Opinion | ​Community Charter School of Code of Conduct

Community Charter School of Code of Conduct

By Andy Laverne ​Dec. 1, 2017 | ​Community Charter School of Cambridge Newspaper Piece

As my sixth and final year at CCSC winds down, it would be unfitting for me not to reflect in a
meaningful and relatable way that would connect with all of my peers, in all grades. As a senior, as
much as you may not believe me, I don’t believe that ​only​ my precedence qualifies me to write this
op-ed, but more reason that this op-ed is about my experiences, generalized of course.

No this won’t be a petition for uniform or school lunch that will simply be overlooked by our
admins, but rather a discussion and criticism of a more important problem within our school’s
culture. You might be asking why should I care, why write this when my time at CCSC is winding
down? Other than the simple fact that, whether or not a change is made as a result of this piece
(probably not), by sharing my criticisms of this institution’s faults it creates an atmosphere to voice
your opinions and self-awareness, then yes you are right to question the motives of the person
writing this.

Throughout this piece, I will be hitting on three main points: Code of Conduct, Suspensions vs. CCSC
Suspensions, and more importantly Liberal Racism. This will be kept moderately short due to the
low attention span of the audience I’m trying to reach out too, considering I am not their equals.
This is not said to insult or patronize younger students considering the majority audience I’m trying
to reach are actually staff members who I hope will have a care of what this discusses.

Code of Conduct

I. Durags

Remember when I said this wasn’t a petition for uniforms, well it isn’t. This subsection will not
focus on pleading for the permission to wear durags, but rather highlight the sexism (yes sexism)
and hypocrisy of allowing one form of headwraps towards one gender while denying them to
another.

Recently, CCSC student women were given the right to wear headscarves to school while men were
not allowed to wrap their heads with durags. The sexism in this instance is experienced more by the
women of CCSC rather than the men. By allowing them to wrap their heads and not the guys this
rule is implying that CCSC women (CCSC women of ​color​) have more of an incentive to keep their
hair wrapped up in comparison to the men.
Opinion | ​Community Charter School of Code of Conduct

The hypocrisy is shown when we take a look at gender-neutral bathrooms but we have
gender-biased rules. You cannot be a school that supports gender-neutrality with rules that apply to
one gender but not another. Obviously, I am not a woman and I will not pretend I know what is best
for our fellow female students but the headwrap rule undermines them as well by denying the right
to their male counterparts.

The reasoning that the school is against durags is because they are considered “unprofessional”. In
another charter school,​ Mystic Valley Regional Charter School of Malden, they considered hair
weave extensions as unprofessional too and banned them. How do you think that turned out?

II. Detentions

Detentions make CCSC, CCSC. It may seem odd that detentions define a school since many schools
actually don’t have them. But detentions have become part of this school’s culture. Detentions being
renamed to reflections (or support whatever makes you feel better about calling it) is a move that I
have agreed with. It seemed insensitive considering predominantly black people (students) were
being detained for a period of time by predominantly white people (faculty and staff) in positions of
authority. Yeah, I know, sounds familiar.

Although for the sake of this op-ed I will continue calling it detention. Yes the school admins and
teachers make it a point to remind us that is no longer called detention, though they’ve been saying
it countless times in the years before, but it is truly a detainment. Writing what you did on a piece of
paper, with questions phrased in a way that wholeheartedly blames the reflector is not really a
reflection. I will be broad about this considering the sensitivity of this topic in keeping students
from progressing onto the next grade: Skipping detentions and its ​discretionary ​consequences.

A trend that was popular last year was the entering of an enumerated number of Saturday
detentions at the end of the year with less than 4 weeks left of school as a result of students
skipping detention. Not only were students not notified of their pattern being tracked until the year
was over, but these Saturday detentions were purposely put in at a later time so that students
would not have enough time to serve them during the year; thus giving them the option to
(regardless of planned summer events) either go to summer school or repeat the grade.

The significance of this and the reason why I believed it deserves a spot on this piece is that this
seems to be getting popularized again as well as the fact that it leads to the leaving of certain
students to other schools negatively impacting their high school careers.

Suspensions vs. CCSC Suspensions

I. The College Process

Opinion | ​Community Charter School of Code of Conduct

As a senior currently within the college process this personally resonates with me as much as
anything else in this op-ed. Possibly being a senior yourself it does too, or will in the future. There
are two types of suspensions: Suspensions and CCSC Suspensions.

Suspensions: defined as a temporary, complete exclusion from school and activities for egregious
actions; bullying, weapons, drugs, physical assault (especially breaking of ​actual ​laws)
CCSC Suspensions: same thing as above except in addition to those egregious actions: 1Accruing two
or more active Behavior Saturday Schools, 2Skipping Saturday School, and 3multiple Mandatory
Support Sessions. All of these are also under that magic word that appears in the handbook a total
of 36 times: discretionary.

