On Mar. 3, San Marin celebrated February’s Black History Month by hosting a virtual assembly. This is the first time in my high school years that a heritage month has been acknowledged on a larger scale other than a brief introduction in a history class or a quick “Happy Black History Month” in the morning announcements. I was incredibly happy seeing my school was finally honoring and acknowledging its minorities, and thought it could be an amazing start to a new era of celebrating diversity and inclusion on campus. However, when February turned to March and Women’s History Month began, there was silence.
I was disappointed to say the least that San Marin only acknowledged one group of an underrepresented demographic of students considering the campus is home to a wide variety of minorities who also deserve support. Our school planted a seed of hope for a future of celebrating all of their students’ differences, but missed an opportunity to support those who undergo harassment both on campus and in general. For San Marin to not make a proper statement towards Women’s History Month is harmful, especially in the heat of the “97%” movement, a movement that originated from a study that 97% of women between the ages of 18-24 undergo sexual harassment in some form. Not saying anything demonstrates that they care more about appearances than actually representing and supporting the minorities on campus. I thought the protests and complaints from students were listened to, but it seems that San Marin’s actions were merely preformative.
San Marin listened to the Black Lives Matter movement that rose last March, and noticed the school’s racist history is coming back to light, and attempted to show that they’re a new campus that “doesn’t tolerate racism” yet they have hollow claims about punishing harassment on campus and a guest host in a virtual assembly doesn’t cut it for me. I couldn’t count the amount of times I’ve heard racist things mumbled by my classmates, or slurs said by students who don’t have a right to say them, go without punishment or just a slap on the wrist. This is infuriating to me-for a campus that claims to be so inclusive, to allow such hatred and bigotry from it’s students, its disgusting.
I feel that this isn’t an article I should have to write, I think accepting and supporting all of your students should be a given; the bare minimum. I have hope that in the future, San Marin will hold more assemblies or celebrations to honor their students who undergo unfair struggles due to things they have no control over.
