As the year slowly comes to an end, ERHS would like to recognize a special intern, Ms. Shannon James, who not only inspired many students, but introduced them to an entirely new realm of self-expression as well.

 Ms. James began her year here at ERHS as a University of Maryland master’s certification intern for English/AP Capstone teacher, Mr. Troy Bradbury. Ms. James quickly immersed herself into ERHS’s educational environment by introducing weekly after school discussion sessions.

 James decided to begin the discussions as a productive way to channel her frustration, anger, and confusion surrounding the acquittal of officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown shooting case and the failure to indict officers in the death of Eric Garner.

James said that “hearing from a couple of different students that they didn’t feel like there was a safe space to talk about it in their classrooms” is what caused her to initiate the discussions here at ERHS. The discussion topics varied greatly, but mainly focused on social issues.

She said she hopes that the discussions have “exposed students to having academic conversations about real world issues outside of the classroom, specifically issues dealing with race.” She said she felt that race was a very important topic for kids growing up in a racially diverse area. Living in an area that is racially diverse often deludes people into thinking that they fully understand the concept of race, she explained, so they do not think it is important to discuss.

James  said she wanted students to think and comprehend issues that they will encounter everyday of their lives; to not only experience, but also understand.

Junior Kiana Green said that “going to the discussions was helpful because I could learn things that they don’t want to teach in school or put in the news. It makes me feel more informed.” The discussions were “comfortable,” continued Green, saying that they acted as a source of information and awareness because none of the topics were discussed in any of her other classes.

She wishes to pop the bubble of misconception and misinformation that people live in regarding race and racial hysteria, said James.

Senior Crishaun Thomas acknowledged that he typically hasn’t talked about any of the issues outside of his family, so the discussions have given him a voice that he feels was otherwise silenced. “It’s helped me in a lot of ways and taught me a lot of things. I’ve gotten a lot of information, statistics-wise, and news-wise that I didn’t know of; just a new view on everything,” states Thomas.

“The actual hope of the discussion[s] is for students to feel that they could be a catalyst for change. [She] hopes to make [social issues] less scary for [students] to discuss,” because one of her first times encountering prejudice alone was traumatic and angering for her, explained James.

She once was told “I’ve never seen a black person before,” James continued. She was upset by the person’s ignorance and unprepared to handle that type of isolation. This anger is what she hopes students learn to avoid by attending the discussions.

Once James began to recognize and understand racism, she decided to use the power of her voice and strength of her knowledge to live by Toni Morrison’s famous advice: “if you are free, you need to free somebody else.”