“There is no place for division in our schools.”
School administrations all over the state of Ohio are facing immense pressure with the rapid approach of reopening for their fall terms. With the state of the world today, reopening our schools does not come without its trials and risks, and as with any trial, mistakes are going to be made. Even with this knowledge, I sit here troubled and embarrassed to be an alumnus of Chardon High School.
I graduated from Chardon High School in 2017, following behind both of my older sisters through the district. During my time at Chardon, I had always known what the place of my education held: A vast majority of white students with very little diversity and a strong push for an Evangelical Christian agenda. Of the 187 students that I’d graduated with, a total of six were minorities, and two of those six were the foreign exchange students that Chardon hosted that year.
According to the United States Census, the population of whites in Chardon outnumber any other race at a whopping 96.1% of the population.
I am not embarrassed by the fact that I was another white student at a majority white school. The diversity of the school is the city’s problem, not the school system’s problem, but there is a gaping lack of judgement from the administration of Chardon High School that I am having trouble grasping.
Chardon is a school that revolves around its football season. The games are lively and exciting, the CHS Marching Band is always a pleasure to watch and the Chardon Crazies are one of the most exciting student crazy sections in the nation. Only four days after the shooting of Jacob Blake, CHS had its first game, celebrating the momentous start to their season by waving a “Blue Lives Matter” flag at the beginning of the game.
This action has left me not only sick and embarrassed, but genuinely upset the administration of Chardon High School has clearly forgotten about its small minority population. I’ve heard the argument, “Why shouldn’t they wave a Blue Lives Matter flag? We appreciate the police force in this city,” but with that logic, why did they not also wave a Black Lives Matter flag? Do they not also appreciate their black students? Why did they fly the flag at all? Why take a stance on the issue at all?
The administration and the coaches of Chardon knew what they were doing and what message it would convey to the students and those watching the game. To wave the Blue Lives Matter flag at a football game is to say you do not care about the minority population at Chardon Schools.
To wave the Blue Lives Matter flag at a football game is to say you do not care about the minority population of the opposing team’s school.
To wave the Blue Lives Matter flag at a football game is to say that you do not care about the values of empathy and compassion that the school administration has hammered into its students.
At the end of the day, the damage has been done. The flag has been flown, but I hope the administration at Chardon High School learns their lesson and never allows politics or a flag meant to divide fly at another one of their games.
