Earlier this month, a student used a racial slur to refer to two members of the Black Student Union (BSU) during class time. This has sparked ongoing dialogue between Administration and the BSU about how to address acts of hate in the Meridian community.
Since the incident, members of BSU leadership have met with Administration multiple times to discuss changes to the schools policies that would specify specific consequences for students that engage in acts of hate.
The original concern of the BSU was the seeming lack of repercussions for the students involved. However, Mr. Laub claims that the student did face repercussions that were not publicized.
“Teenagers do stupid things. Even sometimes, really, really, really stupid things. But we’re never going to publicly shame them,” he said.
However, not everyone shares the same outlook. Rosa Sims, a student leader of the BSU pointed out the importance of students knowing there are consequences.
“It’s important that students know about the repercussions, so that they know not to do it…That way it just doesn’t happen in the first place,” she said.
While the conversation was originally based around the lack of repercussions, dialogue has expanded to include other subjects, including how to publicly handle responses to acts of hate.
Earlier this year, when a swastika made of painter’s tape was found under a desk, Administration posted on Schoology the same day and sent an email to parents to explain the situation. However, this was not done to address the racial slur and has raised some concerns among students.
“Schools vary with how they handle repercussions and, it feels like Administration doesn’t want the public to see that there’s any racism, at least towards black people,” Sims said. “It has affected a lot of students that go to the school; students have to be homeschooled because of the racism and they just don’t feel comfortable walking in our halls.”
According to Mr. Laub, the reason for the lack of consistency is not anything to do with who was being targeted, but instead, had everything to do with Administration’s knowledge about the situation.
“With the swastika, one of the reasons why that was addressed was as part of our efforts to find the perpetrator. [The message] gives students an opportunity to say ‘Oh, I know who did that’. We did not do this with this instance because we exactly did it,” he said.
However, despite these disagreements, both sides remain positive about the outcomes of the discussion.
“I think a dialogue is really important. It has been really good for me to hear from the BSU the way that they see the responses to these. I hope it has been good for them to hear from us as well,” Mr. Laub said.
“I’m entirely sure if this will be helpful, because we just started. But I think it is going to be. When we met with Admin, they were taking down notes … they sent us the policy currently on any acts of racism and homophobia and all that, and they sent it to us to suggest edits,” Sims said.
The BSU does have specific ideas in mind for the changes they would like to see in the schools policy, specifically related to repercussions.
“The repercussions that we would like for, racial, homophobic, or anti semitic actions is two to three days out of school suspension, and a marking on your, transcript and then if it happens again, three to five days and culture classes and then if, it happens again, talking about expulsion,” explained Tania Zanetti, another member of the BSU.
Administration is also working with other groups to make Meridian a safer place.
“We’re going to talk with parents about affinity groups here at school. Things like the BSU or the Gender Sexuality Alliance, or Best Buddies. Places where students who belong to what I would call minority groups could find peers like then,” Mr. Laub said.
