Community Responds to Nationwide Violence: Chauvin Found Guilty of Murder

By: Stacy Chen, Ellie Ana Sperantsas, and the 143rd Editorial Board

Minutes before former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd, a 46-year old Black man, on Tuesday, Ma'Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old Black girl, was fatally shot by police in Columbus, Ohio. Bryant’s shooting was only one among a series of recent police and mass shootings of Black and brown Americans across the nation that have deeply affected the Academy community.

Within the span of the last few weeks, 13-year-old Mexican American boy Adam Toledo was shot by police officer Eric Stillman in Chicago on March 29, and 20-year-old Black man Daunte Demetrius Wright was shot by police officer Kimberly Ann Potter in Minneapolis on April 11. Soon after, on April 15, Brandon Scott Hole committed a mass shooting at a FedEx in Indianapolis, killing eight: Matthew R. Alexander, 32; Samaria Blackwell, 19; Amarjeet Johal, 66; Jasvinder Kaur, 50; Jaswinder Singh, 70; Amarjit Sekhon, 49; Karli Smith, 19; and John Weisert, 74. 

Principal William Rawson sent an all-school email titled “Self-Care” on April 19 in response to these events, encouraging students to practice “self-care.” Rawson sent out another email with the subject, “Our commitment to justice” on April 21, which covered the Chauvin guilty verdict. Rawson included a link to anti-racist opportunities and noted resources available to students. The 2020-2021 Executive Board of Student Council (StuCo) sent an email to StuCo members providing student resources and links to donate two days prior.

The following day, Director of Equity and Inclusion Stephanie Bramlett sent an all-student email with the subject line “Follow up - support for the community,” which highlighted on-campus resources. These included Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) and Office of Equity and Inclusion, Dean of Students Office and Religious and Spiritual Life, as well as affinity groups and other clubs.

Senior Hassane Fiteni was frustrated by the “self-care” options the Academy provided. “The assumption the school makes is that people have time to go to [the Academy’s] healing sessions,” Fiteni said. “But the school is the same institution that's giving kids all this stress and pressure to succeed, go to class, do their homework, write their papers and study for tests. A lot of kids are like, ‘How can I do both?’ I think the school needs to actually understand that it's part of a problem.”

Additionally, Fiteni called for concrete changes from the administration beyond existing support systems. “I think the school is very good at sending out blanket statements that are like, ‘We get it. You need time to heal,’” Fiteni said. “So cancel our classes.”

“I haven't read anything for Black-identifying students specifically from the principal or any of the administration.” Fiteni added. “I see them talking more about their anti-racism reforms, but that all is still very performative because we haven't seen anything concrete.”

Upper Shalom Headly also demanded additional Academy support. “I think that the school should loosen up homework when these things happen,” Headly said. “How are we supposed to focus on mental health?”

Upper Kelsey Austin found it difficult to carry out self-care with the administration’s resources. “[The administration] can send all these emails all they want to, but it's still not going to fix much,” Austin said. “I'm glad they have all these spaces available for people to talk if they do need it. But in the environment of Exeter, it's so hard to take time for yourself and actually just have a self care day, honestly.”

Upper KG Buckham-White expressed similar feelings about workload adjustment. “It’s been kind of hard to connect with [recent news] just with everything going on at school. I think we live in a bubble, and it’s easy to feel disconnected and distracted, which in some ways is good and in some ways, I don't think it's great to have a ton of work and be dealing with the news and everything that comes with that, so it’s been stressful,” Buckham-White said.

In an email to The Exonian, Rawson addressed the mental health strains caused by disturbing current events on top of the stresses from the compressed spring schedule. “The recent schedule and homework changes were adopted last week for the express purpose of addressing the challenges and stress associated with the more compressed spring schedule,” Rawson wrote. “The earlier decision to have no classes every other Wednesday this term also was made for that purpose. We rely on existing support structures to meet the individual needs of students, but will continue to consider additional ways we can address student stress and mental health concerns, whether or not related to the pandemic.”    

