Angelo Paraiso-Arroyo
As a leader at Berkeley High School I define leadership as someone who is able represent all students and their problems. Leaders are supposed to be tenacious and caring for the people that are underrepresented and don’t always have a voice to express their disparities. From my perspective I noticed that when one group of people felt unheard, we were able to mobilize and support those he felt threatened by the events that took place in the library. Together we helped supported the Black Student Union in order to unify the school and combat racism. Regardless of someone’s background we all put aside our prejudices and supported those who felt threatened. These events were later addressed by the School Board and new policies are being put in place to address these problems and support the necessary safety of all students.
In my opinion this does happen outside of school and occurs because of people inherent biases against Black people. In order to combat this we need to continue to push for a overall reevaluation of how we treat minorities in America. It is a huge problem and needs to be addressed immediately. Additionally there should be a higher amount of awareness for the conflicts that people of color in general face with the law. In the future I will personally work to stop these problems when I see them so that Berkeley High is a safe learning environment for all students. With the experience that I have obtained from leadership I plan on making even more of an impact now and in the future. As the current Student Director for Berkeley High I want to reach out as much as possible to those who do not have their voices heard. Lastly I want to be active in combatting those who choose to discriminate and bully those who already struggle day to day.