Head of School Updates

Dear Berkeley Carroll Community,

As we approach the Spring recess, I am reflecting on all that has transpired over the course of the past 12 months. We have faced challenges, both frighteningly novel, in the case of COVID-19, and dishearteningly constant, in the form of systemic racism. This dual pandemic has often left us shaken, angry, and depleted. Yet members of our school community have joined forces to navigate these times with determination and we will continue to do so in order to make a positive difference at Berkeley Carroll and in our society.

I want to begin by sharing how deeply troubled I am by the alarming increase in anti-Asian assaults across the United States in the wake of the pandemic. Stop AAPI Hate and the New York City Commission on Human Rights have registered an eight to ten fold increase in reported anti-Asian incidents and hate crimes. The anguish, fear, and anger engendered by these acts intensified when it was revealed on Tuesday that six of the eight people killed in a series of shootings in Atlanta were Asian women, among them Delaina Ashley Yaun, Xiaojie Tan, and Daoyou Feng. As I have noted previously, this increase in racist violence follows a pernicious historic pattern in the United States in which Asian-Americans of various ethnicities have been vilified and subjected to an escalation in hate crimes during public health crises and economic downturns. It is important that we stand against this behavior whenever it occurs. Through programming and as part of the work of the school’s antiracism task force, we will continue to do this work while providing support and promoting solidarity within our community.

During the past year, the nation’s attention has been fixed on racism and White supremacy due to a resurgence in protest after the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and far too many others. The historical through line of anti-Black violence in our country, often state sponsored, is an ongoing and devastating affliction--a terror. Channeling grief, outrage, and despair, people spilled into the streets and the public square determined to successfully combat what I have described as the quotidian and seemingly intractable reality that, for Black people, going out to buy Skittles or to jog--even lying in bed at home--could prove fatal. Energized by the movement for Black lives, Black alumni and students in educational institutions across New York City and the nation testified to the work yet to be done if our schools are to be truly equitable and inclusive. This activism has heightened a sense of agency among our students while laying the groundwork for more accountability and genuine community in our schools.

It is within this context that Berkeley Carroll continues to promote and pursue antiracism. We intend to be both proactive and responsive in fostering a racially equitable educational environment. Cognizant that we cannot combat racism if we will not see it, we seek to be active partners--students, faculty and staff, and families--in supporting a school where young people and the adults who support them can be confident that racism and other forms of bias have no place and no purchase.

When COVID-19 forced us to close campus just before Spring Break last year, most of us could not have imagined what lay ahead. In many ways, this time has been marked by loss--at its most devastating, the loss of loved ones, friends, and neighbors who are among more than 500,000 individuals in the United States who have succumbed to the virus. There has also been privation in the form of cancelled gatherings, forgone embraces, and obscured smiles. At school, we lost the opportunity to be fully together without the constraints of physical distancing. Locally and nationally, with inequities in healthcare and housing laid bare, we saw the pandemic take a disproportionate toll on our elders, on Black and Latinx communities, and on those, including health care professionals and other essential workers, who have toiled on various front lines, unable to work from home.

The strictures attending the pandemic have made precious things that we did not know we would miss even as they have affirmed that which we know we love, including a schoolhouse full of young scholars and educators pursuing the rigor and wonder that define a Berkeley Carroll education. Students have continued to interrogate, discover, and create under the care and guidance of their teachers. Parents, guardians, students, faculty, and staff have shown grace, stamina, and fortitude as our BC community has navigated the crises before us together.

When I entered my front gate this evening I saw that a crocus had pushed its way through the soil and mulch, signaling the turn of season. It has been a year both difficult and daunting. Even as we acknowledge our losses and the work that lies ahead, it is fitting that we consider the ways in which we have persevered and pushed through--as individuals, as families, and as a community--supporting each other, cultivating hope, and seeking justice.

I am wishing you a good close to the week as well as a safe and, hopefully, restorative Spring Vacation.

Sincerely,

Lisa Yvette Waller, Ph.D.
Head of School