Superintendent, Jennifer Loftus, on Sept. 4, emailed parents through ParentSquare about the ongoing issue of PRHS students using the N-word on campus. As of Oct. 13 the school board approved a training called Inclusive Excellence, which course corrects students who use racial and identity slurs, derogatory statements, hate speech, and harassing or threatening language in the classroom and on campus.
A pejorative language crackdown arrives to campus amid a growing effort to protect students apart of the school’s minority. PRHS has a diverse campus makeup with 65% of students being BIPOC, 15% of students having a disability, and 15% of students self-report as being a part of the LGBTQ+ community, which are the targeted groups for these slurs or pejorative language on campus.
pe.jo.ra.tive language
expresses a negative or disrespectful connotation or lack of respect for someone or something
On the topic of creating a more inclusive community for these minority groups Principal Megan Fletcher explained “I think that if we can come together as a school community. It’s only going to lead to positive changes throughout campus,” Fletcher said.
The Inclusive Excellence approach has been in the works for about a year in the PRJUSD as it took time to find a trainer for the teachers — A Cal Poly team of professors from the diversity and equity department led a staff development session on Oct. 14 and put the program together. The Inclusive Excellence program is aimed to equip students and faculty members with tools to better address the use of pejorative terms on campus.
On Nov. 13 students during their tutorial classes were presented with Inclusive Excellence training so that they were informed on the new district policy regarding the use of pejorative language. This presentation outlined the discipline matrix for the varying levels of disciplinary action that would ensue if a student were to use pejorative language on the PRHS campus.
PRHS senior, Tony Van after listening to the presentation on Inclusive Excellence explained, “Our campus is very diverse as it is, you can’t bring more diversity out of that when it’s already diverse.” Outside of the PRHS campus, students, through this training, will be able to gain the ability to avoid the use of slurs in a job and college setting.
Whether you’re out to eat or you’re at work we want to make sure, that we as Bearcats and we as students and faculty are doing the right thing by everybody around us.
On the use of pejorative terms, on-campus senior America Vega explains, “There has been an increase in slurs at school. They are the same ones I’ve been hearing for a while but to be fair the people I hang around don’t use slurs.”
Going forward students will be expected to follow the discipline matrix outlined by the PRJUSD as pejorative language creates an unsafe and unwelcoming learning environment for staff and students. Staff will continue training on inclusive excellence throughout the school year to offer an inclusive environment for their students.
