‘Now is the time for radical change…’
Auriann Sehi, Clayton High School Class of ’17 says the world sees her as ethnically ambiguous. Actually, she is of Iranian-American descent and considers herself a person of color. At the high school, she was among a relatively small group of POC students who actually lived in Clayton. The high school has maintained a minority enrollment of about 20 percent through its participation in the areawide desegregation program. Sehi was quite active in social justice efforts at the high school and served on Principal Dan Gutchewsky’s advisory council. More recently, Sehi helped draft a petition that a group of young Clayton alumni presented to the school board, and she wrote a statement that was read aloud at a board meeting on June 10. Here is an edited transcript of her remarks:
There are not enough words to describe my outrage and disappointment in the complacency of the school district of Clayton High School and its treatment of Black students. As a non-black student of color, I am incredibly heartbroken to know that there were countless instances of covert and overt forms of racism, bigotry, and oppression of my fellow black students throughout my 13 years in the district, and their concerns were ignored or they were silenced. Core values of the school district of Clayton are excellence, trust, inclusiveness, innovation and accountability.
Our district is not excellent when it fails to do more to actively combat racism in schools. Our district is not trustworthy when students do not feel comfortable speaking against the injustices they face year after year.
Our district is not inclusive when our Honors and AP courses are not diverse and inclusive of all individuals or their academic development. Our district is not accountable when it refuses to address serious problems with racism, bigotry, and take the appropriate measures.
One way in which our district could make immense changes in this conversation about race and identity is to revise the K-12 history and literacy curriculum to include a more accurate representation and less whitewashed version of African and African-American history. Curriculum not only should be accurate and comprehensive, but must be made part of the core curriculum so every Clayton student is educated on the painful yet essential facts of American history. Students should not just learn about Martin Luther King Jr, but also Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington, and countless other civil rights leaders, black artists, musicians, actors, athletes, inventors, and business people. They should know who Henrietta Lacks is and how racism pervades all institutions in American society, education, healthcare, housing, banking, the criminal justice system, voting and more. Clayton students deserve to have a thorough and accurate education when it comes to these incredibly important topics.
Now is a time for radical change and to set an example for the rest of school districts in St. Louis and across the state of Missouri. If you choose to ignore our pleas at this time, just know that we will not give up this fight. We will not back down until all of these changes are made. Every policy change, every administrative decision, every subsequent discussion that district officials, elected or otherwise, has about these issues, needs to be publicly summarized and available for the review so that all concerned students, staff, parents, and alumni can hold this district accountable to its promise.
