Opinion: We Could Build a Better Community at CKHS
People in our school have been wanting to make a better community for everyone since we returned from quarantine. With a shifting social climate that causes students to not understand or connect with one another, the best way to do that would be expanding on things our school has begun to do.
Audience members at the Fredrick Holmes and Company gallery converse and enjoy the art around the room before the night of culture and music begins.
During the school year there are events for the different national months. In women’s history month we are getting different women speakers in our county to speak on different topics. In celebrating black history month we had the traveling museum event and dinner, which included a panel of BSU members in our schools. To honor Native American Heritage Month, Native students created formline art for the school, and we had a student perform a traditional dance from their tribe during lunches. All of these events happened during their respectful months.
As a school we should consider moving towards having similar events like these, not only for their months they relate to but also throughout the whole school year. I believe that having these school wide or community wide events will not only benefit the community for minority students, but also benefit the community and students as a whole.
The night of the Traveling museum people around the community learned about others and their struggles. This connection and understanding brought so many people together that night. This connection I feel extended to teachers and their understanding of Black students.
Although there was progress, there is still so much we can do. I feel like if we were to have these events once a month for black students or other POC students, we can build a better community in CKHS.
“I feel like it kind of gives a branch of unity somehow, there’s like some understanding,” said BSU president, Nadine Dockendorf. “Though they’ll never fully understand what it means to be marginalized or POC, I feel like there’s a balance or some type of understanding which is what we honestly really want, especially in BSU.”
If we as a student body work to create and advertise events like this, especially centered around culture, art, and education, we could really create a strong community at CKHS. If you read the article “The Snazz of The Jazz Roots” you can really see how teaching about culture and art has really created a more understanding and a closer community.
I hope that moving forward into the new school year or the rest of this current school year, that we not only move away from only designating certain POC or marginalized events for certain months, but also we host more events like such to create a better community for those that are marginalized and for the rest of the CKHS community.
