To the Editor:

Spurred by the events of the last few years and their shared experience as students of WHHS, alumni ByronHill and Mike Strauss from the class of 1982 met earlier this year to discuss how they could give back to their local communities.

During these conversations, they arrived at a central point: the experience they had at WHHS was unique in many ways, but specifically in the diversity of the student body. Their desire to ensure that all WHHS classes share the same diverse experience became the driving force for the newly formed Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council (DE&I). 

The DE&I Council consists of students, teachers, alumni, administrators and Local School Decision Making Committee (LSDMC) representatives. We will work collaboratively to stimulate dialogue and drive student engagement toward WHHS’ efforts to embed diversity as a force in academic excellence, personal and professional growth. We aim to accomplish this through education, the celebration of diversity and the fair and objective response to our community’s complaints and concerns.

We strive to promote and facilitate discussions that infuse and empower students with a high moral and ethical standard so that they may work towards the elimination of systematic barriers to equality.

To kick off our initiative, we are hosting a movie night and discussion in the auditorium at 3:00 p.m. on Nov. 18, featuring “Just Mercy,” the story of a lawyer’s fight against inequity in the U.S. criminal justice system. 

All students are encouraged to contact their grade-level representatives and committee members to share suggestions and/or concerns. Questions regarding the council can be directed to Kathy Restle or Francesca Bownas-Rayburn. 

Student Representatives: Miles Klump-Lawson, Avani Wagh, Shaylin King, Rahifa Maricar, Selome Degaulle, Kimaya Mundhe, Sophie Glenn, Tamara Munoz, Bella Gordo and Nathan Huang

Committee Members: Sophie Kaplan, Samarth Khandelwal, Arshya Maricar Adharsh Sundar, Sarah Gebremeskel, Ellisia South, Alex Windle, Bryce Agyapong, Cenjing Wang, Sana Sukhija, Rayan Ahmed, Julianna DiBenedetto, Prisha Kumar, Delaney Pennington, Mya Posey and Pilar Steward

Strength lies in our differences, not in our similarities,

WHHS’ Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council