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Diversity Praised and Celebrated at Rio Norte Jr. High

The Signal
by Jessica Marks

Rio Norte Junior High School has been honored with the Hart district's very first Appreciating Diversity award for its continuing commitment to promoting the appreciation of diversity on campus.

"We have many schools that have done a great job of responding to the district's call for cultural proficiency, and this was a very difficult decision to make," Greg Lee, diversity coordinator for the William S. Hart Union High School District, said in a statement.

"However, the administration and staff at Rio Norte have been truly outstanding in making diversity a year-round focus, and students have been very receptive to this message," he said.

The school developed a program called "Operation Us," which basically has junior high students go to neighboring elementary schools in an effort to talk about diversity and appreciate it by the time the younger students go on to their new campus.

"It is beautiful to see the junior high school kids getting down on their knees with third-graders, working through difficult issues," Lee said.

In diversity-related activities, the Rio Norte quad area was filled with students on last year's "Mix It Up Day," when students recreated the Freedom March across campus, a demonstration representing part of the Civil Rights Movement for the kids.

Like other schools in the district, Rio Norte adopted the Safe School Ambassadors program, which pulls together a group of student leaders from every peer group on campus, trains them to defuse potentially disrupting incidents and encourages them to report those issues that they, as students, cannot address.

Rio Norte's commitment goes well beyond student programs, as well.

For the first district-wide diversity training session, Rio Norte sent more staff than any other school - including a team of teachers, campus supervisors and custodians, "a testimonial to Rio Norte's commitment to diversity at all levels," district spokeswoman Pat Willett said in a statement.

The student population at Rio Norte is comprised of five times as many Caucasian students on campus as there are Asian students - the second-largest ethnic group at the school. Upward of 30 percent of students attending the school classified themselves as minorities last year, according to the school's Accountability Report Card from last year.

The school also houses several classes for disabled students, and those children are paired with student leaders and regularly participate in school activities.

"Diversity issues are discussed in (Rio Norte) classes all the time, and teachers there frequently contact me to let me know what they are doing," Lee said.