By Eva Mandelbaum
SEED stands for Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity, and this change-making club’s meeting on November 3, focused on exactly that.
SEED is a forum for the discussion of issues that affect us all. Topics ranging from gender, race, class, and sexuality are explored at every meeting and on the meeting on November 3, especially important topics were discussed with Superintendent Dr. Ricca and Assistant Principal Ms. Hall, along with many other school community leaders.
WPHS students took a stand and discussed their thoughts on how to make clubs and extracurricular activities more accessible for minority students, while also touching on how to make the school a safer place overall, in addition to how to limit the number of fights that take place. This meeting was a large step toward increasing the sense of community at WPHS. Dr. Ricca and other administrators took the time to truly listen, and brave students used their voices to share their perspectives.
“I think talking about this subject is really important because we need to have an understanding of the scheduling that students have and their time and how they use it,” Rasha Elwakil, a WPHS student said. "Clubs really truly help students grow in all different aspects; whether it be mentally, socially, or in real world skills such as leadership or public speaking. I think having this time for clubs is truly important,” she emphasized.
To recap the meeting, Sinclair Harris said, “I think we really talked about how communication is key and how it’s really important that students know how the policies implemented are actually affecting us. There’s a lot of misconceptions about what’s going on...and I think it’s not really as much about discipline but it’s more about equity.” As Sinclair explained, this SEED meeting focused in on not only how to make the school a safer place, but also how to make it a more equitable place for all students.
The overarching theme of this meeting was that clubs bring a sense of vitality and community to WPHS, and our versatile range of clubs is what makes our school truly special. Despite the recent fights that have occurred at WPHS, it seems to be the consensus that maintaining club meetings during the school day would make for a happier student body.