Wallenpaupack's Leadership & Diversity high school students promoting inclusivity

Two Wallenpaupack Area High School students, sophomore Ty Lounsbury and freshman Joshua Katz, did a presentation to the school board Feb. 12 about the district's Leadership & Diversity Committee. This was described as where students of diverse races, religious beliefs or gender identification may find a safe place and grow as leaders.

Statistics were shared showing the following racial diversity at Wallenpaupack: Asian 1%, Black 2.6%, Hispanic 10.2%, Native American/Alaskan Native .5%, multi-racial 3%, Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander .1%, and white 82.5%.

"With these low numbers of racial diversity, comes a greater need for these students to have a place to feel supported and talk about living as a minority among other minorities," Joshua said.

He said being Jewish, he is glad to be able to sit with students who do not follow the prevailing religion of their student body, Christianity.

Support is also given to the LGBTQ+ school community.

"Being a minority at our school comes with many challenges," Joshua said. "These challenges include but are not limited to racism, antisemitism, homophobia and any other kind of hateful act." He added that two reasons hateful acts occur are simply hate, or ignorance.

"A huge goal of this committee is to educate the uneducated," he said.

The committee was formed in 2020. Their first activity was a community-wide Black Lives Matter march. The needs they identified were to find a "place to belong", inclusion, to "educate the uneducated" and "opening eyes and starting conversations," they pointed out.

Among the group's accomplishments included switching to gender-neutral graduation gowns, identifying gender-neutral restrooms, establishing a "calm room," curriculum writing, revising the dress code, and meeting with the food services director to create a more diverse, inclusive lunch menu at the middle school.

A "Heritage Week" was held at the middle school to celebrate their similarities and differences, Joshua said. The students were surveyed to learn more about who they are. "We ended the week with a commitment to be more inclusive to each other and a greater knowledge of who makes up our student population," he said.

Ty said not everyone understands why things need to change, a lot of students seem to agree. Students involved in the program are nominated by school counselors or other staff based on leadership skills and interest in the club. Members can also recommend other students for the committee, so their voice is heard.

Nine members of the committee attended the Pennsylvania School Counselors Association (PSCA) annual conference, Equity Summit: Building Belonging through Equity at Kalahari Resort & Conference Center in the Poconos, Dec. 6. The Wallenpaupack students had a chance to speak and were the only students participating. Others were school counselors, mental health professionals, school librarians and policymakers. The committee was presented with a $1,500 check from PSCA.

"Getting the opportunity to represent our school and committee at such an important event meant a lot to us and we learned a lot from it too," Ty said. Joshua described it as the "one of the biggest accomplishments in my life so far."

Ty stated that the committee members build each other's confidence and help the students be empowered, able to express themselves and develop leadership skills. "We are not only getting a chance to discuss things we don't like at school, but we get a chance to do something about it too," Ty said. "It is a space for us where we are more than just being teenagers for the future; we get a voice in things going on around us."

"The Leadership & Diversity Committee has given me and other students at Wallenpaupack a place to feel welcomed and to minimize the feelings of being excluded," Joshua said.

The next Wallenpaupack school board meeting is set for Monday, March 11, at 6 p.m. with a committee meeting preceding it at 5:30 p.m., in the high school library. The agendas are posted at wallenpaupack.org.

Peter Becker has worked at the Tri-County Independent or its predecessor publications since 1994. Reach him at pbecker@tricountyindependent.com or 570-253-3055 ext. 1588.

This article originally appeared on Tri-County Independent: Leadership & Diversity students present to Wallenpaupack school board