Students participate in Courageous Conversations

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Students participate in a session of Courageous Conversations (file photo)

Approximately 25 students were given the opportunity to participate in Courageous Conversations that took place in B104 on October 3.

A few selected students were chosen to engage in the conversation. The students chosen were those said to have open minds and a strong voice of opinion. These students touched on subjects such as racial complications and stereotyping others. 

“I think the conversation was very productive. It was really cool to just sit down and face our problems head on and discuss ways to improve not only on our learning environment, but also our community,” Sam Shull said.

The administrative and counseling teams worked together to develop a plan to help students work through the racial tension in the high school.

“We all realized that we want to be known as who we are rather than what we are,” Kat Gollaher said.

The first phase of that plan involves a series of small group discussions facilitated by the counseling staff. Their goal is to give students an opportunity to have honest dialogue that is structured, productive, fosters understanding and respect. 

Originally, four groups were planned, but only enough parental consents were returned for one group. The counseling staff was able to collect enough consents for a second session that met from 8-10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 10.

So during spirit week, while students were dressed in throwback clothes, they were talking about the future.

Dylan Alicea thought that it was ironic that it was on the same day.

“I didn’t even think about that, but now that you say it, I guess the issues of the past are still in the present and we need to fix it for the future.”