Letter to Students

Dear GA Students,

To say that 2020 has been difficult would be an incredible understatement, and the losses you have experienced are incalculable. For the Black community specifically, the impact of Covid-19 and the traumatic murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd has raised the question, “What does true justice look like for Black citizens around the globe?”

As Black members of the GA community, there are unique challenges that you face being small in number at a predominantly white, independent school that was founded in 1759.  Our school has 261 years of history to face and, in facing our history, to ask ourselves, “What has been the impact of race within our community, and what does a true sense of welcome, inclusion and belonging look like for every one of our members?”

We know that you have had to bear the hidden weight of providing “mirrors” for your peers because our school lacks a critical mass of Black faculty, administrators, staff, and trustees.  Even as you are growing into your own sense of self, you have also had to become “windows” for others that reveal insight into what it means for you to navigate GA as a person of color.

We have failed to hear your voices, to immediately respond to your pain, and we have cultivated a culture in which you feel that you have limited ability to self-advocate.  Instagram pages like @blackmainlinespeaks, and hundreds of others across the world, amplify, even more, what you have experienced because of the existence of racism in our school.  Your collective voices have called us out on our failures and appropriately require that we address them directly.

Reconciliation is a journey and not an endpoint. Acknowledgments and apologies are only the beginning.  We know that you want to bear witness to the actions behind the words.  We ask you to give us a chance to prove our intent with action.  Please join us in a series of ongoing student forums beginning on Tuesday, July 7 from 6 - 7pm to offer insight that is necessary to align our current work with new and revised policies and procedures that will help to eradicate the issues that have impacted your experiences as Black students at GA. Please respond to this email if you would like to join the discussion.

Sincerely,

Rich Schellhas, Head of School
Anika Walker-Johnson, Director of Equity and Inclusion