(Editor’s Note: Part II of a two-part series on students’ views on acceptance and equity in the Athol Royalston Regional School District.)
ATHOL — Two Athol High School students who are members of the Diversity Club and the district’s Equity Team recently sat down with the Athol Daily News to discuss efforts to promote understanding and acceptance among all students, particularly at the middle and high school levels. To assess the effort needed to reach that goal, a survey was conducted seeking student feedback on their experiences in the district. Some of the responses were disconcerting, with some reporting they had been bullied, had been the target of racial epithets, or had been mocked for their sexual identity, among other things.
The results of the survey, along with a draft action plan for addressing issues raised by the survey, were presented at the most recent meeting of the School Committee. While survey results were not entirely surprising, Javon Pottinger said the risk of highlighting problems regarding the lack of acceptance and equity in the district was worth the effort.
“I was fully behind doing this,” said Javon. “I think it’s really good we got this pushed out and I think the results that we got and that were put into the presentation were what needed to be seen by everyone.”
Fellow student Alancia Santer said she was a bit more guarded when it came to getting behind the initiative.
“I was very hesitant to join the Equity Team and the Diversity Club,” she explained, “because I wasn’t sure it would have any impact, so I asked myself, ‘What’s the point of doing this?’ But my brother, he’ll be going to his freshman year next year, he was in the Equity Team and said, ‘You should come.’
“So, I went with him and, coincidentally, that had been the day we went over the survey results and that’s when I realized I want to be a part of this change. This is something I want to help with.”
Asked what they believed to be the best way of promoting the message of acceptance of diversity while also changing minds or softening attitudes among fellow students, Javon said, “I think the best way to present it is to say, ‘We’re all people. We’re all different in some way and we should all support one another, and that we should all be united. Because, at the end of the day, we are all people.”
Because the Athol Royalston district is largely white, Alancia said, “It may not be largely known that, oh, ‘We have to respect this,’ ‘We can’t say this,’ ‘We have to understand this.’ And that’s because there aren’t many students of color.
“I think putting that out there and basically just educating people will definitely help to push people to understand that this is a change that has to made.”
Javon added it’s important the experiences of students of color are explained, not just to fellow students but also to their parents and other adults. “It’s definitely important to get the message across to all of the student body,” he explained, “but not just the student body, also their parents and the faculty — that everybody should get the message that everyone should hear because everybody affects everybody. The students affect the parents, the parents affect the students. Everyone needs to get the message in order to be on the same page to help everyone come together.”
“Right,” Alancia interjected, “because it’s more of a town problem than it is a school problem. We want this to impact everyone, especially the people who may not know right from wrong. I moved here from a place that was predominantly Black (Springfield) to a place that’s predominantly White, and many people here don’t understand what that can be like.”
Both students said that changing the attitudes of both students and parents could be promoted through events that are student- and parent-led and which involve the community at large. Another possibility is the use of workshops that would encourage students to bring the message of acceptance back into the home.
“I think really being hands-on and organizing fun events, things like that, that’s a good way to get people on board,” said Alancia. “If you’re just sitting there lecturing them, no one is really going to listen. You can’t force someone to listen to you.”
Interestingly, Javon pointed out that the greatest student participation in the survey came from the middle school rather than the high school. In all, 86 students responded.
Faculty adviser Beth Gospodarek pointed out the effort to promote diversity is not limited to race.
“When we talk about which groups we’re representing,” she said, “it certainly is race, and it certainly is gender identity, but we also want to make sure giving equity to socioeconomic classes, people who speak other languages, different religions, and the differently abled as well. It’s across the board.
“We need to tell stories so that people know this work is important. Someone might say, ‘That’s for bigger districts.’ So, it was important to the Equity Team. It came up there that the most powerful thing would be for students to tell their own stories, and that’s where the survey came from.”
“My goal, before I leave the Athol Royalston Regional School district,” said Javon, who will be a junior next academic year, “is to try to put in place some restorative justice rules and maybe something to help people learn and come together through sharing experiences.”
Said Alancia, “I just want students coming to Athol Middle School or High School know this is a school you can feel safe in. This should be a school where you feel like you belong. They should feel like they’re meant to be here because it’s not fair to feel otherwise.”
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com