On Monday, May 12, students assembled in the Garland Theater for a presentation by guest speakers Jaleel Howard and JC Lugo about hate speech on campus. Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Michaela Mares-Tamayo and Upper School Director José Melgoza organized the event in light of racial slurs found in the Fullerton boys’ restroom just before spring break.
As an immediate response to the incident, Mares-Tamayo spoke to the Upper School in Garland on Tuesday, March 18 to address this inappropriate behavior, which is prohibited by the Harassment, Discrimination, and Retaliation Prevention Policy. To make time for these necessary conversations, some rivalry week games were postponed while the community engaged in a written and discussion-based reflection within advisory groups.
“Mr. Melgoza felt it was really important to have a more focused presentation with everybody just to really make sure that all of us understood what hate speech is and why it’s so detrimental within a school community,” Mares-Tamayo explained.
Thus, the initial reflections were followed by two assemblies hosted by Howard and Lugo, who work for The Howard Group, an educational consulting group that aims to foster socially responsible and caring communities in educational institutions across the country. Mares-Tamayo added, “They’ve worked with high school students before, [and] both of them have coached, so they have that lived professional experience outside of any of the research they’ve since done.”
During the assembly, the speakers explained how hate speech can easily manifest on and off campus, emphasizing the consequences it can have on community members. They posed hypothetical situations and asked questions of the audience, highlighting student engagement and making the presentation more relatable.
“They portray hate speech as a little more connected to the student body, where it’s not so displaced from our day-to-day life,” reflected sophomore Kyan Chiang-Zanoria. “The speakers really connected it to our own world, connected it to student behavior, student interactions and tied it down to Earth for us.”
“[The assembly] was completely necessary. I think it needed to happen,” shared sophomore Cashel Barnes, “It made a lot more people aware as to what things are hate speech that were socially overlooked before.”