NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Students at New Rochelle High School this week worked at developing a stronger appreciation for all by discussing the words and signs that hurt and offend.
On Wednesday, social studies classes taught a lesson on the “symbols of hate.” Today, in English classes, the students discussed “words of hate.” Students were grateful for the opportunity to talk about an issue that affects everyone.
“It’s normal to feel uncomfortable, but you have to talk about it to find a solution,” said senior Ashley Torres after taking the lesson in the class of Lydia Adegbola, the English department chairperson.
Torres and her classmates discussed ethnic slurs, as well as the First Amendment right to free speech. Several said they know it is important to be careful with their words, regardless of the fact that offensive phrases may not be prohibited by law.
“You can see that the students want to discuss this topic,” Adegbola said. “They can feel comfortable talking about it in class because the teachers create the atmosphere of acceptance.”
The lessons grew out of an incident in November when a swastika was found scratched into the plastic door of a bathroom stall in the boys’ locker room at the school. The discovery rattled many in the community.
It was one of several symbols studied in the social studies classes on Wednesday. Students analyzed and discussed how symbols can make people feel, especially those in the group targeted.
“The vast majority of our New Rochelle High School students are wonderful, responsible young adults,” said Interim Superintendent Dr. Magda Parvey. “But in a district that benefits so much from its incredible diversity, it is especially important for everyone to deeply understand the words and symbols that can be painful to others, and to empathize with people from all backgrounds.”
The District worked with the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center in White Plains, which has long partnered with the District on programs. The center offered suggestions for a curriculum that teachers adapted to their classrooms. In one 11th-grade English class, teacher Jolene Russo discussed the poem “Incident” by Countee Cullen, in which a black child visiting Baltimore is called a racial slur by a white child.
Russo posed the question whether the incident described would change depending on whether the boy who uttered the slur realized its impact or not. Drawing a parallel to the motive of whoever etched the swastika, Russo said; “What we’re seeing here is words have power, whether or not they were intended to be hurtful.”
