FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 24 2022 West County High School Activists Release List of Policy Demands A demand for change against the current West County High School culture that is hurting minority students The Anti-Racist Student Committe and West County High School Activists released a letter detailing a list of policy recomendations to improve the hostile and discriminatory campus culture for the school administration and WSCUHSD Board on Tuesday, May 24th, 2022. These demands come as a response to the long history of discrimination, most prominently, although not limited to, racism at the high school. In 2016, the US Education Office for Civil Rights found the school to have numerous violations of Title VI, as the school district administrators, administration, and staff failed to take sufficient action against racial harassment that they had knowledge of. Most recently, a racist promposal post and the egging of the front entrance to the school, where the plaques donated by the Native Sons of the Golden West, an organization that has a past of white nationalism and anti-Japanese activism during WWII, had been removed only hours before and which was covered in anti-racist messages, brought these issues to prominence once again. The Anti-Racist Student Committee and WCHS Activists have compiled their list of recommendations following a series of student forums where students gave input on the issues they were facing on campus and the solutions they wanted to see implemented. These recommendations are not a perfect, comprehensive list and will likely continue to change and be revisited over the years. They serve primarily to open a conversation around the actions that should be taken by the Board of Trustees and Administration. The recommendations include hiring a Title VI coordinator, the development of a clear zero tolerance policy for discrimination on campus, and assemblies to train students on their rights under Title VI, Title IX, and SSD, among many other items. The full letter is attached below: ![]()
|
|