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Thank you all so much to those who came to our Town Hall event and especially to Ms. Skerritt, Ms. Murray, and Mr. Chen for so graciously and eloquently speaking on issues of race and equity at BLS. We were absolutely blown away by the positivity and dedication to improvement from both students and faculty and are so thankful to be a part of this community. Looking forward to continued work!

Here, you can find some highlights from the chat and important notes from the event. Hopefully, we will be able to address some of the lingering questions in our future programming and collaboration. The posts are color-coded:

Red: Lingering Questions
Yellow: Positivity!
Green: Questions Discussed in Town Hall
Blue: Recommendations & Suggestions from Students & Faculty

Please don't hesitate to get involved with any of our culture clubs or reach out to any of our student leaders!

—Aileen L., Eric C., Trisha O., Gian M., Shelsie J., Aaliyah H., Olamide H., Osa I., Emily S., Claer J., Punnya K., Safaa A., Christina F., Gregory O., & Rosaylin B.

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What sorts of services are available to POC teachers to ensure that they are well supported and better grounded after certain incidents? 

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What sorts of services are available to POC teachers to ensure that they are well supported and better grounded after certain incidents? 

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and what sort of trainings are teachers going through? I feel like students don’t really know what is happening on the faculty side.

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 What measures can the administration take against students that have threatened (with either racial slurs, or physical actions) the POC safe-space that BLS has created? 

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 What measures can the administration take against students that have threatened (with either racial slurs, or physical actions) the POC safe-space that BLS has created? 

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Ms. Murray noted that the Code of Conduct serves as the guidelines for all disciplinary actions. BLS administration tries their best to circle back with reporters about whether or not discipline was enacted, but there is also a degree of confidentiality that must be kept.

BPS has a "progressive discipline" policy that requires administrators to take the "most modest" approach when considering disciplinary action for students. This rule was put in place to mitigate the disproportionate explusions/disciplinary action on students of color in the school system but also limit what can be done for students who perpetrate bias-based incidents; only felonies and certain other specific behaviors are grounds for expulsion within BPS.

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I’ve noticed that some people feel uncomfortable during the W-block discussions, which really hampers the possibility for other perspectives. Is there any way to encourage students to feel safer about sharing their experiences? 

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I’ve noticed that some people feel uncomfortable during the W-block discussions, which really hampers the possibility for other perspectives. Is there any way to encourage students to feel safer about sharing their experiences? 

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Relatedly: I feel that another aspect of encouraging discussion is by showing people that their perspectives are taken into account and changes are being made accordingly. Students may be disincentivized from sharing if they don’t believe it brings constructive change.

Ms. Skerritt noted the challenges of initiating schoolwide discussions that are meaningful with such a diverse level of understanding and willingness to engage among students. It will be difficult to engage all students in this work, but still vital to have these conversations.

Mr. Chen recalled his past experiences teaching bias-based incident workshops at BLS, noting that they were deterrents that listed the punishments for such behavior, but didn't do much to change students' hearts.

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 Is the school planning to replace existing textbooks or curriculum that promote biased narratives? (Content warning: mention of sexual assault) For instance, here’s a quote from the APUSH textbook that BLS uses: “Male slave owners had frequent forced sexual relationships with the female slaves on their plantation; the children of those unions served as a constant reminder to white women of their husbands infidelity. Black women were obviously the most important victims of such practices, but white women suffered too.” Is there a way for students to anonymously raise complaints and suggestions regarding the curriculum? 

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 Is the school planning to replace existing textbooks or curriculum that promote biased narratives? (Content warning: mention of sexual assault) For instance, here’s a quote from the APUSH textbook that BLS uses: “Male slave owners had frequent forced sexual relationships with the female slaves on their plantation; the children of those unions served as a constant reminder to white women of their husbands infidelity. Black women were obviously the most important victims of such practices, but white women suffered too.” Is there a way for students to anonymously raise complaints and suggestions regarding the curriculum? 

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 What sort of actions have to take place to change the BPS policies concerning acts of racism and suspensions/ expulsions? For BPS Specifically, I assume it would not affect the types of students that these clauses protect. 

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 What sort of actions have to take place to change the BPS policies concerning acts of racism and suspensions/ expulsions? For BPS Specifically, I assume it would not affect the types of students that these clauses protect. 

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I think one thing that is unfortunate is that sometimes when someone says something ignorant, hurtful, or prejudiced, many times (and I understand why) there is a need felt that to "punish" someone rather than "rehabilitate" them---often such actions would make the student feel villified and marginalized, and instead of changing their minds, it strengthens their resolve. What measures can be taken to make sure that such a person would be included and efforts could be made to make sure they understand why they were wrong? 

