Is there racism at AJMS?

Racism has been a big problem that many students have faced in many different schools.  At AJMS many students have said inappropriate slurs and jokes. They don’t realize that it could affect people’s lives.

We’ve interviewed four different students at AJMS about racism, specifically about inappropriate language. We asked some questions like, “Have you ever gotten called an inappropriate name? Have you ever gotten called the N word? Have you ever heard students say the N word? And if so, how have you felt?”

Our first student told us the cons of saying racist jokes.  They said, “It could be offensive and hurt students feelings, we should  just try to explain to others what it truly means because it could effect others.” We agree with this statement because these words have a big meaning. We also feel like even if they don’t care it still has some effect on them or in their minds like overthinking.

Our second student was a girl who gave us an idea on how to stop students saying inappropriate language.  She said, “One solution for students to stop saying the “N” word is to tell the teacher and staff, so they learn from their mistakes.” We think this solution is great for stopping the usage of the “N” word. 

For our last student they said, “One way to prevent students from saying the “N” word is to give them demerits, detention, or deduct their monthly incentives.” We believe this is very strict and can very much help calm the words down.

Finally we asked, “How do you feel about almost the whole school saying these words?”

“Honestly, it’s becoming pretty normal, it’s pretty normal to hear it here in school. I feel like everyone says it, so when I hear it in their sentences it’s kind of normal. I’m not surprised.”