growth Archives - The Inside Press

Chappaqua, NY— Growth. The banner sign outside the administration building for the Chappaqua Central School District could not be more symbolic. For we are all learning. No community is immune or free of the ravages of systemic racism that is being addressed in unprecedented protests in cities and towns around the nation following the death of George Floyd while in police custody-aggravated by the delay in bringing murder charges against the Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s for his actions in Floyd’s death.

That includes the community of New Castle, where last night, the Inside Press learned, a group of Chappaqua students and parents, especially those who have been directly impacted, are holding the Chappaqua school district and school board accountable for experiences they say indicate a tolerance for systemic racism within the school district.

Currently, a Tik Tok video circulating in social media depicts a group of Greeley teens offensively using the N-word. According to parents calling out the incident and by those discussing it in social media, there was a weak/inadequate disciplinary response–a brief suspension. A new source points out, however, that the video was withheld from the school district for an unspecified period impacting the disciplinary action. But the problem is more ‘systemic’ too, according to these same discussions.

An on the record open letter received last night by one former Greeley student to the Inside Press was within hours retracted by a legal team for this student who reversed course and asked that it not be published. The student offered, however, that it can provide insight of pain and trauma experienced by students of color inside the school district.

The Chappaqua School board, in the meantime, this morning responded to a collective voicing of “grief and outrage” with the following statement promising to bring about change:

Dear Chappaqua Central School District Community,

As our nation confronts the continuing scourge of racism and oppression faced by African Americans and people of color, and as we continue to witness horrific and brutal events around our country and racist incidents in our own community, we know that we must commit to change.

We are appalled and devastated by racially divisive incidents in our schools and our society as a whole. We know that our staff, students, parents, alumni, and community feel the same. From the many letters which were sent to us today by our students and alumni, we are bearing witness to an outpouring of grief and outrage, and the recounting of personal experiences of racism in our school community. We thank you for reaching out to us and want you to know that the actions you have taken will make you a part of the solution.

We are resolute in our commitment to address and support social justice education in our schools. Here are some examples of what we are doing to help bring about change:

The District will continue to work with Facing History & Ourselves so that our curriculum can better address and examine racism, anti-semitism, and prejudice at pivotal moments in history, and so that we may help students connect choices made in the past to those they will confront in their own lives.
Our faculty will engage in professional development to help facilitate important conversations with our students that address racism and enable all of us to meaningfully process the events unfolding in our country and our community.
We have made a commitment toward addressing diversity in our staff, and have made progress in doing so, through our involvement in the Regional Diversity Recruitment Fair.
The District has created an Equity P.R.I.D.E. (Promoting Racial Inclusivity, Diversity & Equity) Fellowship. This is a team of K-12 educators who will focus on understanding bias and how it impacts our work as educators as we strive to promote equitable, diverse and inclusive learning spaces where all learners, both adult and student, can feel seen, heard, valued and respected. The Equity PRIDE Fellowship will analyze feedback sent to the Board of Education and our District Administration as a part of their work. They will present recommendations to the Board of Education on how we can enhance our social justice instruction District-wide.
We continue to support student-led initiatives including the Black Student Union and ENOUGH at Greeley, and the Diversity Clubs at both middle schools. These student clubs are focused on promoting equity, inclusivity and diversity in our schools and the larger community.
The Board of Education has recently accepted a substantial grant from the Chappaqua School Foundation, which will enable us to further diversify our elementary classroom libraries.

We acknowledge that we can, and must, do more as we work and interact with our students, especially students of color, to listen to and understand their experiences with incidents of racism in Chappaqua schools. We will continue to review our curriculum to ensure that we are educating our students and school community about systemic racism which continues to perpetuate discrimination and oppression in the nation and within our own school community.

We are committed to doing better and will work to do so by maintaining and promoting an anti-racist stance. Please continue to provide feedback. Please continue to report incidents. We will listen, we will share information with our community, and we will hold ourselves accountable in helping our district bring about change.

Sincerely,

The Chappaqua Central School District Board of Education

Jane Kimmel Shepardson, President
Holly McCall, Vice President
Hilary Grasso, Member
Warren Messner, Member
Victoria Tipp, Member

L-R: MHA’s Head of Personal Development, Education and Training Dr. Barbara Bernstein; MHA Board Member Sean Mayer; Educator Shari Applebaum; Byram Hills High School Principal Chris Borsari; and Reverend Frances Wise Grenley of Scarsdale Congregational Church

By Deborah Raider Notis

We live in a community in which everyone is hyper-focused on raising successful children. But do we spend nearly enough time teaching these successful children how to recover from disappointment, failure, and stress? How do we raise resilient children?

This was the focus of the Mental Health Association (MHA) of Westchester’s community conversation held in November at the Rosenthal JCC.