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I think one thing that is unfortunate is that sometimes when someone says something ignorant, hurtful, or prejudiced, many times (and I understand why) there is a need felt that to "punish" someone rather than "rehabilitate" them---often such actions would make the student feel villified and marginalized, and instead of changing their minds, it strengthens their resolve. What measures can be taken to make sure that such a person would be included and efforts could be made to make sure they understand why they were wrong? 

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 How are teachers taking in account of their implicit biases? How are they taught to stay impartial? 

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 How are teachers taking in account of their implicit biases? How are they taught to stay impartial? 

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 I cannot speak for BIPOC folks, but what I have heard from students is that sometimes they do not see themselves becoming teachers because they have not seen themselves represented as teachers in their own experience. We need wonderful folks like you all to become future educators .

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 I cannot speak for BIPOC folks, but what I have heard from students is that sometimes they do not see themselves becoming teachers because they have not seen themselves represented as teachers in their own experience. We need wonderful folks like you all to become future educators .

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There are structures in place (inadvertently or otherwise) that prevent BIPOC from becoming teachers, so this is an issue that needs to be addressed systemically as well.

Relatedly, from an educator: We recognize the importance of having teachers who looks like you or have had a similar experience as you, whether ethnically, LGBTQ, or otherwise is incredibly important and affirming.

Teacher representation is incredibly important for getting more BIPOC into teaching, but I think there needs to be a specific initiative to dismantle the many cultural barriers that are fostered at home (for instance, the stereotype of Asians only being allowed to become doctors or lawyers). We need to completely reconstruct the narrative about which professions are supposed to be pursued by whom.

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How do the biased-based incidents get processed? I know Mr. Chen has commented on this in the past, but it would be nice to know a little bit more about the process. 

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How do the biased-based incidents get processed? I know Mr. Chen has commented on this in the past, but it would be nice to know a little bit more about the process. 

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Happy to share more in detail, but Bias Based incidents are reported to our Office of Equity at the district level, reported to the BPS PD, investigated at the school level in conjunction with these other agencies, and then we hold our school based response (usually a formal disciplinary hearing).  We report out the results to the District and collect data at the school level.

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 Our teacher discussion about the August Reads was really important, powerful, real.  We are figuring our world together like you all are. 

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 Our teacher discussion about the August Reads was really important, powerful, real.  We are figuring our world together like you all are. 

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 Is the school planning on hiring more teachers with diverse perspectives (for example, indigenous history teachers)? 

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 Is the school planning on hiring more teachers with diverse perspectives (for example, indigenous history teachers)? 

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Relatedly: In a school with such large numbers of Asian students, there should be a more proportionate percentage of Asian faculty. How do we affectively recruit diverse Asian educators to apply?

Mr. Chen noted that only 7% of all educators in the state of Massachusetts identify as people of color. Boston, meanwhile, has 17% of the state's educators but 47% of the state's educators of color. Additionally, less than 2% of educators in the state identify as Asian. Mr. Chen & other faculty emphasized that motivating students of color to enter the teaching profession is a great way to promote diversity in schools.

Mr. Kennelly also noted the history department's focus on hiring educators of color, which has been the basis for all of the most recent history department hires at BLS, so there is work being done behind the scenes in this regard.

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How will the school make sure that the new students next year will feel just as welcomed and comfortable due to the hostility and controversy of the exam school admission changes this year? 

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How will the school make sure that the new students next year will feel just as welcomed and comfortable due to the hostility and controversy of the exam school admission changes this year? 

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 These are the right questions!  From my perspective as a teacher, the whole faculty IS working hard (on top of all the remote teaching work) to have these conversations, to educate ourselves, to rework our curriculum to make it more anti-racist.  There are more conversations in the right direction than when I started here.  I just wanted you all to know that. 

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 These are the right questions!  From my perspective as a teacher, the whole faculty IS working hard (on top of all the remote teaching work) to have these conversations, to educate ourselves, to rework our curriculum to make it more anti-racist.  There are more conversations in the right direction than when I started here.  I just wanted you all to know that. 

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Knowing the broader context and navigating a path as an institution through what is possible with all the varied stakeholders and stakeholder perspectives is a consideration, but it strikes me that we can do a lot as an institution from the ground up that might make progressive moves more possible 

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Knowing the broader context and navigating a path as an institution through what is possible with all the varied stakeholders and stakeholder perspectives is a consideration, but it strikes me that we can do a lot as an institution from the ground up that might make progressive moves more possible 

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 I know this would be kind of hard to implement while in virtual learning, but I really liked the teach-ins in previous years so my question is: what sorts of ideas do you guys already have regarding teach-ins and how can clubs reach out to lead teach-ins? 

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 I know this would be kind of hard to implement while in virtual learning, but I really liked the teach-ins in previous years so my question is: what sorts of ideas do you guys already have regarding teach-ins and how can clubs reach out to lead teach-ins? 

