Thursday, April 8, 2021 - 4:30 pm
Members of Link Crew and Latino Student Union were recognized by the MHS Equity Team for their efforts to create lessons related to Black History Month.
Individual students and organizations at MHS were challenged by the Equity Team to develop educational content around a topic relevant to their group’s identity to then be used during Black History Month during advisory for peers to learn from.
Intersectionality refers to the simultaneous identification through multiple identities. This challenge was an exploration of intersectionality of race and other identities, allowing students to broaden views and understandings of the black community’s representation in different fields and areas of interest.
The judges were representatives from the MHS Black Student Union. They determined that this educational content exceptionally explored intersectionality, presented original information accurately and thoroughly, offered engaging visuals, and offered a cohesive message to learn from.
Ten different student organizations made submssions, MHS English teacher and Equity Team member Deanna Lambert said.
The lessons provided were made available to all advisory teachers through our regular advisory curriculum calendar and classes were allowed to select which lesson to participate in each day dedicated to Black History Month in advisory, Lambert said.
Additionally, the MHS football team distributed the 16 different recorded messages about different Black leaders and information about Black History in relation to the District through the weekly announcements played during advisory times.
Link Crew is a group of juniors and seniors who apply to act as mentors to freshmen at MHS through support during advisory classes. The Link Crew team organized a lesson about notable Black leaders who faced discrimination due to multiple marginalizations. Notable figures discussed include Amanda Gorman, Bayard Rustin, Harry Belafonte, and Fannie Lou Hammer.
Latino Student Union is an identity affinity group for our Latinx community and their allies to promote awareness and celebration of heritage. The LSU team oraganized a lesson discussing colorism in the Latinx community. It also celebrated the incredible contributions of notable Afro-Latinx individuals, Celia Cruz and Diana Danelys De Los Santos.
The winning organizations were recognized on the District and MHS websites and on various social media platforms, Lambert said. She also hoped the efforts would result in more students participating in Latinos Studen Union, applying to be Link Crew members or joining other clubs.
Some of the other top submissions came from the MHS football team, the Cardinal Chronicle newspaper, and the MHS Theatre production team.
"The MHS Equity and administration are very proud of all groups who participated,'' Lambert said. "They truly exemplify our goal for all at MHS to move toward a celebration of Black history year-round.''