Online Beats 2016-17 Fall Semester
Delgado outlines Homecoming "tp wars" expectations
As this year’s Homecoming approaches, Dean Delgado outlined expectations around “tp-wars,” an activity that has become more and more popular among students over the past few years.
Delgado addressed students and families in an email Friday afternoon that highlighted the problems tp wars have caused in previous years.
In the letter, Delgado wrote, “As a community committed to respect, and positive school spirit, we can’t condone these practices.”
More information about expectations around tp wars will come to students in an upcoming assembly and from their athletic coaches. Last year, there were cases where families reported property damage that often caused long-term or permanent damage to their homes from shaving cream and sand.
“[Tp wars] have a history that’s gone back a while…last year was especially bad; [there was] an escalation from the year before,” Delgado said.
Even though tp wars occur outside of school, any activity that impacts the school’s day-to-day operations or students’ learning and safety negatively can be disciplined. Although the administration doesn’t have a set rubric to determine the consequences a student would face if this expectation is violated, they do reserve the right to “respond to a situation that makes a students feel targeted in the community,” Delgado said.
Homecoming week begins on Sept. 19.
Illustration credit: Diane Huang
Delgado addressed students and families in an email Friday afternoon that highlighted the problems tp wars have caused in previous years.
In the letter, Delgado wrote, “As a community committed to respect, and positive school spirit, we can’t condone these practices.”
More information about expectations around tp wars will come to students in an upcoming assembly and from their athletic coaches. Last year, there were cases where families reported property damage that often caused long-term or permanent damage to their homes from shaving cream and sand.
“[Tp wars] have a history that’s gone back a while…last year was especially bad; [there was] an escalation from the year before,” Delgado said.
Even though tp wars occur outside of school, any activity that impacts the school’s day-to-day operations or students’ learning and safety negatively can be disciplined. Although the administration doesn’t have a set rubric to determine the consequences a student would face if this expectation is violated, they do reserve the right to “respond to a situation that makes a students feel targeted in the community,” Delgado said.
Homecoming week begins on Sept. 19.
Illustration credit: Diane Huang
Transgender task force works on new policy for trans students and faculty
Starting this past summer, Upper School Diversity Dean Karen Dye and Upper School Dean of Students Max Delgado formed a transgender task force to work on creating policies and practices for transgender students and faculty.
“The policy piece is more of a general sort of language, like the other pieces we have in our handbook for harassment…[the policy would] talk about how transgender students and faculty are part of our community and how we need to have respect for them,” Dye said.
This policy would affect the curriculum, athletics, gender split activities, dress code, and overnight trips at St. Paul Academy and Summit School, to name a few. At the beginning of last year, Upper School Principal Chris Hughes started the discussion by talking about gender neutral bathrooms at SPA, but Dye believes that more steps need to be taken for the transgender community.
Some students have had the opportunity to help contribute to the discussion around this new policy.
“Some student groups were helping us move forward, like the Gender and Sexuality Acceptance Cluband Rainbow Connection, not in making the policy but certainly in sharing their experiences,” Dye said.
Although Dye expects that the policy will be completed by the end of this year, it is hard to determine when exactly it will be put into effect at SPA.
“We’re at a point where we’re starting to get the language for a policy and we’ll see what that’s like at different areas in the school…I expect it to be in effect by the end of the year but I don’t know for sure,” Dye said.
Photo credit: Noor Qureishy
“The policy piece is more of a general sort of language, like the other pieces we have in our handbook for harassment…[the policy would] talk about how transgender students and faculty are part of our community and how we need to have respect for them,” Dye said.
This policy would affect the curriculum, athletics, gender split activities, dress code, and overnight trips at St. Paul Academy and Summit School, to name a few. At the beginning of last year, Upper School Principal Chris Hughes started the discussion by talking about gender neutral bathrooms at SPA, but Dye believes that more steps need to be taken for the transgender community.
Some students have had the opportunity to help contribute to the discussion around this new policy.
“Some student groups were helping us move forward, like the Gender and Sexuality Acceptance Cluband Rainbow Connection, not in making the policy but certainly in sharing their experiences,” Dye said.
Although Dye expects that the policy will be completed by the end of this year, it is hard to determine when exactly it will be put into effect at SPA.
“We’re at a point where we’re starting to get the language for a policy and we’ll see what that’s like at different areas in the school…I expect it to be in effect by the end of the year but I don’t know for sure,” Dye said.
Photo credit: Noor Qureishy
February Diversity Forum Series training focuses on conversations about
presidential election
Following the presidential election, many students expressed feelings of worry, sadness, and anger in and out of school. In response to the student body’s need for support, Upper School Diversity Dean Karen Dye decided to focus this year’s Diversity Forum Series, which consists of three professional development workshops for faculty and staff on diversity and inclusion at SPA, on having difficult conversations with students.
Although these workshops were not originally intended to be a response to students’ feelings about the election, Dye thinks that they will be especially useful to faculty who may be having trouble talking about the election in class.“We’ve been having a lot of conversations, formally and informally with our leadership team, about how students are doing and ways to support students,” Dye said. “[The February training is] around conversations and having conversations with students about issues that are important – [the election is] inevitably what it’s going to be about.”
Dye doesn’t want the discussion around the election itself to be teacher-driven; she believes that dialogue should come organically from the students instead, while teachers play more of a supporting role.
“We wanted [discussion] to be more student-driven – we didn’t want to come in as a body of teachers and be like ‘this is what you’re talking about,’” she said.
The faculty and staff have already completed the first two parts of this year’s Diversity Forum Series. The first one, a two-day workshop called “Courageous Conversations,” was in August, and it was meant to lay the groundwork for faculty who were struggling to talk to students. The second one occurred in October, and it focused on self-reflection.
“October’s training was about helping teachers get to a place where they’re comfortable talking about the election,” Dye said.
The upcoming February training aims to give participants “more specific tools and strategies about having conversations with students,” Dye added.
Photo credit: Noor Qureishy
Although these workshops were not originally intended to be a response to students’ feelings about the election, Dye thinks that they will be especially useful to faculty who may be having trouble talking about the election in class.“We’ve been having a lot of conversations, formally and informally with our leadership team, about how students are doing and ways to support students,” Dye said. “[The February training is] around conversations and having conversations with students about issues that are important – [the election is] inevitably what it’s going to be about.”
Dye doesn’t want the discussion around the election itself to be teacher-driven; she believes that dialogue should come organically from the students instead, while teachers play more of a supporting role.
“We wanted [discussion] to be more student-driven – we didn’t want to come in as a body of teachers and be like ‘this is what you’re talking about,’” she said.
The faculty and staff have already completed the first two parts of this year’s Diversity Forum Series. The first one, a two-day workshop called “Courageous Conversations,” was in August, and it was meant to lay the groundwork for faculty who were struggling to talk to students. The second one occurred in October, and it focused on self-reflection.
“October’s training was about helping teachers get to a place where they’re comfortable talking about the election,” Dye said.
The upcoming February training aims to give participants “more specific tools and strategies about having conversations with students,” Dye added.
Photo credit: Noor Qureishy