Students Join the Conversation
Five students from ECS--Sierra West, Meghan Zarnetske, Kaylee Sorensen, Zachary Van Dyke, and Mieke Tiffany--gave voice to their concerns about honest race conversations in the classroom in a Salt Lake Tribune Op-Ed.
"Difficult and Honest Conversations about Race"
Five ECS graduate students joined the public conversation on Critical Race Theory (CRT) in a Salt Lake Tribune op-ed, Friday, June 11. Sierra West, Meghan Zarnetske, Kaylee Sorensen, Zachary Van Dyke, and Mieke Tiffany took up their pens to talk about the role of critical race theory (CRT) in helping teachers and students have "difficult and honest conversations about race." These conversations create an awareness of how racism functions at a systems level and makes people aware of power dynamics in which one group gains at the cost of another. An awareness, the students state, that can radically alter the futures of students of color.
The students were all part of Dr. Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez’s summer course on juvenile justice in education, which also guides students in respectful, informed, and thoughtful public discourse. You can read their well-penned op-ed here.