The reason whether or not you as a senior whose possibly been suspended, or lower classmen
should care is because this will have an impact on your college application. When you are
suspended in high school, you are required to report it to the colleges you are applying. This is not
to criticize the reasoning for CCSC suspensions but rather a request from the admin team to be
more transparent. Please make it clear what kind of suspensions that are not already obvious that
will need to be reported to colleges.

Liberal Racism

This has been a critique I have been planning on writing for a long time. The fact that the eagerness
for writing this was so high indicates why it is something we need to talk about.

For those younger students that do not know what liberal racism is let me try to describe it in the
simplest terms, I can think of. It is when, usually white people, “try too much”. Let me explain. When
you are a black person meeting a white person for the first time, and because of your skin color,
instead of shaking your hand like they would their own fellow white people, they dap you up and
call you “my man” or “my dog”. This actually happens in ​Get Out​, yeah it’s a social commentary, not a
comedy. Liberal racism is alive and well at CCSC.

I. “If I was racist why would I choose to teach at a predominantly black school?”

Most of us have heard this line (at least I have) , usually after, whether joking or not, a student
accuses a staff member of being racist. Now the term racist is used loosely, especially by us
students. Although the fact that this is the common response to an accusation to being called racist
is, quite frankly, scary. But it does beg the question, why teach at a black school? Why admit so
many black students? I will be attempting to answer this within my next few points.

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CCSC 2017-2018 Student and Family Handbook
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CCSC 2017-2018 Student and Family Handbook

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CCSC 2017-2018 Student and Family Handbook
Opinion | ​Community Charter School of Code of Conduct

2. Hispanic Heritage Month

Though the main backdrop of Hispanic Heritage month and the community meeting discussion
usually revolves around identifying and combating stereotypes, I find it odd that the main focal
point of presentation slides and the turn and talk prompts have to do with immigration,
immigration, and immigration. Instead of focusing on and recognizing the contributions of Hispanic
and Latino Americans to the their various communities, as well as the United States, we focus on the
DACA Act and other talks of immigration. Social discussions on Hispanic people should not solely be
based on immigration, they are more than that, as well as any other foreign group. I hope Hispanic
Heritage month during mid-September of 2018 is different, and it’s organizers take this into
account.

3.​ ​2018 Black History Month Community Meeting

This year’s Black History Month community meeting was actually, for what it’s worth, not as boring
as usual. Some of my criticisms with it however was it could have included more of a male presence
when it came to unsung heros. I’ve always liked the idea of unsung heros receiving recognition.
Although I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be as unknown however, if they’re names like Queen
Nzinga/Njinga) weren’t spelled (​wrong​) a dozen different ways (even ‘Ninja’).

II. Roundtables

Ever since attending CCSC, roundtables have been held in the highest of esteem. It is always
described as a way to “show off the knowledge you’ve gained throughout the year”, although here is
a better description: “here is an opportunity for us (mostly white people) to show off our young
educated (mostly black) student’s to you (other white people) community members. This correlates
with all those visitors dressed in Oxford shirts that observe you in class every day. This is a form of
liberal racism because of its disturbing correlation to white slave masters showing off the physical
prowess of their slaves at auctions to ​other​ white people. Except in this instance, it’s mental
prowess. Before you say I’m reaching, ​reflect​ on it. A common stereotype is black people are dumb
in comparison to white people. When white people show off a group of black people's’ knowledge
(that they had a hand in) they are basically saying “hey look what we can do with even the dumbest
young black person”. The idea of a roundtable at a preppy white school conducted in order to
determine grade progression would be considered laughable. Though it is widely accepted
here...Why do you think that is?

III. More black admin/staff of color

It is obvious year after year there are more people of color added to our admin and staff. The three
admins of color we have now were not here/admins ~3 years ago. The addition of new people of
color to the school faculty has no problems with me, and I enjoy seeing more people I can relate to.
Although I am afraid that it is for the wrong reasons. Like a white person reassuring me they aren’t
Opinion | ​Community Charter School of Code of Conduct

racist not because they believe everyone is equal, but because they “have black friends” and “voted
for Obama” (another ​Get Out​) reference.

Continue the implementation of more people of color to our community. Although be upfront for
your reasoning behind it.

I’ve been meaning to write a criticism of this school for a long time, although I wanted to make sure
it was done right. CCSC is a ​very​ good school in terms of academics and college preparation and I
can’t say with absolute certainty that the skills I have picked up would have been easily attainable
in another school. Although what keeps CCSC from being a great school, instead of a good one, is its
culture. Whether or not this op-ed piece inspires actual change within the school’s code of conduct
is little to no care for me. As long as I’m able to make aware the faults of this institution is what I set
out to do. Anything more is a bonus. I call on the admins to approve my request for allowing me to
post this as a written piece of the school newspaper. Allowing me to do so will begin the school’s
first steps to self-awareness. Denying me, however, will only continue to ignore the problem, and
further qualify this op-ed.