 |
|
|
|
Photograph by Paul Myers
Los Gatos High School junior Felix Li (left), senior Hamody Hindi and principal Trudy McCulloch participate in a meeting of the school's Diversity Task Force, which formed this year.
|
LGHS Diversity Task Force focuses on range of issues
By Rebecca Ray
The Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District identifies "mutual respect and diversity" as one of its goals, and Los Gatos High School is following suit. At the beginning of the school year, representatives from various sectors of the Los Gatos High community--teachers, administrators, students and staff members--formed the Diversity Task Force.
To the task force members, diversity extends beyond ethnic and cultural diversity. Diversity encompasses numerous other traits, including sexual orientation, size, whether someone lives in the mountains or downtown and whether someone is artistic or athletic, says Marsha Palitz-Elliott, the task force facilitator.
"Sometimes, people think, 'Diversity Task Force at a school that is primarily white?' " Palitz-Elliott said. "But this is really about understanding and respecting people who are different from you."
Trudy McCulloch, the high school principal, who also belongs to the task force, says she thinks that respecting differences has been a passion for many high school community members. The idea for the task force, which has about 20 members, started when Palitz-Elliott conducted diversity training sessions for district teachers and staff members last summer. Some participants wanted to continue what they learned, so they formed the task force. They opened it to students so it would represent everyone on campus.
The task force members formed six subcommittees, based on the areas where they thought they'd have the most impact, Palitz-Elliott says.
One subcommittee focuses on expanding Link Crew, the student activity where juniors and seniors mentor freshmen. In addition to setting up a second day for freshmen to touch base with Link Crew leaders, the subcommittee has worked on inviting Phil Boyle, who works for the corporation that sets up Link Crew programs, to come to the campus to train people in diversity, awareness and respect.
Another subcommittee is setting up two dates for conferences similar to Camp Anytown, a conference run by the National Conference for Community and Justice.
A third subcommittee addresses inappropriate language and disrespectful behavior. This subcommittee performed a skit for faculty to show how students use derogatory language in classrooms and demonstrate good and bad ways that teachers could react.
A fourth subcommittee plans to work on instilling respect for the campus grounds by posting blown-up pictures of trash around the school. They have also discussed showing classes a video of the custodians picking up trash and not getting around to doing the jobs they're supposed to do.
The fifth subcommittee, which focuses on educating teachers about diversity, will survey students about their experiences regarding name-calling and offensive words and share their data over the morning announcements, on posters, in the school newspaper, El Gato, and in the principal's newsletter.
The members also plan to gather data on strategies that teachers use in their classrooms to deal with name-calling and offensive words and share the strategies with other faculty members.
The final subcommittee arranges for student exchanges, such as students at Los Gatos and James Lick High Schools visiting each other's campuses.
Since the formation of the Diversity Task Force, the district has formed its own diversity task force, which includes district staff members, law enforcement representatives and parents, students, teachers and administrators from Los Gatos and Saratoga High Schools and NOVA, the district's alternative education program.
|
|
|
|
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
