Students and alumni call for justice after stories of
racism surface around Archbishop Molloy High School
BY ANDREINA RODRIGUEZ
As the Black Lives Matter
movement continues to surge
as a result of injustice following
the killing of George Floyd, a
Black man, by white Minneapolis
Police Officer Derek Chauvin,
voices all around New York
City — and the country — are
being heard.
But as people are recognizing
that many organizations
and celebrities have stayed silent
throughout the movement,
many have also noticed silence
from local entities, including
their high schools.
Archbishop Molloy High
School in Briarwood faced
backlash from alumni and current
students due to their lack of
an initial response after Floyd’s
death and the several protests
that have followed.
Shoma Nath, a 2016 alumna,
took to Facebook to encourage
students to reach out to the
school’s administration and
urge them to make a statement.
“As you know our Molloy
dearest is a massive feeder for
the NYPD, and has a lot of white
alumni. You may have also noticed
that Molloy has taken no
action to denounce any racism
in the past week, or in its history,
yet capitalize on black bodies
as a diversity number and also
for their sports, one of the highest
donation streamlines for the
school,” the post read.
Nath’s post continues on to
urge the school in addressing
the issues by emailing school
President Richard Karsten and
Principal Darius Penikas.
The movement generated a
response from the school, which
on June 2 posted a statement on
their Instagram page.
“Like you, all of us at Archbishop
Molloy High School are
distressed by current events
that reflect the racism and bigotry
that unfortunately exist in
our society,” the post read.
The statement continued
on by expressing the Marist
Catholic values that the school
runs on. However, this response
wasn’t enough for students and
alumni alike, as they flooded
the comment section with
criticisms and personal stories
where they’ve experienced racism
and bigotry by their own
teachers and peers that was
overlooked by the administration,
as first reported by Queens
Patch.
The comments ranged from
students who graduated this
year to as far back as 1990. Stories
included those expressing
discomfort with their teacher
saying the N-word while reading
“To Kill A Mockingbird”
in class and another teacher
constantly making homophobic
jokes that implied, “gay people
should die.” One story that was
widely circulated is that of students
who posted a selfie in
white hoods with the caption,
“clikkk.”
The school’s Instagram post
has since been deleted.
Alex Celedon, class of
2019, created a form for people to
write about their experiences,
and students and alumni took
further action by creating an
Instagram page called humansofamhs,
which gives a platform
for students to share their experiences
of racial profiling and
discrimination at Molloy.
Sarah Rodriguez, class of
2018, decided to create the page
after reading a thread on Twitter
by a fellow alum who shared
her experience.
“I soon started to see more
and more threads on experiences
and decided to ask my best
friends if they had any,” Rodriguez
said. “In a sudden burst of
anger I decided to post it on my
Snapchat. I didn’t think much
of it but more students from my
year began coming to me with
their experiences and I felt they
TIMESLEDGER | 18 QNS.COM | JUNE 12-18, 2020
needed to be seen out and in the
open.”
The Twitter thread was created
by Liliebel Pujols, class
of 2015. In response to Floyd’s
death and the Black Lives Matter
movement, Pujols found it
the appropriate time to share a
time she got into a disagreement
with a classmate about the Michael
Brown case back in 2014.
Pujols explains that her
classmate believed Brown disrespected
authority, only for
the classmate to then get intoxicated
later that night and steal a
stop sign and express profanity
directly at a police officer.
“It was obviously never
about authority because I want
to know where this so-called
respect he was going on and on
about went?” Pujol tweeted.
By June 3, Molloy issued a
new statement addressing their
original response, along with
the comments.
“Our community’s response
humbled us. We realize now
that, although well intentioned,
our initial statement missed the
mark and was not enough,” the
revised statement — signed by
Karsten and Penikas — read.
Addressing the critiques received
in which their words are
only words, the post continued.
“Now, Molloy is developing
a three-stage action plan
that will: address the issues of
racism and sexism; institute a
zero tolerance policy for racial
comments and attacks; provide
training for faculty and staff;
hold each person accountable
for their words and actions;
and assure equitable discipline
among all students.”
“We genuinely want to empower
our students and alumni
and continue to listen. In the
past 48 hours we have taken several
concrete steps to assemble
a student advisory board for
inclusion policies and action
as well as a group representing
our alumni perspective, all
designed to help us listen in order
to make meaningful changes,”
President Richard Karsten
said in an email.
The school also archived
its Facebook group for alumni,
which keeps members from
posting or commenting inside
the group. In response, students
of the 2016 class recreated an
Facebook alumni group to allow
members continue to share
their stories.
Multiple students and alumni
agreed to speak directly with
QNS and share their stories.
Kirsten Erika Paulsen, class
of 2013, recalled a time when
a fellow classmate stated that
their right to free speech allows
them to use derogatory terms, in
which her teacher did not choose
to prohibit in class. Paulsen also
said that her guidance counselor
didn’t realize her classmate
was using a transphobic slur in
her peer groups class.
“I understand that Molloy, as
a Catholic school, probably can’t
promote LGBTQ rights, but that
doesn’t mean it needs to tolerate
bigotry against gay and trans
people,” Paulsen said. “Like it
or not, many Stanners are part
of the LGBTQ community, just
as many Stanners come from
different faiths, countries, and
cultures.”
Kristen Allen, class of 2017,
disclosed instances in which
she witnessed. These included
students calling Trayvon Martin
a “thug,” chants of “Build
the Wall” and “Trump” occurred
after the 2016 elections
and students expressing excitement
for getting the “Mexicans
and rapists out.”
Taylor-Simone Frederick,
class of 2016, while not on school
grounds said that they were at
the beach on the last day of their
senior year when her friend
confronted a fellow classmate
for his hate speech towards
Black people that was read during
class. The classmate then
stalked Frederick and her friend
around the block as he waved a
confederate flag.
“I had never felt true fear for
simply being black than in that
moment at seventeen years old,”
Frederick said.
The protest
In response, students and
alumni from Archbishop Molloy
hosted a “Not for School But
for Black Lives” protest outside
of the Briarwood school on Saturday,
June 6.
The protest was named “Not
for School But for Black Lives,”
a play on school’s motto: “Non
scholae sed vitae” — not for
school, but for life. About 200
protesters gathered at the school
around 1 p.m., on June 6.
The group marched towards
the Queens Criminal Courthouse
– about a 10 minute walk
from the Catholic school – where
they took a knee for eight minutes,
the amount of time Chauvin
dug his knee into Floyd’s
neck as he died.
The demonstrators then began
their march through Forest
Hills, where they met up with a
larger group of protesters. Together,
the group was about 500
people strong.
— Additional reporting
by Jacob Kaye
Photo by Dean Moses
/QNS.COM
