My New Rochelle City School district journey started at Barnard, followed by Davis, left the system for private middle school and coming back for high school at NRHS. My beginnings of education at Barnard as a k-2 grader seemed as ideal as can be looking back on it. The lottery system, bussing that allowed students from all across New Rochelle to attend, etc. provided what I remember as an inclusive environment. It wasn’t until my parents choose to send me to Davis when I live in the Trinity district that I, as a child, noticed something different. I noticed that more of my peers were white, I noticed classes being separated based on “learning ability” and special programs like kaleidoscope and paid after school programming look cooking classes or ice skating that were even more so filled with white students. I noticed that most of my friends from Barnard continued on to Davis however many of my peers did not find going to school on the opposite side of town accessible.

 

I carpooled with other students in my neighborhood going to Davis but the school did not provide transportation to Barnard alum out of the district even though they offered the choice of picking an elementary school. My friend mix became increasingly less diverse during my time at Davis. The school district did not allow me to continue to Albert Leonard with my peers from Davis because I lived in the Isaac zone. I had the privilege of opting to go to private school for middle school because I was surrounded by students on the north end of New Rochelle who told what seemed like “horror stories” at Isaac young. Rather than questioning the things I heard I vocalized my concerns to my parents and pushed towards private school. Looking back, i wish my fifth grade self questioned my choice about not attending Isaac a little more. Was I scared of being the new kid because all my friends went to Albert Leonard, was I scared because I heard bad things or was I scared that i wouldn’t fit in because of race? Looking back, my choice to leave the system for three years was a choice of privilege and I wish I questioned what my peers at Davis said about Isaac. It is clear to me that there is a big divide between how the students on the north end and south end of new Rochelle look at eachother and a big part of that is race.

 

I had friends that wouldn’t feel comfortable walking around my side of town, wouldn’t go to new roc with me because they “didn’t like the crowd”. This always bothered me and I always viewed these as racist thoughts but feared talking about it as a child. But I regret not standing up to my friends and calling them out. I, as a white person, was not actively antiracist because I was not taught by my teachers or my parents about these situations. Moving on to NRHS, a place where the segregation of students was massively intensified. I never felt like I truly belonged at NRHS largely due to my race. The school is filled with cliques of students largely comprised of students of the same race. I purposefully did not take any AP classes in high school because I didn’t want to give into the “white person path”. I felt like there was a different standard for every student largely encouraged by guidance counselors at the school that varried by race and I hated it. I didn’t want to just join the “white crew” because that felt like it was giving into the segregation that was clearly present. I took the public bus to school every day and I was one of the few white kids on “route 45”. Why is this? Why was there such a lack of diversity in marching band?

 

The race based cliquiness at NRHS was severe and I was not comfortable with it at all. And I regret not doing anything about it. Instead I had a mediocre high school experience questioning my role as a not racist white person unaware of the power of antiracism.

 

How can our school system that prides itself on diversity encourage this segregated learning system?