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A major issue in BIHS is that when choosing a SLC, BIPoC students may be uncomfortable being one of the only people of their race in their classes, and because of this would understandably want to avoid BIHS. This creates a negative cycle that limits diversity in BIHS.
Another issue is that many, (both white and BIPoc students), think that going into BIHS is more risky than going into another school because it is widely thought that BIHS has a much larger workload than other SLCs. This may be true, but it is exageratted, causing people to be understandably intimidated by BIHS academics. By dispelling this idea with information about the accessible academic outreach and resources in BIHS, freshman will feel less intimidated by the workload of BIHS, and thus make BIHS more inclusive. This is not a way to break the negative cycle of the lack of racial diversity in BIHS specifically, but it will help to reduce some of the stigma that contributes to the problem.
-Sasha Gomes

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I think IB’s lack of diversity stems from the (often true) stereotype that IB is very white and Eurocentric. I think we largely get this rep from our curriculum, which on the surface may seem relatively diverse, when in reality, it is often not inclusive enough. Although we do a good job of reading texts from authors of color, these texts about discrimination are never connected to the present. When learning about the civil rights movement, Japanese internment etc, the unit ends with the end of the event. We should instead cover how said event  affects the present and what work still needs to be done. Our curriculum should also work towards empowering the many different cultures, teaching about Africa, Asia, the Middle East prior to colonization. Don’t only teach about a certain group through their oppression, balance that with their pride.

I think if we create a more inclusive curriculum, we will inevitably create a more inclusive space that attracts more POC.

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There needs to be more representation of POC in teachers and administration. Also, having a more inclusive, non-eurocentric curriculum, especially in history. We tend to only learn about other societies and cultures when they have interacted with white societies, rather learning about their own cultures and traditions on their own.

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The issue is that BIHS is labeled/is a white small school. No BIPOC feels  comfortable learning in an environment when they are the only one.  Some of the BIPOC that are in BIHS feel that they were forced into it. This just makes the problem worse. I think that BIHS should focus more on finding was to make BIPOC feel welcome in BIHS as well as feel comfortable in classrooms.

The conversations in class are also usually focused on explaining how a group felt, when most of kids talking about it have no way of sympathizing. Just something to think about.

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I think BIHS could teach their students about different cultures and history alongside U.S. history and European history because this will help everyone (especially white students) understand and celebrate others differences.

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I think BIHS needs more inclusive curriculum so that people feel more representation and more comfortable, because not only do we have a reputation for not being very diverse i’ve also been made aware of the emphasis that BIHS is implicitly racist and students should learn how to better address biases they may not have previously been aware of

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people tend to join schools where they will think they will fit well. BIHS has a reputation for not being very diverse. I think we need to have ea more inclusive curriculum set up so that more people feel welcome, and want to come into this school.

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I don't have very many experiences of racism (both in and out of BIHS). So I cannot speak for people who feel as though they have been mistreated. However, I would say that I completely hear the emphasis that BIHS is implicitly racist and I would be happy to hear the solutions other students have come up with.

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I think that White people in BIHS need to make more space for POC to share their experiences in class and make discussions more inclusive. Often I see select few dominating conversations and not giving space for POC which makes BIHS feel less inclusive and gives a feeling of being ostracised. Also education about more cultural topics. Often we just focus on the hardships that POC face and I think that can be very stressful. It takes away from the beauty many cultures have to provide.

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Even though we market BIHS as super globally inclusive (like all about the global perspective and what not), I think there still needs to be way more inclusion of different voices in the curriculum.

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encourage teachers to introduce more learning about cultures, not just oppression of those cultures into curriculum . As an ''International" school we should be taught about the beauty of other cultures, along with their hardships.

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IB needs to shift the conversation when talking about race and diversity so that the spotlight isn't soley on the BIPOC to answer but for white people to add on too but knowing how to do it in a respectful way to BIPOC. Often times when having these conversations BIPOC are "supposed" to be the leader of the conversation which makes things really awkward and it shouldn't have to feel "taboo" to talk about respectfully for white people.

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We need to have a more inclusive curriculum to really counter the idea that IB is a white school. But I also think that the way we discuss certain topics in class can be uncomfortable for certain people so we need to address how we talk about things.

