The good, the bad and the ugly of students’ progressivism

Beginning last school year, I have witnessed many of my peers attempting to format the idea that BHS and other schools of the San Mateo Union High School District are inherently racist and uncaring to minorities. This view became most popular after our school was vandalized last September, when hateful symbols and slurs defaced the gorgeous architecture of the school. They claim the district failed to respond and that BHS has not done enough for the community to combat our inherently racist system. 

An Instagram account which goes by “SMUHSD Awareness” was created by anonymous students and staff from the district to “bring justice to our campuses” as written in their bio. The problem is, the claims are anonymous, so there is no way to fact check most of the claims made. And while they have posted statements that have proven to be false in the past, I have seen many students accept the statements on the account as wholefully truthful, fueling their narrative that our district is infested with hate. These accusations, of course, are dangerous. 

One statement claimed to have reported sexual harassment at a different high school, but upon notifying the dean of students, was ignored. Allegations like this are shocking if true, but there is reason to cast doubt on the veracity of this claim. The California Penal Code Section 11165.7 mandates “A classified employee of a public school” is a mandated reporter and is required to report accusations like this. While I will not deny this person’s account of what happened to her, it is extremely unlikely that a dean would disobey such a crucial law. If he or she did, there should probably be an investigation of the event before it is spread around social media.

But these loose claims from students, and some reported ones, have unfortunately garnered enough attention that last week, the Burlingame principal sent an email to students, explaining that the school has to do better at “address[ing] issues of bias and hate.” This was written after a San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury recalled three cases of racism at BHS: BHS students chant racist remarks at Mills, a predominantly Asian school; an anonymous person vandalizes a locker with a swastika; the homophobic slur; and racist and homophobic symbols and slurs were found on walls (as I mentioned earlier). This was enough for the grand jury to conclude that BHS was far from OK at addressing and tolerating racism. 

The problem is, only one of those reports were actually proved to have been committed by Burlingame students, so how do we combat hate we can’t control? It is also worth noting that Belzer and the school addressed all three of those situations to some extent. 

Another Instagram account was created over the summer, where anonymous students from the district called to “expand curriculum with diverse and anti-racist texts!” as stated in their bio. This, however, was created two years after BHS and the district had already implemented an ethnic studies course in replacement of contemporary world studies and created a “Facing History and Ourselves” course which is “a course that focuses on the social dynamics of stereotyping and discrimination, making the use of two case studies as the basis for student exploration,” as described on the Burlingame High School website. It is clear the district has been extremely progressive these last few years These anonymous web sources do not disclose such progress much less take it into consideration. 

Of course Burlingame and the district has its flaws, but overall has managed to make significant progress in efforts to prevent and combat racism, sexism and other such ills. Instead of bashing what the school has yet to do, advocates for social change and increased tolerance should appreciate how much has been accomplished.

Jacob Lubarsky is a senior at Burlingame High School. Student News appears in the weekend edition. You can email Student News at news@smdailyjournal.com.