Conversation to Create A Safer School
In order to make positive change, students need to acknowledge their privilege to begin fixing larger issues.
Pony Express Editorial Board
In order to make positive change, students need to acknowledge their privilege to begin fixing larger issues.
Pony Express Editorial Board
Recently, a lawsuit from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the renewal of San Jose Unified School District’s contract with the San Jose Police Department called our treatment of minority students on campus and in this country into question, and more importantly the lack of conversation around these issues.
Due to COVID-19 and campuses being closed, right now is a good time to evaluate issues on our campus and help resolve them to ensure that when students eventually come back it will be in a safer environment.
As of now, Pioneer takes pride in being both a friendly and safe place for minorities, yet the evidence overwhelmingly points in the other direction. In the 2019 Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation, Pioneer actually didn’t do as well as the administrators had hoped, due to not just blatant acts of racism on campus, but also microaggressions as well.
Evident homophobia in the FCA’s sexual purity statement is being debated in a court of law after it was decided that school districts shouldn’t be allowed to remove their official club status to protect LGBTQ students. While no longer an official club, they still have access to the same things as other clubs on campus, they still have support from the national FCA organization, and they still meet and eat pizza.
The Derrick Sanderlin Resolution was ignored, meaning cops will remain on campus despite the discomfort they provide to students of color and protests from members of the community. On top of that no effort has been made to help these students feel safer around them.
While this event reflects the issues in our community and campus, they all relate to larger national issues viewed as too political or uncomfortable. Throughout the year, the discussion of police in society was brought up due to Black Lives Matter protests and countless Black people killed unjustly by officers. Students with privilege are largely apathetic and don’t acknowledge these issues since they don’t affect them, yet they always have much larger and much more devastating effects on minorities.
In order to actually create positive change, people need to acknowledge their privilege and we need to talk about these issues and come up with plans to help fix these problems in our society, or else we will never move forward. These problems are here on our campus, just as they’re in our larger communities, and if we commit ourselves as a campus to working to solve them, we can make sure that when we do return to “normal,” that “normal” is a more inclusive, accepting one.
Due to COVID-19 and campuses being closed, right now is a good time to evaluate issues on our campus and help resolve them to ensure that when students eventually come back it will be in a safer environment.
As of now, Pioneer takes pride in being both a friendly and safe place for minorities, yet the evidence overwhelmingly points in the other direction. In the 2019 Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation, Pioneer actually didn’t do as well as the administrators had hoped, due to not just blatant acts of racism on campus, but also microaggressions as well.
Evident homophobia in the FCA’s sexual purity statement is being debated in a court of law after it was decided that school districts shouldn’t be allowed to remove their official club status to protect LGBTQ students. While no longer an official club, they still have access to the same things as other clubs on campus, they still have support from the national FCA organization, and they still meet and eat pizza.
The Derrick Sanderlin Resolution was ignored, meaning cops will remain on campus despite the discomfort they provide to students of color and protests from members of the community. On top of that no effort has been made to help these students feel safer around them.
While this event reflects the issues in our community and campus, they all relate to larger national issues viewed as too political or uncomfortable. Throughout the year, the discussion of police in society was brought up due to Black Lives Matter protests and countless Black people killed unjustly by officers. Students with privilege are largely apathetic and don’t acknowledge these issues since they don’t affect them, yet they always have much larger and much more devastating effects on minorities.
In order to actually create positive change, people need to acknowledge their privilege and we need to talk about these issues and come up with plans to help fix these problems in our society, or else we will never move forward. These problems are here on our campus, just as they’re in our larger communities, and if we commit ourselves as a campus to working to solve them, we can make sure that when we do return to “normal,” that “normal” is a more inclusive, accepting one.