Associate Dean of Multicultural Affairs Hadley Camilus outlined difficulties in creating an umbrella Academy response. “The answers aren't easy. Do we cancel school for a week? Well, next week we might see the next unspeakable tragedy. Then what?” Camilus said. “For some students, having a sense of normalcy allows them to settle down. For others, they need to disconnect altogether. The needs vary. As a result, coming up with a widespread workable solution is complicated.”

Rawson also outlined opportunities provided by the Academy for anti-racist work. “The anti-racist block in our schedule on Thursday will include a variety of opportunities to be in community and have conversation about the Chauvin murder conviction, the larger context of anti-Black racism, violence and injustice in this country, and other recent events including the mass shootings,” Rawson wrote. “We also plan to use existing structures for these conversations, including classes, advisee groups, dorms, clubs and affinity groups.”

However, many students have found difficulty finding time to have the conversations to unpack events. Senior and Asian Voices (AV) co-head Sarah Huang said, “There has just been so much work, and it feels like there's no room to pause and think about it, or just be able to sit in these feelings,” Huang said. “That's disappointing because I think this is really important stuff that we need to be talking about, and the fact that students sometimes don't feel like they have space or time or energy to do so is disappointing.”

“I don't think besides AV and my English class my teachers have been talking about it. It feels like it’s going unacknowledged and it’s difficult to ask for help,” Huang continued.

Upper and StuCo President Siona Jain agreed. “I appreciate Dr. Bramlett’s email with explicit resources. I think a lot of faculty are telling us to take care of ourselves, but it’s so hard to do that when we have five major assignments across three days,” Jain said. “I wish it were more normalized to cancel major assignments, postpone them or to shorten our workload. I think we’re under the illusion that we can all function on pre-pandemic terms. But this year has had a huge impact on mental health, especially for BIPOC students, and I just don’t think it’s realistic to think we can all function in normal Exeter.”

“I’ve had conversations in clubs and advisory, but it hasn’t been a huge talking point in my classes,” Jain added. “I guess I wish we saw some actual mental health change on campus. It’s very easy to say, ‘Take care of yourself,’ but there’s no actual change to our workload and BIPOC students are feeling the brunt of the events over these past weeks. If we take even just a single day off, we have extra hours worth of homework for the next day. There’s no way to catch up.”

Upper and StuCo Co-Secretary Kiesse Nanor felt the Academy’s efforts to support students were lacking. “It’s difficult because [racial violence] is in so many events. I suppose it becomes difficult for the Academy to come out with this huge message of support each time, but I also don’t necessarily appreciate the brief emails that we may get from Principal Rawson,” Nanor said.

Lower Sinna Oumer felt that the emails were repetitive without offering new meaning. “[The emails] just kind of feel like a rinse and repeat sort of thing. Something terrible happens, the school sends an email, and… each time it feels like they care less and less about the issue at hand and more and more about being performative,” Oumer said. “It is unfortunate to see that process of desensitization to such terrible things in real time.”

Senior Maegan Paul believed groups behind the Academy’s diversity work should receive more recognition. “There’s a widespread issue that [marginalized groups]—whether they’re addressing sexual assault or racism—are… doing all this work, and then we'll have the administration or Exeter as a whole getting the credit for work. I don’t think that’s exactly fair because the administration often doesn’t seem to really engage with these issues until there is some sort of major student demonstration,” Paul said. 

“It's important that we don't just say that there’s a problem but then put all of the work onto the plate of the Dean of the Office of Multicultural Affairs or the Director of Equity and Inclusion,” Paul added. “Our white deans and administrators should also try to take a large lead on these projects rather than always leaving the burden for students, alums, and faculty of color.”

Paul also mentioned the possibility of allowing student groups to send school-wide emails. “Often, OMA clubs and student activists will collaborate with faculty to create school-wide programming and messages, and the school should work to ensure that they get full credit for all of the work that they do,” Paul said. “If ALES wanted to send an email about Daunte Wright, I think that they should be given the ability to do that. All of these correspondences [don’t] have to come directly from the Principal's team.”

Nanor hoped for the Academy to address race even in cases that do not appear in the headlines. “I would like to see the school talking about violence not just against Black people but also anti-Asian hate. People on this campus face that every day, and it doesn't necessarily feel like a supportive environment if the only time you receive support is when there’s a national news story that’s going on and the whole country is forced to become aware of that,” Nanor said. 

