A year after Trump's election, York, Pa., is forever changed

[riversedge]

7. This is no way to live, to grow up.......to learn about others, to learn to respect others........

"Leaders" want to avoid controversy.




.....Soon after Trump was inaugurated in January, the school, adopting the recommendation of a committee of 15 students, hired Carla Christopher, a local activist and artist. Her job as “equity coordinator” was to help navigate sensitive issues of race inside the school and restore trust.

“It was rough getting off the ground,” Christopher said. “They were super afraid of more controversy.”

Issues that might have been uncomfortable pre-Trump had become fraught post-Trump.

During February, Black History Month, students wanted to put up images of a black fist. That was rejected by school officials. They wanted a Black Lives Matter sign. No. They wanted a picture of Nat Turner, who led a slave rebellion in 1831. Again, too controversial.

“’So what, you basically want us to talk about MLK and Rosa Parks and then sit down and be quiet and be good Negroes?’” Christopher said. “The kids were upset. But from the school’s perspective they’re like, ‘We don’t want to open up any cans of worms and have the Confederate flag-wearing students come in and freak out.’ ”

Eventually, the students created a display that included noncontroversial photos and a book by Maya Angelou. .......