Moderator Sean Mayer, an MHA board member who lost his brother to suicide, asked a panel of experts, “In today’s high stakes, technology driven world, how do we help our youth develop strength and buoyancy?” The event, sponsored by The Inside Press, concerned reducing and identifying factors that cause anxiety, stress, depression, and the potential for suicide in children and young adults.

According to the MHA’s Dr. Barbara Bernstein, counselors are seeing more children with more mental health issues nowadays. Over one-third of college students polled said that they cannot function because they feel sad and hopeless, one half of these students suffer from anxiety, nine percent considered suicide, and 17% of high school students polled thought about suicide. She urged, “Early identification of these issues is critically important. We have to figure out why kids are not developing coping skills.”

“Teacup Children” Phenomenon

Panelist Shari Applebaum noted that resilience begins in childhood. “To build resilience with our kids we have to take a step back. Kids must find self soothing skills and must learn to handle disappointment on their own while still knowing that there is a support system.” She and Mayer believe that today’s parents are creating “teacup children,” children who are exceptionally fragile and break easily when faced with challenges. Applebaum feels that our community as a whole must reduce the emphasis on academic and athletic achievement as these pressures are overwhelming to many children–and don’t guarantee fulfillment.

Byram Hill’s Chris Borsari agreed that academic and athletic achievement are priorities in our community. When he started at Byram Hills High School, he wanted to understand why so many students were struggling. “We started out discussing stress,” as he was initially afraid to broach the subjects of mental health and suicide with his faculty and community. He developed Learn to Inspire workshops for his faculty and held coffees for parents to pinpoint what causes stress and anxiety for students. “Over time, people started to discuss suicide. There was a slow acceptance and realization that suicide is a health issue, just like broken bones and concussions but with potentially greater consequences.”

Reverend Francis Wise Grenley suggested that we prioritize kindness and compassion. She thinks local teens need to look beyond themselves and place themselves in a different context to give them some perspective on their problems. “In the modern era, we are the centers of our own attention, everything we do is so important to us.” To help give teens perspective, the Scarsdale Congregational Church takes teens on a Midnight Run to bring clothing and homeless into New York City and also takes them to a community in South Dakota living in trailers–with no windows, no indoor plumbing, and no heat. Grenley points out, “This give our teens a chance to see an entirely different reality.”

The hope is that experiencing this alternate reality will give them a stronger sense of priorities. Borsari notes that we live in “pinnacle communities” where people have found a unique level of success and prosperity. “The American Dream has always meant that you are going to do better than your parents,” notes Borsari. “If that only means money, then kids from these pinnacle communities are going to have a particularly tough time. We need to redefine success to make it more attainable for this generation.”

Technology: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Stress and anxiety are pervasive among children, teens, and young adults–some of whom are plugged in seemingly 24/7. So Mayer asked the panel whether they feel that technology is making growing up harder for our children. The whole panel agreed that it is extremely challenging to deal with texts, Instagrams, Snapchats, and all of the other apps that compel people to constantly compare themselves to everyone else.

Mayer also points out that many of these children have “duck syndrome,” they look perfect on the surface but are paddling furiously beneath the surface to keep up. He says, “It is hard to see all of these posts and think that everyone is having so much more fun than you are.”

Grenley acknowledges, “None of us are strangers to our smartphones. But kids are getting lost in their phones and missing out on face-to-face conversations. How many times have you seen kids sitting next to each other in the car texting each other?” Grenley and Mayer agreed that people are missing out on the beauty of the world around us and losing the ability to be present in the moment.

Teens and young adults need emotional downtime, away from social media outlets. Borsari believes,“ One of the hallmarks of adolescence is to be connected to the group. But you used to be able to go home and escape. Now there is no escape.” He is particularly concerned about kids’ inability to shut down and escape technology.

Grenley implores parents to stick to their standards because kids do better with boundaries. “Hearing the word ‘no’ is not a bad thing.” These rules and boundaries against which kids fight can ultimately give them a sense of belonging and a foundation for success. Most importantly, people need to know about the many available resources throughout our community that can help those struggling with depression, anxiety, stress, and thoughts of suicide. Michael Orth of the Westchester Department of Mental Health said that the county offers peer-to-peer support groups for college-aged young adults, for example. The Scarsdale Congregational Church has a support council and works with neighborhood associations to foster a sense of community.

Byram Hills High School has an open door policy, Transformation Workshops, and is working to reduce the stigma associated with suicide. And, of course there is the Mental Health Association of Westchester. Just ask Mayer. Six months after his brother committed suicide he turned to the Mental Health Association for support, and today he works with them to create a network of support systems and conversations for others.

Deborah Notis is a writer and co-owner of gamechanger, LLC, a free referral service connecting Westchester families to highly qualified, competitively priced academic, athletic, music, and
art instructors.