As I read through the statements from the community, I noticed a recurring theme of teachers, counselors, and administrators actively discouraging students from enrolling in AP/advanced courses throughout their time at NRHS. An outsider (or an ignorant-by-choice community member) might attribute this theme to incompetent faculty. Make no mistake— this is racism. [For context, I am a white female who entered the NRSD system in 9th grade in the “honors track.”] During my sophomore year at NRHS, my class sat for the AP US History (APUSH) entrance exam. I had no interest in taking this course, but (as I remember it) that’s just what you did as an honors World History student. After being notified that I had been accepted into APUSH for the following year, I realized I’d have to get the course removed from my schedule. I was sent to the head of the Social Studies department, Mr. Goldberg, to make this change. I entered Mr. Goldberg’s office, introduced myself, and told him I wanted to unenroll from APUSH. I then spent a whole 45 minutes in this man’s office listening to him try to coerce me into keeping the course on my schedule. He told me that not taking APUSH would be “the biggest mistake of my life.” I remember he said to me, “no good colleges will accept you.” He truly would not give up without a fight. It shouldn’t have been a difficult process to drop a course that I had not yet started and let a student who is interested in the subject take my place. At the time, I knew it was ridiculous; I even found it comical (I just watched a grown man beg and subsequently lose!). Now, six years later, I am furious. To know that in the same building, even in the same office, students’ dreams were being crushed and their expectations of themselves lowered, is sickening. That an “esteemed” faculty member saw potential in me, yet not in my BIPOC classmates, is discreditable at best. This injustice, which we clearly know to be prevalent, is unacceptable. New Rochelle is angry. New Rochelle is tired. And New Rochelle deserves better.

 

Emily Ginsburg

NRHS Class of 2016

Resident of New Rochelle