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I feel like moving forward, BIHS should take the time to educate us students on the actual cultures and traditions and not only of their stories of being oppressed. Especially as BIHS is a school that advocates for internationalism and diversity, it is important to include appreciation for other cultures and not just stories of their misfortunes.

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I think that trying to address the stigma that BIHS is a white school and for smart people, when people start to hear about it in middle is important so that when they start choosing small schools they have a  clearer idea of what the school is and the problems with in the school. I also think that encouraging teachers to teach about different cultures is an important step to diversifying BIHS.
-- Alizé Griffin

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We need to be actively inclusive without isolating and expecting one student to speak for an entire racial group

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We need more Asian American history and books in our curriculum. We also need more education on racism that happens towards Asian Americans and how it’s becoming normalized, especially since Covid started.

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The stigma that BIHS is white and exclusive drives away students of color that may otherwise be interested in the international aspect of the school. I think outreach to younger students to try and break this stigma is really important. In our breakout room, we discussed how it feels wrong to be discussing issues surrounding racism and the experiences of bipoc when there are few if any bipoc in the discussion. These conversations are important to have regardless,  but the lack of representation and perspective can force the spotlight on any students of color present and it places a responsibility on them to speak when it should really be up to them.

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One way we can improve as a community is to make sure that students have adequate resources and a tool kit to discuss race and multicultural perspectives in class.

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I think the actual culture of competitiveness has been addressed in BIHS. However I think the stigma still remains that BIHS is for white overachievers. One way to address this is have more assemblies for freshmen and 8th graders to really change the idea that BIHS is for smart people/overachievers. Diversity and inclusion is the hardest part of changing the stigma around BIHS because the lack of diversity creates a negative cycle of BIPOC avoiding BIHS because there are no BIPOC.

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I think that the Ib stigma will not be changed by making presentations about what we have to offer in IB.  I think that we have focused on trying to prove that IB is diverse and we forget that so many students of color feel underrepresented. I think we should do more community building so all students can feel comfortable sharing any of their ideas in class.

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BIHS has a history/stigma of not being very inclusive towards BIPoc, we should talk with U9 and Middle Schoolers about this topic. We shouldn't try to scare them away from BIHS instead we should talk with them and tell them about the good in BIHS and what we can do to improve it/better BIHS so that it is more diverse and inclusive.

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I think we should try to expose younger students (6th and 7th graders) to what IB is. If we can talk to them early and try to debunk the stereotypes that aren't true, as well as talk about the negatives about IB that are true. The current lack of transparency about our school can really turn people away.

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As a leadership team one effective approach to changing the way BIHS is represented, we could visit ninth grade classrooms and talk about inclusion and representation, as well as the importance of a global perspective that BIHS strives for

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One thing we discussed about white ally ship is making sure not to ask students of color, etc. to speak for a whole community or to share their personal experience without volunteering.

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Students shouldn't feel abandoned and isolated in their classes. Latino and Black students have to go through this and it makes us feel disconnected with the rest of the BIHS curriculum.

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As a leadership team, we could go into Middle School classrooms and talk to them about BIHS and try to break the stigma around this small school.

Also as discussed in the meeting, learning more about different cultures on top of just the biggest "significant" events would help BIHS be more inclusive

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Racism towards Latinx and Asian people has definitely become normalized and no one really talks about its impacts.

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My group was interesting because 3/4 of us did not put IB as our first choice, and we had the common experience of being really stressed out when we were assigned because of the reputation BIHS has. I personally was surprised by how the curriculum actually was and it ended up working really well for me. I think that if we were to do small presentations in freshman U9 classrooms and potentially also middle school classrooms and share our personal experiences with BIHS more people would be genuinely excited/less afraid of the idea of BIHS and would diversify BIHS in more ways than one. Also holding assemblies and community building that talk about issues that are in BIHS could be helpful

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People gravitate towards communities where they think that they will fit in. BIHS has a history of white representation and its hard to get POC to gravitate here if they don't see themselves represented. I think gaining more racial representation is a hard thing to do, but is also the most effective and long lasting solution.