Catlin’s Inclusion Plan Confronted with Identity-Based Harm

By Bradley Edington ‘23

Courtesy of Eva Vu-Stern ‘24

Though Catlin Gabel School (CGS) puts significant emphasis on diversity and inclusion, a year marked with identity-based harm remains on the student population's mind.

CGS states on its Equity & Inclusion webpage that “A diverse community is represented by different races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, ages, languages, abilities, and more.”

As a community, CGS aims to create an environment where students feel comfortable and included. According to CGS’s website, “51% of students identify as people of color or multiracial.”

In June 2020, CGS’s Department of Equity and Inclusion (DEI) announced its goals and how they want to accomplish creating an anti-racist community by the Spring of 2024. The Strategic Inclusion Plan was implemented in January 2022 and laid out plans to make progress in areas of CGS’s education, community voices, and community membership.

In the CGS Strategic Inclusion Plan, Head of School Tim Bazemore and Chair of the Board of Trustees Indira Nallakrishnan state how they “know that educational excellence requires that students learn in a diverse community and understand systems of power and privilege.” 

The plan also lays out its hopes to eliminate harmful and bigoted language in the CGS community, while also understanding that students make mistakes. 

This sentiment was furthered by Sam Davis, the Equity and Inclusion Coordinator of Student Programs for CGS, saying “We also have to be mindful of the person who has caused harm and realize that mistakes happen. We want students to know that we know that you're going to make mistakes... In a community, we want to give people grace and let them know that it's okay to make mistakes. When people make mistakes, we want to give them the tools and resources they need to become better people.”

Davis said, however, there is a limit to the patience that the CGS administration has. “When people continuously make mistakes, they become choices and punitive action must be taken.”

On December 2, 2022, CGS sent the community its Catlin Gabel Strategic Inclusion Plan Report of Year 1: 2021-2022. In it, the school evaluated the progress it had made in the past year, detailing the steps it had made to fulfill its goals. 

Davis states that the area that he has seen the most growth in, as a result of the Strategic Inclusion Plan is the professional learning which the teachers have gone through. “Tigan Morton, our Equity Instruction Coach, has been putting together some amazing work for our teachers to make them better at engaging your learning here at the institution.” 

Davis explained that this teaching is done “on the days when you get dismissed early throughout the school month. Your faculty and the staff meet and we break into groups and discuss such topics as mental health, how to help students from different learning styles, and learning about how to have different dialogues so that we can be supportive of all students at Catlin.”

Despite the significant progress made here, Davis acknowledged that there is still growth that needs to be made. “Right now I am working on student leadership. I am working on changing the structure of the student liaison role at CGS. Right now, there is only one person who does that job for the entire Upper School. For next year, we will have three people in the role of equity inclusion liaison for the Upper School.”

Thugh CGS’s strong desire to garner a community that puts mutual respect and tolerance at the forefront of education, the school has faced incidents that go against these ideals. According to Head of School Tim Bazemore, just in the last two months, the CGS Upper School Judicial Council has had to adjourn multiple times in order to discuss events of identity-based harm that have occurred in the last couple of months. Besides that, there have also reportedly been incidences of the use of derogatory language in the Middle and Lower Schools.

Davis talked about the school's responsibility to act when it comes to events like this, saying “When identity-based harm happens, it is always a challenge for any community to get its footing. Basically, the main steps are always to say to the person who has been harmed ‘Are you ok? How can I help you? We’re sorry.’”
As CGS moves forward with its plan to make the school a more inclusive and enjoyable place, students can do their part by attempting to prevent and reconcile with identity-based harm. If one wants to learn more and develop themselves as individuals who strive to be anti-racist, they can reference the Strategic Inclusion Plan which can be found on Catlin’s Equity & Inclusion webpage.