Written by: Bella Ingram, Editor
CONTROVERSY: RUSD faces cultural insensitivity scandal in new era of accountability.
Riverside stands before us as a town built upon pillars of acceptance, equality, and diversity. But, has it always been this way? In the recent political climate of America, many things are changing. The words and actions that were culturally tolerated twenty years ago are no longer tolerated today. While most people have adjusted to these understandable new standards, some have yet to acclimate. Riverside recently experienced one example of this, an example that is becoming far too common across the country. A math teacher at John W. North High School was seen jumping on tables and dancing across her classroom on October 19, all while sporting a crude headdress made of feathers. The teacher was chanting “Soh Cah Toa”, a common mnemonic used to remember the trigonometric properties of sign, cosine, and tangent. The classroom remained uncomfortably silent as she picked up rocks off the floor left by the “rock goddess” and sat upon her desk with her legs crossed, praying to the “water goddess The incident has received national attention, with articles written by sources such as the Washington Post and NBC News, and videos posted to social media with millions of views. One of the largest developments in the story has been that this was not the teachers first “performance” of this subject. The parent of the student who filmed the now viral video discovered from a yearbook that she has been teaching this same lesson in the exact same manner for over a decade, without any interruption. In the caption of the yearbook photo, the teacher was actually praised for her involvement with the students and her dedication to the job. Although it is unclear the intention of the teacher and it is very possible that she was unaware of the insensitivity this lesson employed, RUSD has nonetheless confirmed that her actions were unacceptable.
For many students who attend North High, this situation is not an accurate representation of the diversity and acceptance that is usually present. Jordan Genovea, a senior at North High School who is involved with USL, Nami and ASU explained further about the situation from a more internal perspective. “What she did is the exact opposite of what North stands for,” contended Genovea. They substantiated that North is a center for cultural diversity, and that “North is a place where I learned to cherish peoples’ cultures instead of simply being aware of them”. They continued to assert that the teacher violated district guidelines as well as an entire community, and that the teacher’s behavior is not an acceptable representation of North. RUSD and North High School have released a statement explaining that the teacher has been placed on administrative leave. Furthermore, the North directory no longer includes her name, and her RUSD email is no longer active. Many are calling for her termination, and protests have even been held outside of RUSD and even her own home. However, at this moment there have been no further developments. While this incident is one small example of injustices committed against minorities, the response from the city of Riverside mirrors the response from millions of others across the United States: cultural appropriation will no longer be allowed. The overarching consensus reached from examples like these is that when these ignorant actions are committed, there must be appropriate repercussions that leave no question as to what is acceptable. As a renewed sense of awareness takes precedence, RUSD clarifies that culturally insensitive actions will not be tolerated.
