What was your biggest takeaway from the Calvin Terrell assembly you attended?

“My biggest takeaway is that you can never know what happens in a person’s personal life. The amount of people who stood up during the end of the freshman assembly because they saw someone die, someone shot and killed, or someone murdered it’s crazy and frightening to see how common it is.” – Cesar Vargas, Freshman

“That there is more to people than what first meets the surface. I feel like something that was really made evident during both the freshman assembly and the black affinity space was a focus on telling our stories and being open to listen to what others have to say.” – Anonymous, Freshman 

“People are just like spoons with a bowl of soup in the middle. We need to share resources with each other instead of fighting each other for just getting simple and basic needs. We only have one planet, so might as well share it.” – James Mahia, Junior

“I have several. CT had an incredible quote from Washington Irving about tears– and the meaning behind them –that I have already used in class as it applied directly to my current curriculum. His command of several languages always impresses me and his inclusion in the assembly. I am always in awe of his courage to discuss his profound losses (too many) and his grief process. CT is a great role model to our students and his lessons are powerful. I’m so grateful our district continues to host Calvin Terrell. I always leave a CT presentation learning something new and I feel like I have more tools to discuss race with my students and at home with my teen boys.” – Courtney Hanson, Staff

“My biggest take away from Calvin’s assembly was the word “JUDGMENT”. He spoke on how people will judge others by the way they look, how they dress, how they speak, how different they are, and so on. This is wrong in so many ways, but is a HUGE part of life. He told our students, “If you see someone sitting alone by themselves it’s ok to go over and introduce yourself to them – Tell them a little bit about yourself. He went on to demonstrate to our Freshman Class how it’s done. Then they got up to introduce themselves to one another. Also, his message to our students on how important it is to RESPECT each other was an even bigger takeaway.” – La Joyce Morales, Staff

Keeping in mind what Calvin Terrell brought to light, what suggestions do you have for Niles North to address hate/discrimination?

“More student spaces (we are not allowed to talk much in the library, and the cafeteria is overcrowded during lunch periods) or advertising student activity as a safe space more, holding

 staff accountable (there have been scenarios where issues have been swept under the rug due to dept hierarchy), more action from the “Hate Has No Home Here” campaign.” – Hafsa Feroz, Senior

“Honestly, you can only do so much with a consequence for hate speech and stuff like that. I really feel like we should have more assemblies about stuff like this but open to the whole school. Because you can tell it creates a big impact.” – Kalilah Henry, Junior

“The kids who cause hate/discrimination should be punished, maybe they need to stay after school and attend an extra class or something that might change their perspective to never bully like detention or their parents are informed.” – Ayesha Khatoon, Freshman

“I think it would benefit the black community at NN if the school could make changes so that our problems are dealt with equally, our voice can be heard, and we can feel safe at this school. One way we could do this is perhaps having the staff here take a workshop that would educate them on how to help all students and foster relationships with their students that makes them feel safe and comfortable. Further it would also be evident to have student leaders from NN host a panel where they can interact with staff and explain to them the issues they are facing. Finally it was brought up that biracial students at this school often feel like they don’t have a community or that they don’t feel as if they really fit into other groups. I think this might be fixed by maybe setting up a support group or panel or even a one time affinity space for them to connect with other biracial and discuss their experience here at Niles North.” – Anonymous, Freshman

Is there anything you feel should be added/changed to the structure or the content of the assemblies for the future?

“Yes, we should not be separating Black and Latinx groups and making it so only those kids can attend. We should have all school assemblies for each grade to go because hearing him speak everyone needs a reminder about what he does is touching, and I feel like all grades need to hear it, every person from every background needs to hear it. Because having motivational speakers come in impacts people. Also, some people may be oblivious to their background. They may feel uncomfy coming into spaces where people may not accept them based on how they look but they could really be black or latinx x. my point is we didn’t have separate spaces for indidegous people, asian people, and etc.) we limited who could go and separated blacks and latinos. I feel like the message he gave us needs to be projected to everyone because nobody will know the struggle they went thru and how to fix it and concerns if we keep separating the assembly .” – Kalilah Henry, Junior

“One concern I had in listening to my students’ post assembly is that the takeaway was that violence is the thing they should be mindful of. “I had no idea how many other kids had people killed in their lives” is a shocking realization. But, I would like to think about a way to also shed light on care and concern and empathy for others who might not have experienced trauma in such a specific way. Some of the trauma those around them have gone through also feels raw and intense and is also not as visible.” – Stephanie Salem, Staff

“A google form that could be sent to those attending the leadership workshop where students can list the issues most important to them so during the assembly we have more time to come together as a community, but in all honesty, thank so much to Ms. Benjamin, Ms. A, Ms. Stallworth and everyone involved in the success of this event. Thank you for caring so much about student concerns and issues :)” – Hafsa Feroz, Senior

“More personal stories from Calvin and amp up the power a little bit. Stories are the best way of making change as they have a certain pathos to them fiction can never take.” – James Mahia, Junior

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