying anti-racist training was essential to changing culture in East Penn and beyond.
Board members did a second reading of a new equity policy that would require an annual audit of equity benchmarks and districtwide achievement and opportunities, as well as the creation and updating of an Educational Equity Action Plan. The policy is expected to be voted on at the next board meeting.