As somebody who has lived in Swampscott my entire life, I feel that I have to speak out during this crucial time, on how our town and community can self reflect and improve.
I would like to start off by saying that I am very thankful to the people who organized and participated in the protest and it was a great step in the right direction to help recognize and defeat police brutality and racial injustice.
However, I couldn’t help but think of all the racism and prejudice I have seen in our community and even within our school system. I graduated Swampscott High School in 2016 and throughout my four years I witnessed students of color being treated unfairly, especially the METCO students.
Many of these students were stereotyped and put into CP2 classes, not because of their inability to learn the material, but because the school did not take the time to bridge the gap of students coming into the highschool, who did not come straight from the Swampscott Middle school.
Students of color were also sometimes disproportionately suspended and over reprimanded for the same things that white students did. Furthermore, I can remember countless instances where I was made fun of or mocked for having so many friends that happened to be in the METCO program.
Other students, (some of which even attended the protest) would make rude comments because I would also hangout in the METCO office with my friends during lunch here or there or during a study period.
Many teachers also wrongly assumed that most black students were a part of the METCO program. I can recall being in class one day during a snowstorm and the teacher telling an African American student they better go catch the METCO bus because it is leaving early due to the weather, and that student lived in Swampscott and was not part of the program.
I have also overheard teachers talking to each other about how METCO students hide out in the METCO office to get out of doing school work and the staff is protecting them, which is not true. I have also personally experienced my friends being called ”ghetto” by a Swampscott parent simply because they were black and in the METCO program.
One of my friends that was in the group she was referring to happened to be our class president, a straight-A student, a track star and Powderpuff captain, and a truly remarkable young woman.
That parent was not reprimanded for yelling and screaming and making a scene, because they had a law enforcement connection within the school that told us all we couldn’t ever mention it or bring it up.
When my mother came down to the school, she was also called ghetto by the same parent for defending my friends and I. My mother was also personally called by a Swampscott officer and told not to mention what happened.
As a community the first step in ending this issue is recognizing it and calling it out. We cannot avoid these conversations just because they are “difficult.”
Everyone needs to be held accountable for their actions in order to fix this. As someone who just graduated college and is planning on becoming a high school history teacher, these are some of the reasons I was inspired to choose this profession.
I want to use any platform I have or may have in the future, to speak up and educate all that I can and I urge our community to do the same! These same students that are treated unfairly, wake up early in the morning and take an hour long bus ride to school everyday, something that we all take for granted. These students have to stay here, sometimes until 9 o’clock at night, if they want to participate in sports or extracurricular activities, then have to go home, do all their homework and do it all again the next day.
Although I am not proud to say this, I lived two minutes away from the school and was still late everyday, I took getting a quality education for granted, without having to leave my own town or even my neighborhood!
Swampscott resident Sofia Bikos graduated this year from Salem State University with a degree in history and a minor in education. She wants to teach high school history.