How the school sets a very good example for its students, translated…
The public school systems in the U.S. weathered through a lot, getting rid of segregation, and fought for equal rights in education, to today, that the children of someone like me, an interviewing professor, receives the acceptances and kind welcomes from the school. And still, the second day after the American presidential elections, my youngest son asked me in a panic, “Are we leaving the States now?” a single African Muslim mom also stated, that now, she’d rarely dared head outside.
The students in the lower grade levels couldn’t escape from the xenophobia and racist slurs of this past election. The high school that performed outstandingly on everything started having racist graffiti in the restrooms, and this spread via social media, became the headline news.
A Vietnamese high school neighbor told me, as the incident occurred, his teacher was so distraught, a lot of people cried about it. And the principal immediately wrote a letter, stressed how the school will have ZERO tolerance over an y sort of racial slurs, and that they are investigating the matter immediately.
The very next morning, the enter faculty body stood outside the entrance of the school and welcomed in each and every student with warm applause. That same evening, I’d gotten an e-mail from the superintendent, that other than stress the zero tolerance for equal education for all, it’d also listed the actions taken to investigate the matter, including getting the police involved, and invited the minorities of the school district to organize and get involved in devising a tactic to combat the situation, to prevent similar events from happening. And that all the meetings will be broadcasted via online real-time, and it’s already published on the school’s website already.
A short while ago, the superintendent sent the results of the investigation, but because of matters of privacy, they’d chosen NOT to publicize the name of the student, that the student will be punished by the school accordingly. My youngest son mentioned, that during those days, the music classes practiced the American national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner” again and again, stressed, how we should all unite as one. And, the time was right around Veteran’s Day, and the school chose to have the students perform this song to soothe people’s minds.
In a few short days, I bore witness to the hostilities of Americans, but, saw how they’d all work together, to uphold the statements of “everybody is equal” stated by the U.S. Constitution.
On Thanksgiving weekend, at a gathering of scholars, I saw the female doctorate from Pakistan, wearing that parka around her head. She said, “There are those who wants to isolate those who are different in every country, there are also those who are tolerant of others who are different than they are, I’d received too much kindness, too much assistance from those who are generous and loving, I can’t back down, I must, show everybody, that NOT all Muslims are terrorists.” She’s a specialist in preventing spread of diseases from animals to humans, and, the results of her research would benefit every single human being, without the racial differences.
Last week, my son read the story of Dr. King, because that was a part of the histories, he couldn’t believe, that to this day, there are still those words full of anger, hate, and racial attacks. I’d told him, that the world isn’t always beautiful, but, we’d still need to love human nature, be kind, and understanding, to keep our hopes up, and have the willingness, to stand up against inequality. We are benefitting from those who came before us, and, in the future, when others need, we must also, see our responsibilities to help them out as well.
This, is an amazing tale of how a school intervened into racial discrimination between the students, and, the values instilled by the school is very important, because only through tolerating those who are not the same as we are, will we grow, mature, become better people in life.