On Sept. 18, the school hosted a speaker who talked about microaggressions with the freshman and sophomore classes and expected to return the following day to speak to the rest of the high school. This was not the case, however, as the second set of presentations was postponed due to inappropriate behavior in the sophomore class meeting.
The speaker was from Molina Consulting, a diversity consulting group within the area that has previously worked with other Jewish schools. The goal of the program was to educate students on microaggressions and implicit bias, according to High School Principal and Head of Upper School Campus Dr. Lisa Vardi.
“Last year on our campus, both in classrooms, hallways and some public spaces, there were interactions between students where language was used that was inappropriate, sometimes even hateful…and we felt like we needed to do some education,” Vardi said.
The speaker first worked with the freshman class, and the program went smoothly according to Vardi. Issues arose with the sophomore class when Vardi said students asked inappropriate and disrespectful questions.
“The goal is to educate our students around the impact their words have on others, not their intention,” Vardi said.
Sophomore Lilah Waldman thinks that there may have been a misunderstanding between the students and the speaker.
“A lot of questions people asked, people didn’t have bad intentions with, and I think instead of saying that was a bad thing to say, the speaker should have explained why it was a bad thing to say,” Waldman said.
Waldman also believes the speaker’s lesson was unclear, and found it difficult to understand how it impacted her personally. However, High School DEIJ Coordinator Debra Dilworth thinks that microaggressions are very prevalent in everyday life.
“Microaggressions occur every day whether we like the word or not,” Dilworth said.
The administration intends to bring the speaker back when the community is ready, Vardi said. She, along with Dilworth, believe that it is an extremely important topic for the community to continue to be educated on.
“We pick on each other all the time and we say mean things to each other and those things have to be addressed. It’s just the way they are addressed and how they are received,” Dilworth said.
