Students Are Taught How To Combat Discrimination
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
A few weeks after swastikas were found chalked on walls at Murray Bergtraum High School in Lower Manhattan, another set of derogatory words was scrawled around the school’s auditorium yesterday. This time, however, the walls were covered as part of an intensive diversity training session run by the Anti-Defamation League to teach students how to recognize and combat discrimination in their school.
Large tablets with headings such as Ageism, Racism, and Ableism that were set up around the stage charted the students’ discussions about the difference between “personal” and “institutional” discrimination. The 14- and 15-year-olds sat in a circle vying to answer questions about how they could tackle both types.
“The most important thing is to set an example,” 15-year-old Breanna Woodley suggested to her peers. “Maybe if they follow in your footsteps, it will help the school to unite.”
The principal of the school, Barbara Esmilla, who has spent 31 years there and six at the helm, said that while there has been some friction in the school’s diverse student body, the swastikas “somewhat blindsided us.”
She wasn’t alone. The Murray Bergtraum incident was part of a spike in hate crime complaints this fall, including several swastikas and hangman’s nooses found around public schools and at Columbia University.
Mayor Bloomberg called a meeting with ethnic and civil rights organizations, while the City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, sponsored a citywide “Day Out Against Hate” last week. Teachers College, where two of the Columbia incidents occurred, is adding more classes on multiculturalism.
Ms. Esmilla decided to call on the students to fix the problem themselves. She went to the ADL, which runs the World of Difference program that was sponsored by the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges to train student leaders to teach their peers about discrimination and prejudice.
Pedro Crespo, a 14-year-old freshman who participated, said in the past he has been insulted with racial slurs, but that after the training he had a better understanding of how discrimination works.
“I found out we have things in common,” he said of his fellow students. “Now, I’ll try to help out my friends to keep them from discriminating against other people.”
