cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3066501
Hi! I am a member of a race education group in my school (11 to 18). We were discussing instances of racism and came to the conclusion that the school - teachers, especially - were not giving proper or effective repercussions for racist incidents. Racism in the school is quite normalised, especially against Black and Asian students, including:
CW: list of racist incidents
- Calling black people "monkeys", unnecessarily calling them "fast" and that they "should be at the back of the bus"
- Playing stereotypical Indian music and linking brown people to "curry" and tech-support scammers
- The Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees chant and mocking the Chinese language
Most teachers report the incident, triggering an investigation into what happened; the student(s) are usually suspended - possibly being temporarily transferred to another school - the offending student(s) are talked to by senior staff members and attend anti-racism sessions. This approach feels appropriate, although I want to hear your thoughts on it as racism is still a significant issue in the school.
In addition, quite a few teachers instead push to "settle the matter" in-class (say sorry, shake hands) or give lesser punishments that are intended for things like swearing or talking over the teacher. These are not appropriate punishments and shouldn't be tolerated. Bigotry is never equivalent to just rude behaviour or minor arguments (that includes bullying).
The school administration has been made aware of our thoughts and fortunately they are very open to the idea of writing a clearer and more effective policy on racism in the school.
Do teachers need to be trained better on their tolerance of racism? Is the policy not corrective enough? How would you write a racism policy for a school for 11 to 18 year olds?
Thanks again!
Proactively rather than reactively imo-- basically anti racism content must be included both as part of teacher training as well as the curriculum. At that point people can no longer hide behind ignorance as an excuse. Then you can pair that with a harsh zero tolerance policy where all incidents are reported and lead to suspension along with formal reprimands for educators who fail to report.
The CHUD parents will hate it and depending on where you are implementation of such a policy would probably lead to the principal being dragged before the school board or fired.
This was one of the points we raised to the school administration. They mentioned that they may also temporarily internally suspend racist students (isolate them from other students), though I am unsure as to how corrective of an approach that is.
Good point; we are trying to organise assemblies - especially for the new students - to make clear the forms of racism, that it isn't tolerated and ways to report it.
Luckily, that isn't too much of an issue where I live. There definitely will be a few parents opposed to "woke" ideas like implementing a zero-tolerance racism policy but not enough to put pressure on the school board.