centennial
"I have seen the SROs at our school target the POC at our school specifically. While I was on my way back from the bathroom me and my other hispanic friend were singled out by a group of white, male, SROs and they questioned us on what we were doing. When we explained it was a female emergency they asked if we had proof. How do you prove that? However, when a group of white girls walked by, they did not stop to question them, but simply smiled and asked how their day was. I was angry because neither of us had ever gotten in any sort of trouble at school before, but those girls had. I think we need a more diverse group of SROs because it feels so uncomfortable to be a POC surrounded by the white SRO’s."
"The teacher decided to do South Pacific, a musical about American soldiers stationed on an island during World War II. She told us that at the time it had been lauded for how it talked about racism, but then cast me and another student (both white) as Pacific Islanders. The theatre teacher asked me to darken my skin and put on stereotypical eye makeup often seen with yellow face — which is what I realized I had done later. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. Not one single teacher said anything about it, not one adult said, “This is wrong.” Instead everyone was excited that we’d convinced members of the football team to be a part of the cast. I take responsibility for what I did: I should have known better. But they’re still doing plays like In the Heights with students in brown face. It has to stop. Fire the teacher. Stop allowing white students to be cast in roles meant for people of color."
"During our vigil for the victims of the Parkland shooting, 3 or 4 white boys held up a confederate flag to show their support of the right to bear arms. This vigil was out of respect for the 17 kids who died. Many black students got understandably angry at the sight of this flag. This was not blatantly racist, but the flag is a symbol of slavery and should not be used anywhere. In my opinion, it is almost as bad as the Nazi swastika symbol. Those boys who held it up for 5 minutes should have been suspended/expelled for hate speech. On top of that, our history classes should spend more time on the BIPOC experience in America. The studies on that topic are very surface-level which leads to ignorance. Also, the only book I read by a person of color through school was “The Color Purple” and that’s because I chose it. Our educators should choose books for students to read written by more people of color. Lastly, government and economics should be full-year courses."
"All throughout my senior year and even before that they continued to punish students of color for wearing anything that could be gang related or related to drug paraphernalia. But there were plenty of white students who walked around untouched, unharmed, and unpunished as they wore confederate paraphernalia and brought confederate flags on school property. Even if so they were given a slap on the wrist, but others were given detention or ISS or even suspension. Some people need to be taught on how not to single out just one person or color that may be associated to a stereotype, but how to address everyone involved."
"The virtually all-white production of The Wiz. At the time I was not familiar with The Wiz, which was featured an all-Black cast as a stage production and later as a film. We never watched the film before production, and definitely never discussed the racial implications. Looking back this seems completely inappropriate."
"I started in and graduated in . The teacher at the time (he had a dog named after himself) would definitely treat my non-white peers with less respect in class and he was also extremely conservative and 100% let his beliefs spill into class time. At another point while I went there, a Black student committed suicide, and a popular white student was allowed to read a speech about him that ultimately turned into a speech to take their sadness and channel it into excitement and determination for that evening’s pep rally and sports game. It was benevolently racist at best. The whole school was very segregated, the honors classes were predominately white. Additionally, Centennial was part of a larger issue, where it was zoned specifically to force most non-white students in Williamson County to go there."