“It’s not enough to be compassionate, you must act” – His Holiness The Dalai Lama. 

On Wednesday, Oct. 14, after the half day at 11:30, selected students from various clubs at the high school and Keith Valley attended a meeting over Microsoft Teams called Our Voices Matter. The session included a talk with award-winning author, Matthew Kay of the book Not Light, but Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom.

The Our Voices Matter mission statement states, “Students and teachers will collaborate to make a difference in our community by acknowledging the impact of race and discrimination in our schools. Hatboro- Horsham students and teachers will build a framework for a year-long campaign to advocate for marginalized populations. This campaign will support the district’s mission on equality and inclusion.”

Matthew Kay speaks to teachers all over the country about having meaningful race conversations in the classroom. He spoke to teachers earlier in the summer. In his book Kay says that “in order to nurture hard conversations about race, first we must commit to building conversational safe spaces, not merely declaring them. The foundation of such spaces is listening.” He worked with teachers to learn how to create safe and secure spaces for all.

Kay does not usually speak with students, but he took a chance to kick start our campaign and had conversations on how we can change our school for the better. They discussed including minority culture and history in everyday school, whether it is race, gender, sex or identity.

Students separated into breakout rooms to discuss expectations for the school and brainstorming ideas for Our Voices Matter as a campaign. Students felt free to share their own experiences and perspectives on our school community. 

Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) Junior and Vice President, B Birster shared, “I have been harassed for my sexual orientation as well as how I present myself in terms of gender and appearance…School should not be a place we fear. Allowing such behavior from students will guarantee a spread.” Incidents like these need not only “the protection of teachers and administrators, but the guidelines and rules as well,” they went on to say. Students want rule changes and for their peers to be held accountable for their actions.

Many student participants felt the rules and regulations  need to change, not only with disciplinary action, but with dress code. “I brought up the unfair ban on durags was to black students and how the rule is more strictly enforced than the rule on hats,” said Black Student Union (BSU) member and Junior Iby Elias. Durags are a part of black culture and should not be grouped with the ban on hats.

Principal Dennis Williams was impressed by the students’ knowledge as they discussed microaggressions. “Microaggressions are a problem because people aren’t conscious of them. Most people are not trying to be offensive, but they keep perpetuating things that they do not understand are damaging,” said GSA Publicist and Junior, Jillian Miller.

 BSU advisor Kevin Garland said, “Hopefully this can give others the courage to speak to one another about all these issues and topics and we can be closer as a school and community.”