The tragic killing of George Floyd this past summer sparked a wave of Black Lives Matter-led protests across the country.  This movement inspired students to bring awareness about social justice issues into their local communities.

Some students at West Morris Mendham High-School have started a committee called, the Diversity and Inclusion Committee which deals with policy and curriculum changes related to social justice issues in our high school and community.  This committee is already growing fast, with 20 members so far. 

Elana Porter-Delgardo, a founding member of the committee, says it was created to “bring awareness and educate the people of Mendham and Mendham community in the highschool to understand everything with the recent movements of Black Lives Matter and Police brutality”.  She explained that the committee was also established to evaluate and give light to changes that need to be made in order to create a more inclusive space for everybody.  She added, “No community is perfect” and that we could all be doing our best to improve the things around us. 

This committee is thinking of progressive ways to change the curriculum and policies in our school. For example, introducing more talk about the LGBTQ+ community in health class, the use of more black authors in English classes, and adding a focus on Black American history in history class.

Gabby Aeger, Sophomore, and Diversity and Inclusion committee member, shared her feelings towards the work she is involved in.