Tolerance Program Planned for Next Year Recent Prep School Incidents Catalyze Movement
By Bo Ra Kim ’10
News Staff Reporter
Incidents of gay and African American targeting have plagued prep school campuses this school year. On February 19th, African Americans at St. Paul’s received threatening messages reading, “bang bang get out of here” in the mail. In the beginning of March, a similar event occurred at Deerfield, which was likely influenced by the atrocity at St. Paul’s School. At Deerfield, students affiliated with the Gay Student Alliance club received threatening notes written on napkins through Deerfield’s internal mail service.
In September 2007, Phillips Exeter Academy and Loomis Chaffee also had issues with racism. At Exeter, a black female student had a racist comment scraped into the door of her room. Six black students were crossed out of a photograph hanging on a dorm’s bulletin board with a thick marker at Loomis Chaffee,.
These four events have shown the general public that racism still exists today even in the preparatory school society where diversity is celebrated and encouraged. Students targeted in these incidents have felt very discouraged and some have left their schools because of it. The students who have stayed have said that they have been well supported by their peers and teachers after the incidents but that it would have been better if they were supported before the events.
“It’s really disheartening that these events are taking place,” said a Choate faculty member. “You would think that given that we’re in the 21st century at this point that racism wouldn’t be an issue anymore, but it is. It’s scary that people are still making horrible comments — either written or spoken.”
Students felt a similar sense of discomfort from the recent events. “I can’t even imagine what would compel somebody to do something like sending a hate letter to a student who is of color or speaking out against homosexuality,” said Julie Bauer ’10. “I just don’t understand how somebody could do something like that.”
St. Paul’s has response to these issues. They have called meetings to discuss the events with the student body and have supported the impacted students greatly. Although no racial or gay targeting occurred on campus, Phillips Andover called for “cluster meetings” during which they discussed these incidents in other boarding schools and what tolerance steps should be taken.
Choate has not had any such devastating incidents recently, but the school is not ignorant of these racial problems occurring elsewhere. Although the hope was to conduct the event this spring, the term’s busy schedule pushed the program to next fall. The goal of the program is to celebrate diversity. “I think that it [the tolerance program] would be a good idea just to make sure that nothing happens in the future, because we want to uphold our reputation as a school and we don’t want anything like this [the St. Paul’s incident] happening here,” said Bauer ’10.
Mr. Ford, the Dean of students, explained the motives: “I think that once in a while a kind of a booster shot, a kind of a reminder that we value diversity and to bring the whole community together to celebrate it, is a good thing.”
“I would like to see it [tolerance] proactively addressed sooner rather than later but if they can’t fit it in until fall term, I guess it’s better late than never,” Bauer ’10 said optimistically.
Even though the school is not directly addressing diversity and acceptance right now, students seem to feel comfortable that the school promotes a welcoming environment.
On how race relations affect Choate, one student commented, “There are no people that dislike each other because of race.” Another seconded the sentiment: “I’ve found more interracial dating and friendships here than my public high school back at home.”
Thirty-seven percent of the student body is of color, making Choate one of the most diverse schools.
“Choate is a school that has a long standing tradition of diversity and I hope that we can continue to have it be one of our strengths in both students and faculty, appreciate it, and continue to celebrate it.” Mr. Ford stated.
