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them Trump would deport their families; in a<br />
Massachusetts middle school, a white student<br />
told a black peer to “Go back to Haiti because<br />
this is our country now.”<br />
Teachers reported that they found swastikas,<br />
racial slurs and the Trump tagline “Make<br />
America Great Again” written on school<br />
property.<br />
Maureen Costello, Director of Teaching<br />
Tolerance at the SPLC, said no one should be<br />
surprised that tensions unfold in our nation’s<br />
schools.<br />
“They’re microcosms of our society<br />
that reflect all the divisions,” Costello said<br />
via email after the election. “They are sites<br />
to which most people are assigned, so there<br />
isn’t that kind of self-selective sorting that<br />
happens in other spheres of life, like churches,<br />
es<br />
where people are sorting themselves into<br />
like-minded groups.”<br />
Even an accepting campus such as ours<br />
can’t fully shield students from being impacted<br />
by what’s being said and done across the<br />
country.<br />
Last winter, Head of School Jim Dunaway<br />
sent an email to <strong>MPH</strong> parents urging<br />
them to look out for Muslim students. He<br />
acknowledged that children can “internalize”<br />
disheartening national happenings, including<br />
hateful rhetoric.<br />
“When students hear and see things in<br />
the media and at school that make them feel<br />
unwanted, misunderstood, even shunned or<br />
hated, they don’t feel emotionally safe, and<br />
it inhibits their ability to learn and flourish,<br />
which are primary goals of a school,” Dunaway<br />
said in an email interview.<br />
<strong>MPH</strong> junior Isabella Casella is a<br />
first-generation American whose family<br />
immigrated from Brazil when she was 5.<br />
Though she has felt sheltered from bullying at<br />
<strong>MPH</strong>, she recognizes that hateful words and<br />
actions can be detrimental.<br />
“High school is already stressful enough<br />
for public school students who don’t have the<br />
support we have at <strong>MPH</strong>, and then having all<br />
this pressure saying that being you is not OK,<br />
it’s going to mentally destroy some people,”<br />
Casella said.<br />
Though time has passed since Trump’s<br />
campaign and his stance on some of his most<br />
potent promises seems to have softened,<br />
Costello said she fears his words will persist.<br />
“Words linger in people’s memories, and<br />
the beliefs that fuel these behaviors won’t go<br />
away just because the election is over,” she<br />
said. “We all remember the unkind and mean<br />
things others say to us. If children and youth<br />
believe that immigrants are bad, including<br />
those in their own classes, I don’t see that<br />
belief disappearing.”<br />
Despite the overwhelming divisions we<br />
face, Americans must do all we can to heal<br />
our country. Costello stressed the importance<br />
of schools “stopping cold” hateful interactions.<br />
She urges teachers to listen to the<br />
voices of students of color and make them<br />
feel valued at school. She calls on students to<br />
ally themselves with targeted peers. Even the<br />
simple gesture of joining someone at lunch<br />
can make a difference.<br />
Dunaway said he believes that the key to<br />
change lies in younger generations.<br />
“I believe our children can rise above<br />
such nastiness and build a better future than<br />
we are offering them,” he said.<br />
Regardless of race, religion or gender, today’s<br />
students are builders of a better future.<br />
We possess the capacity to spread acceptance<br />
rather than resentment.<br />
Our country must not fall to such a low<br />
standard that we allow entire groups of people,<br />
especially children, to be attacked. That’s<br />
not America. Let’s create an environment<br />
in which 21-year-old Farah will never again<br />
worry that her younger siblings won’t return<br />
from school one day.<br />
Let’s make America America again.<br />
winter 2017 | 33