Schools
Samohi to Tackle Racism With New Class
An ethnic studies course would be the latest effort to improve the climate at Santa Monica High School.
A sociology course on ethnicity will be on the fall 2013 class calendar at , where administrators say despite recent efforts, racism is still a problem on campus.
Ethnic studies will be a year-long class offered through the sociology department. A team of teachers and administrators will spend this fall semester developing the course's content and teaching methods. In the spring semester, they will submit their course outline to the College Board for approval, so students can receive college-prep credit for enrolling in the class, according to Peggy Harris, director of curriculum and instruction at .
"Making certain that we get the right flow, the right content, the right instructional materials—it just takes awhile to figure all of that out," Harris said.
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In the year that has passed since two white wrestling students were accused of —Santa Monica High School has implemented a number of programs to foster empathy across races.
But Harris told the district's Board of Education recently that tinges of racism still permeate student culture.
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"The overarching issue for most of them are the mean spirited things that people say to each other, then say, 'Oh I was only kidding, it's only a joke,'" she said.
Since February, with input from the community and the school board, administrators have organized ; ; trained staffers to identify racist behavior; and offered access to the Timeline Project, an online resource highlighting the contributions by people of non-European descent in United States History.
The African-American Mentor Society, the AP Spanish Service Learning Project, and the Student Leadership Group have also undertaken projects.
Looking towards the future, Harris underscored cultivating a positive environment—an important planning consideration, she said, since "school climate sets the tone for all the learning and teaching."
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