“I know we’ve been doing a lot of work in that with the anti-racist training but if there’s more of that, a continuation of that, so we continue to talk about race even when it’s not in the headlines of every newspaper, I think that is something that would help,” Nanor said. “That might be a step forward in making students feel more comfortable and supported.”

Upper Yvonne Jia, currently studying remotely in Minneapolis, shared her initial reaction to the news. “I was three blocks away from where Daunte Wright was killed. I was swimming in a pool just five minutes down the road that day. I didn’t know, so when I drove home and saw the police cars and helicopters, we just thought there was a possible police chase,” Jia said. “When I found out about what happened, I feel guilty by saying I wasn't as shocked as I was hearing about George Floyd.”

Camilus described the emotional toll of the shootings. “The dystopian nature of life right now is a lot to digest, honestly. I've gotten to the point of expecting the violence on a daily basis,” Camilus said. “My kids go to school and I hope they return in one piece because a mass shooting isn't out of the realm of possibility. My 7 year old weighed in on how she'd protect herself in the event of a shooting in her school, unprompted, on the way to school this week. I also wonder if anyone I know will end up being the next hashtag. I coached young men who are regarded as thugs and miscreants that are far from that. It's just all really messed up. I feel hopeless, honestly.”

Nanor also felt that these events had become repeated. “Obviously I was devastated. But this happens so often that I feel like I don’t necessarily go through the same cycle of grief every time. I feel like it has lessened over time. I mean, obviously it’s shocking, but I feel like there’s not necessarily this huge impact every single time just because I’ve almost come to expect it, because it doesn’t feel like Black lives are really valued in this country,” Nanor said.

Spanish Instructor Jaqueline Flores shared her experience reading the headlines as a Latinx woman. “I'm tired, I'm really tired. I can't believe that it's become more blatant and I'm glad it is because people used to not have phones to record, the evidence wasn't there. So I'm glad that people are acting faster, but why does it have to happen?” Flores said.

Many students expressed feeling that the Academy response was inadequate. Prep Coco Kim criticized the late arrival of all-community emails addressing recent events. “Sometimes it takes days, or even weeks for many events to be brought into light by the administration,” Kim said.

Rawson explained that there was no set policy for when to send all-community emails. “There is no set timeline for sending all-community emails or criteria for deciding when the principal should send such a communication,” Rawson wrote. “My voice is important, certainly, but other voices also are important. I try to use best judgment about when and what to communicate, and typically consult with other administrative leaders and faculty. Sometimes colleagues reach out to me to suggest or urge a communication. Importantly, all-community emails are just one way that we can and should support each other in community.”

Prep Riyah Patel said, “I think if they weren't to send an email, they would be sending the message of silence. I don't want to discredit them for sending that email because good on them, but I do feel like that's something that would be sent regardless of what institution you were at, so it doesn't make Exeter special. It just means, ‘Okay cool, you acknowledged it.’”

Upper Malcolm John emphasized the importance of reflection after events like these happen. “Having heard countless stories like this before has made these events something that you take a note of, and makes you think more about how these things came to happen and the things that you, we, or I could be doing to further better these situations and raise the awareness we need,” John said. 

“It is important for us, especially as Exeter students, to reflect or think about, ‘what can be done to improve these situations?’ or ‘what do we have to think about?’ when events like these happen,” John added.

Although delayed, administrative emails have brought comfort to students. “I was very grateful to see Dr. Bramlett’s email, I think it's so awesome,” Huang said. “The resources that she spelled out for us made sure that students were aware. I think so many resources just go unutilized by students because they don't know they exist.”

Students, teachers and faculty all experienced stress due to these events. “I'll be honest with you, I've taken an attitude of, I'm tired of educating people. I'm tired of telling them, making them, letting them know, to respect me,” Flores said. “I mean, I respect you, so respect me. And I'm tired of it. I'm tired of dealing with ignorant people, but I have faith that people can change and accept that at the end, we’re all people.”

Upper Ethan Aguilar wished there was “more than just emails, and [the events] had more recognition,” Aguilar said. “It had a big effect on everybody and he knew that.”

“It was just an email and we were just going on with our lives,” he said.