Santa Monica Students Tackle Racism

by TChris

According to students at Santa Monica High School, the school administration has done little to address persistent racism within the school district. A coalition of students of color has decided to tackle the problem by creating a ten point plan to attack the root causes of racial violence.

The document calls for a variety of reforms that include more people of color in faculty and administrative positions, teaching conflict resolution and role modeling, using discipline in ways that “focus less on punishment and more on transformation” and instituting “culturally relevant teaching practices in every course” to “de-colonialize the curriculum.”

The plan comes "two weeks after inter-racial strife erupted into a lunchtime melee" at the school. The students contend that the school administration has long ignored the racial tension that underlies incidents of violence within the school district.

Posted Friday :: April 29, 2005