A safe school environment for everyone

By Kim Doan
Teacher Educator in a large College of Education

I was on my way to a 12noon meeting on campus but needed a second cup of java for the day. While standing in line for coffee, a colleague approached me to ask if I would promote an event that his Philosophy department was hosting. The event was a lecture about school violence and safe schools, a topic very relevant to preservice teachers so I was amenable to promoting the event in my classes and agreed to do so.

During this brief conversation with my colleague, he said, “Do you know about the violence in the Philadelphia schools where the Black students were beating up on the Asian kids?” I’m not sure of my colleague’s motive for referring to the incidences in which groups of African American teenagers assaulted Asian immigrant students at a Philadelphia high school and in the neighborhoods surrounding the school in 2009. These incidences made national news headlines when it came to light that the school administrators did little to resolve the issue. I am a product of Los Angeles Unified School District and later taught in LAUSD and Pomona Unified, and while I was relatively new to the Philadelphia area, I was not new to school violence.

School violence is an issue that needs prompt solutions as it affects everyone in the school. Every student should feel safe at school, regardless of the school of attendance, racial composition of its student body, socioeconomics of the neighborhood in which the school sits, or qualifications of the teachers. While there are racial undertones to some incidences of school violence, there are answers that are not dependent on race. That is, teachers, administrators, school security and community police should take the incidences seriously, regardless of the race of the victims or perpetrators.

This brief meeting with my colleague bothered me afterwards for a few days and I had to reflect on why. As an Asian American educator who has written on the topic of Asian American students, I am aware of many of the issues that affect the Asian American community. In this instance, I realize that while some may attach race to school violence, violence is violence regardless of the race of the perpetrators or the race of the victims. Would I feel differently had it been the Asian immigrant students who were assaulting African American students?  I think not!

What do you think? What does your school or school district do to ensure students’ safety while in school and in the surrounding neighborhoods?

Disclaimer: The thoughts expressed by the individual bloggers on this site are solely personal and do not necessarily represent the views of the API Caucus.

Minority teacher in a minority majority world

By Allisence Chang
Self-contained elementary teacher {Phoenix, AZ}

I spent my high school days in a town that I can say pretty much reflects the make up of the current demographics of the United States — the vast majority of the families were White. Aside from that, there were a few Black families, a few Hispanic families, and a few Asian families including mine. It wasn’t much different when I went to college in Michigan, although I suspect the overall minority population was a little higher due to large amount of international Masters and PhD students.

After college, I eventually settled in Phoenix, Ariz. for a job. Growing up in the Northeast, I knew little about the makeup of the Southwest. I imagined sandy-haired cowboys walking up and down the streets wearing wide-brimmed hats and gripping handguns hanging from holsters. As you might suspect, I was a little off. Only the sheriffs wear cowboy hats and people don’t generally hang guns from holsters, they keep them concealed in pockets and purses.

Phoenicians aren’t generally blond either. In fact, 41% of the Phoenix population is of Hispanic or Latino origin (census.gov). At the school I teach at, the vast majority of the students are Hispanic: 63%, followed by 18% White, 9% Black, 9% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 1% unspecified (AZ Dept. of Education). Notice how there are zero Asians.

Growing up in the Northeast, I was the minority in the classroom — almost everyone was White. Twenty years later in Phoenix, everything is different — the majority (White) has become a minority and one of the minority groups (Hispanic) has become the majority. This fact is pretty clear if you take a walk around my elementary school, but one thing has not changed, I am still the minority.

Sadly, all the same struggles of being a minority are still there. I still hear students saying rude things; I still hear students calling me names; and I still hear students giving off the impression that because they’re in the majority, none of it matters. Imagine what these minority students sitting in the majority seat could do for a their school and ultimately a country that continues to be majority dominated.

As a self-contained special education teacher, I honestly don’t come into contact with as many students as other teachers. It’s difficult for me to feel like I really have the authority or relationship with a lot of these students to truly take advantage of this potential teachable moment. This is not to say the minority (White, Black, and other) students at my school or as a minority teacher I don’t also have an important role to play — what that role is, I’m still trying to figure out.

Most of the time being Asian is not a huge deal and I’m fairly certain that the students and parents I work with directly have never given my race another thought. Nor have I ever thought that being a minority teacher at my school has been a particularly difficult experience. I really do love my job, my school, and the students at my school. What is it like where you work? Are you in the majority or the minority? Who is the majority where you are? Does that or has that ever changed things? Share your stories! We would love to hear them!

Disclaimer: The thoughts expressed by the individual bloggers on this site are solely personal and do not necessarily represent the views of the API Caucus.