St. Stephen’s Episcopal School celebrated the Jan. 16 Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with a school-wide event that featured speakers, musical and dance performances, and discussions on a variety of religious belief systems and racial injustice.
“The program was designed to help students lean into discomfort by identifying and discussing both overt and subtle discriminatory beliefs and behaviors,” Communications Director Anne Marie Becka said in a news release. “Students explored the ways in which racial and religious discrimination affects individuals and society as a whole.”
St. Stephen’s students participate in a school session about equality.[/caption]
Jayant Lal, a former associate headmaster of The Doon School in Dehradun, India, was a guest speaker and discussed peace and harmony among the societies of the world, Becka said in the release.
“There are many countries, many religions, many languages, diverse cultures, different physical attributes spread out around the globe,” Lal said in the release. “If the entire human race starts searching for their roots, they may end up pointing to one or another civilization—whatever or wherever we originated from, we are from the same source.”
Following Lal’s speech, students broke into groups to discuss racial and religious prejudices and how people can become more tolerant, Becka said. Students also attended performances by Atash World Music and Tapestry Dance Company.
