Forum Tackles Racial Disparities In Moorestown Schools

MOORESTOWN, NJ — An Instagram group is giving a voice to Moorestown students who have felt the sting of racial discrimination in the public school district.

“I’m just tired of having to white-wash myself to be socially acceptable by the white majority,” a student the Class of 2022 wrote in the Moorestown Black, Indigenous and People Of Color (BIPOC) group. “I’m tired of hiding my culture and interests in fear that I’ll be judged by my peers. In Moorestown, there’s so much casual racism that is never addressed, and I’m tired of it.”

This is one of the more than 70 posts in the newly-established group, and it was shared during a virtual town hall hosted by the Moorestown Public School District Tuesday night.

The forum attracted 130 people, who first listened to a presentation from members of the Board of Education, Moorestown Alumni for Racial Equity & Inclusion (MAREI) and the Moorestown Alliance for Diversity and Equity (MADE). MAREI Member Quinton Law was encouraged by the turnout. They then broke into smaller groups to speak with each other about different subjects concerning racism in the district.

“That turnout makes me hopeful, and proud of everything groups like MAREI and MADE have accomplished,” Law said. “We are excited to continue our advocacy and won’t rest until we can deliver the change our students deserve.”

Members of the school board discussed what steps the district has taken to make its curriculum more racially diverse. The district has been incorporating African American history into its Social Studies curriculum for two years, putting it ahead of the rest of the country in this area, Board of Education President Sandra Alberti said.

As part of its Staff Development Days, the district studies histories of slavery, teaching tolerance and how to move forward. While this has been part of the district’s practices for years, recent social and racial unrest has put a spotlight on some of these policies, as well as what diversity looks like in the district.

As of the 2018-19 school year, white students made up the vast majority of the district’s population at 68.8 percent. Asian students make up 12.6 percent of the population, with the Hispanic population checking in at 6.5 percent and Black students accounting for 6.3 percent.

The population of white students trended down since the 2016-17 school year, when they made up 71 percent of the population.Black population has trended down slightly, from 6.9 percent. There was growth among the Asian population, which made up 11.3 percent in the 2016-17 school year, and the Hispanic population, up from 5.9 percent that year. Despite the changes, the feeling of racial inequality remains.

“People often say I’m lucky that the stereotypes for the people for my race are that we are good at math,” a student in the Class of 2021 said in the BIPOC group. “But no one knows what it’s like to just be used and then later be made fun of behind your back.”

Students are beginning to see other points of view, based on a video that was screened in-part during the forum.

“Life’s not perfect, but it’s not because of the color of my skin,” one white student said in the video.

“It’s not enough to be not racist,” another white student said. “You have to be actively anti-racist.”

As far as staff is concerned, 95.4 percent of teachers are white, and 80.8 percent of administrators are white. Hispanic administrators constitute 11.5 percent of the total, but no other racial group exceeds 1 percent in either area.

According to the most recent numbers from the National Center for Education Statistics, 79 percent of teachers nationally are white.

“There was a time when I saw a teacher speaking to a white student very nicely asking, ‘how are you, how have your other classes been?,” a student from the Class of 2022 said in the BIPOC group. “Less than five minutes later when I went up, I wasn’t even greeted or asked how I was. Instead, I was told, ‘what do you need?”

Alberti said one of the goals of the forums is to move people out of the binary way of thinking.

“You are not a good person or a bad person because of the way you think,” Alberti said. “You lose the opportunity to learn when you think that way.”

Learning is part of the process of the forum, and so is discomfort.

“If you’re not experiencing discomfort, you’re not putting in the work,” Alberti said.

She said the district is going to make every effort to remain engaged in the long run, and participants shouldn’t expect immediate closure, as the forum is meant to be the first in a series.

Racial diversity is not just being discussed in the schools. Moorestown Mayor Nicole Gillespie will participate in the first forum from Burlington County's new Minority and Equality Rights Task Force dealing with Police Interactions with Minority Communities Thursday night. Read more here: Moorestown Mayor To Participate In Forum On Police Interactions