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 I understand that BLS does everything that they can to deal with these incidents, but it does make me feel very uncomfortable that members of my grade are in my classes who have said things that make me feel unsafe and a bunch of other minority groups feel unsafe .

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 I understand that BLS does everything that they can to deal with these incidents, but it does make me feel very uncomfortable that members of my grade are in my classes who have said things that make me feel unsafe and a bunch of other minority groups feel unsafe .

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Relatedly: And every infraction provides the obvious need and opportunity for further education for the entire community…students, faculty and staff…we need to all see ourselves as being in a process of learning and working to enact anti racism and promote equity.

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 Our student body has grown beautifully; more are better informed about oppression of all sorts, are actively involved in educating their peers, and truly mean to promote better understanding within our community and beyond. All hands on deck. 

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 Our student body has grown beautifully; more are better informed about oppression of all sorts, are actively involved in educating their peers, and truly mean to promote better understanding within our community and beyond. All hands on deck. 

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 A few years ago the librarians and members of the English Department had a series of meetings with students from many affinity groups to help us redesign the summer reading program. Their suggestions were deeply valuable and made the program so much stronger than it would have been otherwise. 

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 A few years ago the librarians and members of the English Department had a series of meetings with students from many affinity groups to help us redesign the summer reading program. Their suggestions were deeply valuable and made the program so much stronger than it would have been otherwise. 

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 When students report bias in the curriculum, could there be a center for documentation of those particular passages with an explanation of the bias to ensure the universal initiation of those discussions in each classroom? I think this would also be helpful for teachers who might be unsure how to discuss topics about specific identities. 

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 When students report bias in the curriculum, could there be a center for documentation of those particular passages with an explanation of the bias to ensure the universal initiation of those discussions in each classroom? I think this would also be helpful for teachers who might be unsure how to discuss topics about specific identities. 

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IDEAL teachers participated in a "Dismantling White Supremacy Culture in K-12 Schools" workshop earlier this year. Developments like this ought to be shared with students more clearly so that we can see what efforts faculty are making to become educated about these issues. We love to see the work being done!

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IDEAL teachers participated in a "Dismantling White Supremacy Culture in K-12 Schools" workshop earlier this year. Developments like this ought to be shared with students more clearly so that we can see what efforts faculty are making to become educated about these issues. We love to see the work being done!

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 One thing I would like incoming students to hear is a presentation from students and faculty who can articulate the work that BLS is doing and committed to continuing around recognizing and supporting BIPOC students and teaching about the complexities of systemic inequities  .

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 One thing I would like incoming students to hear is a presentation from students and faculty who can articulate the work that BLS is doing and committed to continuing around recognizing and supporting BIPOC students and teaching about the complexities of systemic inequities  .

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 An interesting thing that happened during the summer is the official provision of books and other mediums that Ms. Skerritt provided about racism and anti-racism, with a focus on black Americans. I like this idea. Could this be expanded to others, and can students submit their own recommendations on strong literature concerning their own ethnic/racial identities to be added to that official corpus that is visible to the entire school community? For example, as a North African/Arab-American and as a Muslim, struggles my demographic face is erasure, and I would personally recommend Edward Said's "Orientalism" (a book on prejudiced lens towards "Easterners") and "Eurocentrism" by Samir Amin (both Middle Eastern writers).

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 An interesting thing that happened during the summer is the official provision of books and other mediums that Ms. Skerritt provided about racism and anti-racism, with a focus on black Americans. I like this idea. Could this be expanded to others, and can students submit their own recommendations on strong literature concerning their own ethnic/racial identities to be added to that official corpus that is visible to the entire school community? For example, as a North African/Arab-American and as a Muslim, struggles my demographic face is erasure, and I would personally recommend Edward Said's "Orientalism" (a book on prejudiced lens towards "Easterners") and "Eurocentrism" by Samir Amin (both Middle Eastern writers).

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[Regarding disciplinary action for bias-based incidents] I think that there should be a significant focus on education and reflection, instead of just punishment and tarnishing a student’s record. I don’t think that just suspension does much in the long haul, and I would feel better knowing that even if these student’s aren’t removed from our community, they are learning from their mistakes. 

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[Regarding disciplinary action for bias-based incidents] I think that there should be a significant focus on education and reflection, instead of just punishment and tarnishing a student’s record. I don’t think that just suspension does much in the long haul, and I would feel better knowing that even if these student’s aren’t removed from our community, they are learning from their mistakes. 

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 While presentations and programming on marginalized populations constitute a wonderful first step, a radical revision of English and History curricular would have the greatest impact. Optional, marginal offerings exempt the least informed from learning what should be transformative. 

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 While presentations and programming on marginalized populations constitute a wonderful first step, a radical revision of English and History curricular would have the greatest impact. Optional, marginal offerings exempt the least informed from learning what should be transformative. 

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Also, potentially written inclusive language in the curriculum that acknowledges that our texts and critical lenses are chosen with care.