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Scattergood hosts 250 for diversity talks
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · April 27, 2017
Scattergood Friends School hosted about 250 junior- and senior-high pupils Friday for a day-long conference on diversity.
The Southeast Iowa Diversity Conference included pupils visiting from Maharishi School of Fairfield, Rivermont Collegiate of Bettendorf and Willowwind School of Iowa City.
Scattergood Director of Admissions Alicia Taylor said the four schools — all linked by the same accreditation agency, the Independent School Association of Central States — organized the conference rather than travel to a similar, international event in Atlanta.
The Scattergood event covered race, gender and religion and separated the attendees into middle school, high school and faculty.
In one large group focusing on race, the facilitator explained the differences between nationality and ethnicities within each race. Large groups broke into smaller groups for further discussions led by prompts.
Rezadad Mohammadi of Kabul, Afghanistan, is a senior and a two-year Scattergood student. He said Afghanistan segregates students for political reasons and “war,” yet there are organizations in the country which teach diversity.
However, students who support diversity “feel unsafe” to talk about it as much as he does in the United States.
“If you do not feel safe, you won’t share,” he said.
He said the training teaches people how to talk about differences even if they disagree or consider something wrong.
“People I’ve talked to love this project,” Rezadad said. “They’re really open-minded.”
Lovangel Faulk, a senior from Brooklyn, N.Y., is in her third year at Scattergood. She, like Rezadad, received training in advance of the conference and serves as a student leader.
She said the discussions on gender and religion were most interesting, especially on the topic of religious discrimination.
“What can we do to interrupt bias?” she asked rhetorically. “We need patience and respect before judging. We need to value a person (first) so we can listen and not take things personally.”
She wants to use the training to improve personal interactions, but also to understand those like President Trump.
“Being at Scattergood, most were for Hillary (Clinton, Democrat, for president) but a couple (supported) the Republican,” she said. “They were treated differently and there was a lot of tension. But we talked about it, even if we didn’t agree. We can respect a different opinion.”
Scattergood brought 53 students to the conference, Rivermont brought 86 and Maharishi brought 102. Willowwind brought Head of School Paul Pressler and a few staff.
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