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Student Experiences
We gathered testimonials from current students and alums on their experiences at Hunter, and how the lack of diversity impacted the environment of their education.
“9 years later, I'm still working through the trauma and racism I experienced at HCHS. I was bullied for years for being one of the only Latinx students in my year. I was called names like 'dirty Mexican' and made fun of for speaking to my family in Spanish. When I brought this to the attention of school administrators, I was told that the school tries not to get involved in students' social lives and that they wouldn't be able to help me. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all the students who are working hard to increase diversity at HCHS. The work you are doing is so important. HCHS needs to do better.”
-Alum, class of 2011
“I believe it is safe to say that never having a core Black teacher after the age of 10 was incredibly detrimental. I think Hunter does a very poor job of making Black students and Black teachers not feel like token people… I think the idea of having a Black role model [for Black students] (who is close to home and not an athlete or celebrity) is incredibly important and often overlooked… There have been too many instances where I left a classroom disturbed or frustrated because of a comment, remark, or entire lesson that made me uncomfortable… I shouldn’t have to try harder in a class just to disprove a stereotype that the teacher may have against me. And I certainly don’t want to be the voice of all reason in 11th grade USH because none of my other peers are Black and my teacher is white.”
-alum, class of 2020
“Socioeconomically, I feel extremely isolated. Hunter does well to support kids like me with financial aid… [but] the toxic atmosphere at Hunter does not help because people who have money for prep and other things show off their privilege, and it’s disgusting.”
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-alum, class of 2020
“Though Hunter tries to be ‘woke’ and diverse with conversations about race, they can do a lot better. For the last week of global, we talked about police brutality and BLM. Yet no one talked about how it’s affecting the black community, only saying that they understand why protests are happening, but they wish protests weren’t so big and loud. That was really disheartening for me to hear, because it meant that they don’t truly understand what we are fighting for. Hunter needs to educate better, as conversations are great, but they do not help as much as educating about current events would.”
-current student, class of 2023
“In hindsight, Hunter’s tolerance for racism and lack of diversity greatly contributed to my switching schools… Since Hunter is one of the hardest schools to get into, what kind of message does that send when children don’t see other kids at the school who look like them? The lack of diversity in the student body at a school for gifted students sent a very clear and false message that students of color were not smart enough to get into the school… I know for sure that once I left Hunter, it felt like I left a suffocating bubble… I have regained confidence in my intellectual abilities, restored my self esteem, and have felt much more appreciated and supported by my peers. Leaving an environment where the students have a superiority complex (which is a subtle form of white privilege) has helped restore my mental health.”
-alum, class of 2021
“Being poor at Hunter is suffocating. Some wealthy kids even make up rumors about kids on fee waiver.”
-alum, class of 2020
-current student, class of 2023
“If we were to go back to school in September, I’m not sure that [I would feel safe]... It’s a fact that there isn’t a lot of diversity at Hunter and it is particularly obvious within the black community. While there are cultural clubs, I feel like I don’t have a support system in my day to day classes. When we talked about the police brutality that black people are facing in class, one person just smiled and laughed the whole way through it. I didn’t feel like I could say anything because there was only one other black person there and I wasn’t sure if she felt as hurt as I was. No one addressed him at all and I don’t think he cared. After that, I took a minute to cry to myself off camera because I was so frustrated and felt so powerless. In that moment, I felt like I wanted to be anywhere else but on that Zoom call... Hunter’s environment is becoming a place where some of us feel unsafe, unprotected, and unheard.”
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-current student, class of 2021
“In my 10th grade English class, I was put into a small group with a student who said something which utterly shocked me: “Your race factors into your IQ.” Not only was I unable to dissuade him of this concept, the other member of my group did not step up and rather watched our argument divulge into anger. I told my teacher about this, but she was simply shocked and did not take any steps to address this with the student. I felt helpless.”
-current student, class of 2022
“There is a kid in my grade who has said many insensitive things in my presence (I am Hispanic, though that’s not important to the story). The example that sticks in my mind is when he once said to my face that he is on a rowing team because it is the easiest way to get into college aside from being black or Latino. This kind of talk is not unique to this student or this incident, nor do I know how these kinds of students behave when they are with their friends or not around people of color.”
-Alum, class of 2020
“When one of my English teachers read the n-word in a book we were reading, I was shocked. We all were. I remember taking a look around the classroom and seeing everyone make nervous eye contact with one another. Meanwhile, [the teacher] had their face burrowed in the book and continued to read as if nothing happened. This stood in stark contrast to my sophomore English teacher, who prior to reading Huckleberry Finn, facilitated a discussion amongst the class about why saying the n-word was wrong, even when it had been written that way. My biggest issue then, is that the curriculum is not standardized. How can you one year hear from an authority figure that saying the n-word is wrong and the next year hear it from a white teacher's mouth? I think it sends the wrong message to students.”
“In regards to the history curriculum, I believe that Hunter should make more of an active effort to demonstrate not only the historical anti-blackness in the United States, but how our actions and words in the present day contribute to anti-blackness even now. Clearly there is some gap in understanding, if at social gatherings or in the hallway one hears the n word from the mouths of students. As a white person, I don’t think I can relay the feelings of those directly hurt by teachers saying the n-word or the ineffectiveness of our curriculum, but I do think it's important that all students at Hunter recognize change needs to happen. None of us are special, and an exam does not make us better than anyone else. This school needs more diversity because the ‘excellence’ of our education is meaningless if our school fosters an environment in which sheltered white kids thrive. In other words, it does not matter how ‘smart’ you are if you do not understand how your words hurt others and contribute to an oppressive system.”
-alum, class of 2020
-current student, class of 2022
“Lack of diversity in class just makes it feel fake when we talk about any injustices which affect different cultures, especially injustices towards Black people because there are no Black kids in almost every class. So when it’s taught by a white teacher to majority white and Asian kids, it feels just one-sided and focused on the events and not really their impact.”
“Having Joy Luck Club and Song of Solomon and all people of color books and history taught to us by white teachers is going to affect the way in which we learn.”
-current student, class of 2022
“Middle school/early high school is when a lot of youth are beginning to figure out their identities, and I think representation in the English curriculum could help combat the invisibility of their emerging identities.”
-current student, class of 2021
"As a minority at Hunter from a racial and socioeconomic standpoint, it's disheartening to see how little representation there is in the student body and staff/administration. In the past 5 years, I've watched new classes come in and seen a continuation of this trend of lack of representation. However, being a part of that minority has been a unifying factor and I've bonded with other students like me through the few cultural clubs available at Hunter. I find it comforting that we've been able to form a small community but it's also sad that there are so few of us. I hope to see the admin implements changes to fix this diversity crisis at our school because it's appalling that this has gone on for so long."