The Latin School of Chicago at 59 W. North Blvd. Via Email: Submit complaints to civilrights@cps.edu. Our hope is that you continue the conversations this page has brought up, endeavor to be actively anti-racist, and advocate for the most marginalized among.. The girl in that story, Alex Moreno, is now a 21-year-old woman attending college. "I mistakenly thought that High Jump was Latin, that the community and support would be there," said Marilyn Pierre, now a 24-year-old grad student. "I had students say to my face: low-income students should be grateful they're even allowed at Latin because if it wasn't for our parents making these donations they wouldn't be here, as if those donations and the price of tuition was enough to compensate for the trauma," she said. Randy Pierre, 18, a senior at the Latin School of Chicago. But Randy chose the Latin School of Chicago, an independent school on the Gold Coast serving predominantly white and affluent students. Its just maybe whats going on in politics after Trump was elected, maybe people feel more emboldened to be how they want to be.. However, studies highlight the social and psychological challenges that students of color, especially Black students, face inside the nation's predominantly white independent schools. When I was a senior, I was told by several friends about multiple racist comments made by a group of white freshmen boys. One story reads: "I am of Indian descent. Nancy Reagan is the school's most famous alum. A post shared by @ survivorsoflatin on Jun 22, 2020 at 11:54am PDT. His first choice was Whitney Young High School, a public school on the Near West Side where two in three students are people of color. J.B. Pritzker. She was active in Latinx student groups that pushed for more racial inclusion at the school and participated in student focus groups centered on race and equity. Those revelations come on the heels of recent outcry over racist transgressions at other highly touted Chicago schools, including the private University of Chicago Lab Schools in Hyde Park, and Walter Payton High School on the Near North Side. ", The spokesperson said that a group of current and former students is crafting a set of demands for Latin's administrators that "span from increasing the power of marginalized students' voices relative to the board of trustees, to hiring more BIPOC administrators and teachers and restructuring our required curriculum across the school to incorporate the stories and histories of our BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students. I began to code-switch just to get by, but that still wasnt enough to avoid prejudice. When this or any other recreation area is not being used by a group that has purchased a permit, it is open to anyone who wishes to use it. The 15-page letter of demands also calls on Parker, where tuition is about $39,000, to focus more of its curriculum on the experience of LGBTQ people and to change the way the school handles disciplines to minimize bias. I thought that maybe she just had a bad experience, that I would be different., But Randy saw for himself in the summer of 2017, five days into the school year. 1 reference. The spokesperson for Latin Survivors, a recent grad who spoke to Injustice Watch on the condition of anonymity, said the group was inspired by Black students who are leading social media campaigns exposing injustice at other top college prep schools across the U.S. Latinos are now the city's second-largest racial or ethnic group, growing by 5% from roughly 779,000 in 2010 to nearly 820,000 . Decent housing is a basic human rightdeserved by all due to . J.B. Pritzker. The changes have all sounded good. According to its website, High Jump helps prepare elementary students from households "of limited economic means" for entrance exams and academic success at prestigious public and private college prep schools. Racism can be individual, when persons fail to recognize certain groups as created in the image of God and equal in dignity, or it can be systemic, where practices or policies treat certain groups of people unjustly. The upper school is located Students also acknowledged the administration has made some attempts to improve Latins culture through diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. At the Latin School, the operators of @survivorsoflatin went on hiatus, saying they needed to focus on other parts of their lives. She warned her brother, too: She told me I would have some of the worst experiences Ive ever had in my life there, Randy said. Primary school students who took part in a groundbreaking pilot scheme designed to give them the tools to identify racial bias showed reduced levels of bias at the end of the program. But she still replays memories of her early days at Latin, when she was a 13-year-old freshman who "nobody wanted to be friends with." And the system inside the school, as much as the system outside the school, is producing the stories that are coming up on these Instagram pages. On average, residents of the . Eventually it started to get uncomfortable and he grabbed my butt while still hitting on me. Latin resides in the Gold Coast, one of Chicago's wealthiest neighborhoods. Text Description: I was picking up my black son from school, and he was eerily quiet. As an eighth-grader in 2017, South Chicago resident Randy Pierre boasted the grades and test scores to get into some of Chicagos top high schools. Tuition ranges from about $33,000 to $37,000 depending on grade. Today, a near-record 14% of the country's population is foreign born compared with just 5% in 1965. Middle East. Freshman year, someone posting on an anonymous message board referred to her and her group of friends as the ghetto girls and questioned why a white girl who hung out with them would be seen with them. I didn't know how to deal with it; I decided to not speak, assuming he had a stressful day at school. By 1985, so few people endorsed the segregationist response that the GSS dropped this item.". ", In an email to Latin families and staff several days after Latin Survivors went live, Latin Head of School Randall Dunn, the first Black person to hold that position in Latin's history, acknowledged that "members of our community have reached out to me and others with reports of racial traumas endured both in the past and recently.". Anthony Vazquez / Chicago Sun-Times. The head of school described reading those stories as "extremely painful," and pledged to identify and address challenges keeping Latin from being an inclusive and anti-racist community. Freshman year, someone posting on an anonymous message board referred to her and her group of friends as "the ghetto girls" and questioned why a white girl who hung out with them would be seen with them. "We're demanding structural change in institutions that deprive many of us of a healthy high school experience. And that becomes stressful. I left from a classroom at High Jump that was 60-70% Black and brown to a class where I was the only Black person in the space. Our 134th year of teaching and learning begins with sustained commitment to our liberal arts foundation, as well as the promise to