© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Online Meeting With Rock Bridge Students, Principal Talk About Racism At School

Current and former students of Rock Bridge High School described their experiences with racism, microaggressions and insensitivity while attending the school.

The students spoke during a Zoom webinar hosted by Rock Bridge principal Jacob Sirna at noon Sunday. He called the webinar Saturday after a Facebook post drew more than 1,000 comments about racist experiences at the school.

Sirna said it was an opportunity for him to listen to students of color and make plans to address issues mentioned both during and outside the webinar. In particular, students talked about a lack of sensitivity in spirit week themes, the demeaning nature of microaggressions and how teachers are sometimes part of the problem.

Students said the school's past spirit weeks had insensitive themes. One such theme was "high society," which one student said was an opportunity for richer students to flaunt their wardrobes. Another theme was "Western," which led to students culturally appropriating and stereotyping Native American garb.

"But when you start to make fun of another culture that has nothing to do with Western America specifically, like cowboy outfits, so I thought that was very rude and very insensitive, and I felt there wasn't enough attention to that," rising senior Bet Menen said.

Cultural appropriation is when one culture, usually the dominant one, adopts elements of another culture inappropriately or without acknowledgement.

Students also talked about being the targets of microaggressions. These are casual bits of conversation or actions that, intentionally or not, convey prejudiced beliefs.

"It really makes you question your culture, and it really makes you question yourself because your culture is what makes you, you," former Rock Bridge student Janylah Thomas said of microaggressions.

Students said racism and insensitivity occurred while a teacher was present, with the teacher often doing little to address or acknowledge the situations. At times, some said, the teacher was the source of racist or insensitive speech.

"Teachers are the most important thing to me because how a teacher treats a kid really affects how the kid's life is going to turn out," Thomas said. "If a kid does not feel safe in the classroom, if a kid does not feel loved in the classroom, their chances of being successful are not going to be high. I mean, they don't even feel cared about in a place where an adult is supposed to care about all children."

Students said that when they reported the instances to administrators or confronted the teacher, they often saw no results. Students suggested that teachers receive cultural sensitivity training and that the school require students take history classes about other cultures.

One student said when the school's theater department put on a production of "Anything Goes," the play perpetuated stereotypes of Asian people.

"My biggest regret from high school has been not speaking up about what happened," Moy Zhong, another former student, said. "I haven't for months because my parents told me to keep quiet and that racism happens every day, (that) I should be worrying about myself and be glad that it wasn't worse."

The 2019-2020 school year was Sirna's first as Rock Bridge principal. He said the Zoom webinar was the first in a series to help administrators listen, understand and address issues faced by students of color.

Sirna prefaced the webinar by saying it was public and media were present. At the start, at least 50 people were in the webinar, though it wasn't it wasn't clear whether that number grew or decreased over the next hour and a half.

The Facebook post created Thursday by Thomas contains comments from past and current students.

On Friday, actress Skai Jackson posted an audio recording on Twitter, saying it was between a Rock Bridge teacher and a student and urging people to contact district Superintendent Peter Stiepleman about it.

In the recording, a female voice can be heard using a racial slur in talking with a male voice. The recording had been listened to over 300,000 times as of Sunday afternoon.

In a text message Saturday, district spokesperson Michelle Baumstark said the recording is from four years ago and was investigated then. Baumstark said the details and results of the personnel investigation can't be made public, but the district intends to review the investigation in light of the recent events.