An email calling out the district’s silence regarding the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed at the hands of a white police officer, was sent out to both Pascack Valley and Pascack Hills on behalf of the District Equity Team and the PV Human Rights League on June 2.

Hills senior Beck Kerdman, a member of the Equity Team, sent the email that was written collectively by the two groups, which stated that “over a week after the event, neither of the schools have said the name of the man murdered by the police.” 

“It’s no secret that living in this area, we have continued to exist within a bubble, and the privileges afforded to us have blinded us to uncomfortable truths,” Kerdman wrote in the email. “It is actively expanding through the refusal to address recent traumatic events. This is a reflection of the deeper racism within our community.”

Kerdman said that the email was not only intended to prompt a response, but also make the district administration think about its role within the community.

“We feel that the hesitation to address these tragedies does not reflect the [district’s goals],” Kerdman wrote. “The urge within students to educate themselves is amazing, but the fact that the responsibility to break the silence has fallen on us rather than the school is unacceptable.”

Around an hour after the email was sent, district Superintendent Erik Gundersen sent out the district’s response to both the murder and the protests.

“To be silent is to be complicit and our district will not be silent on this topic,” Gundersen wrote.
“The Pascack Valley Regional High School District is committed to promoting equity and racial justice, but we realize that we still have a long way to go. We need the ongoing voices of students, parents, and community members to share their thoughts with us as we strive to heal and move forward.”

Gundersen complimented the Equity Team on its willingness to call out the administration and for doing so in a “peaceful, respectful, but critical manner” in an interview. He also said that if he “could have done it all over again,” he would have made sure to have “pushed something out days earlier.”

Aside from the district’s response to the current state of the country, freshman Kareena Shah, a member of the HRL, expressed that a primary concern of the two groups is the lack of diversity among teachers at both schools. She specifically pointed out that the majority of the district’s staff is white.

“I think it is definitely time we [hire more minorities] because we need to have a more diverse [staff],” Shah said.

The Equity Team met with Gundersen on Wednesday to discuss their concerns regarding the district’s curriculum and communication with the surrounding community.

“We feel like the representation of different cultures in our curriculum is lacking,” Kerdman said. “In history and English classes, we feel like it could be very easy for teachers to incorporate small things that give representation to students who might feel underrepresented. We [also] want to give a more formal space for student voices to be heard.”

Kerdman suggested that one way to provide students with a platform to express themselves is to establish “formal measures” for teachers to be able to communicate with students about feedback that they are receiving for their classes.

Sophomore Sarah Boumlouka, another member of the Equity Team, addressed her concerns with the administration remaining silent on the murder of Floyd as well.

“The district has let news like [Floyd’s murder and the protests] slip by in the past with other dramatic events and left us [students] alone to educate ourselves,” Boumlouka said. “They let us deal with the loss of George Floyd by ourselves, furthering [many students’] ignorance and furthermore creating this bubble between us and the rest of the world.”

Shah said Gundersen and PH Vice Principal Tim Wieland sent an apology email to the two teams about the administration’s silence regarding the recent events.

Kerdman pointed out that his email was not necessarily intended to criticize the administration, but to call for improvement.

“I am really grateful for everything that this district has done — both in Hills and in Valley — and I don’t want [anything I say] to be taken [from] a critical perspective,” Kerdman said. “I think we live in a great place, we live in a great community, and all I want to see is that community improve.”