continually define excellence in education for the world our . That includes feelings of marginalization and other problems that may cause depression and stress, dampen their self-esteem, affect identity development, and hurt their academic performance, among other problems. When she arrived at Latin, she was one of just a handful of Black people in her grade and often was the only Black person in her classes, she said. Randy said he and other students "need to know that the administration is on our side and that they're going to hold students accountable, whether it be taking away their roles in student groups or even expulsion." Text Description: Racism at Latin isn't limited to students. At this moment we are trying to make a change, but until that change happens, I dont think its a good environment.. "We are acting in solidarity with movements across our country demanding structural change in the government," the spokesperson said. I didnt believe her. Thirteen percent of students get financial aid from the school, which reported more than $50 million in revenue last year. I felt lonely and isolated. 917 Followers. Stallworth, who plans to attend college in Atlanta this year, remembers her white classmates, many of whom lived in the affluent North Side communities near the school, paying a disturbing amount of attention to her hair. Later during high school, she wrestled with anti-Blackness directed toward Black girls and women at Latin. survivorsoflatin@protonmail.com. Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News. Former Latin grads Alex Moreno and Michelle Perez on their graduation day in 2017. The page says it aims to share voices of students, alumni, parents, and faculty at the Latin School of Chicago that have endured anti-blackness, racism, and xenophobia., Students exit the Latin School of Chicago, one of the schools where students have started an Instagram account to share incidents of racism they said they've encountered. She says the faculty member who fielded the complaint, a woman of color, threw it out and supported her. Randy's story is one of the hundreds shared by current and former Latin students accusing students and teachers of racism, xenophobia, and abuse at the college prep school, according to an anonymous Instagram account with more than 2,700 followers, Latin Survivors. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune). I knew something was wrong as he is usually bursting with energy with how well his school went. Injustice Watch asked Latin's head of school Dunn several questions about the problems at Latin and how the school planned to respond. Payton seniors Brianna Warren and Jarrius Carroll, both 17, are among seven students running the @bipoc.payton Instagram page. This anonymous form allows students to share their stories of bias and receive a response from a faculty member, letting them know that someone has read the story and some form of action will be taken. For the past three years, Russell has made Sister Outsider by Black feminist poet and activist Audre Lorde a pillar of her English 1 class. Members of Ragen's Colts, one of the leading gangs, disguised themselves in blackface in order to set fire to . Moreno graduated from Latin in 2017 and says she is still unpacking the trauma from her experience. Text Description: I came to Latin in 5th grade and throughout my years at Latin Ive had my classmate pull on and touch my hair, anytime I would ask them not to they would and I remember on one particular occasion I was wearing my hair natural and a girl ran up behind me and grabbed a fistful of my hair. Despite the challenges, many Black students and students of color still show resilience in such environments. 298 people like this. According to its website, High Jump helps prepare elementary students from households of limited economic means for entrance exams and academic success at prestigious public and private college prep schools. "She didn't like how I talked about race.I was very blunt," Marilyn Pierre said. The students operating @bipoc.payton screen submissions before posting them, identifying the author only by the class year. That isnt to say she didnt fight back at Latin. I took the words with a grain of salt as I finished my freshman year. Organizers of the @bipocatignatius account, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said they were motivated to create the account to get administrators' attention and to spur change at the school. In 2010, Black students were about 27% of the student population, according to state figures. After I graduated, I became a public school teacher in Bronzeville. Their teachers are much more likely to be white, hold advanced degrees, and teach in classes with low pupil-instructor ratios compared to Chicago Public Schools teachers. Dunns letter also acknowledged that the culture, systems, and practices at the 132-year-old institution have promoted racism implicitly and explicitly. The letter didnt elaborate. Moreno, who came from a school that shared one projector, was amazed when she saw smartboards and MacBooks in every class at Latin, she said, and she wanted access to those resources. It is in our bodies. At this moment we are trying to make a change, but until that change happens, I don't think it's a good environment.". Nate Bronstein was a bright, witty 15-year-old . After @survivorsoflatin launched in June, nearly 200 stories were posted about the private school, where tuition is about $38,000. After graduation, 99% of students from this school go on to attend a 4-year college. "I left from a classroom at High Jump that was 60-70% Black and brown to a class where I was the only Black person in the space. It is in our bones. In Chicago, Blacks and Latinos each make up almost 30 percent of the population (29.7 percent and 29.4 percent, respectively) according to a report from the Institute for Research on Race and . Leslie Russell is a Payton teacher and sponsor of its Black Student Union, of which Carroll is president. Like other current and former students at Latin, she said there was a culture of silence around racial injustice. "I thought everything that I've been taught to strive for, like financial stability and securing safe housing, going to a good college, these things would have been threatened if I spoke up, and I would have basically wasted my opportunity to go to Latin, which is supposed to give you more opportunities to step up in life than you could have ever imagined if you stayed in your neighborhood," she said. Now that shes graduated, Stallworth looks back on her Latin experience with mixed feelings. A 2018 graduate recalled a teacher who "referred to the only table of Black students as the loud table.'. A lot of these stories havent been taken seriously, said Warren. The administration created student and faculty leadership teams aimed at dismantling systems of oppression in the Payton community and also brought on a director of transformative justice, to help develop procedures for when an incident occurs. From this school go on to attend a 4-year college these stories havent been seriously. 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