Mount Vernon class, Chicago academy bridge demographic divide

MOUNT VERNON — Leigh Ann Erickson assumed her students would be uncomfortable when she took them on a field trip to the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago.

The group of students from Mount Vernon High School, where nearly all students are white, was spending the day Jan. 13 with a class from Collins Academy, a high school with a 99 percent black student body.

The Mount Vernon High School juniors and seniors on the trip noticed metal detectors at the front door of the school and a police presence on the corner.

But, they said, that was about all that appeared to be different.

'They were so similar to us,' Aubree Vlasek, 16, said. 'I don't know what preconceived notions we had, but it was cool to see how similar we were.'

In a town like Mount Vernon, meeting people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds isn't something that often happens naturally, said industrial tech teacher Shawn Voigt. So he and Erickson, who co-taught a social justice course together this month, facilitated a trip across the demographic divide.

Over the last 20 years, the number of non-white students in Iowa has nearly tripled. Now, 22 percent of students in the state identify as African-American, Asian, Hispanic or Native American, Iowa Department of Education data show.

But most school districts in the state still have predominantly white student bodies, and many have few or no students of color enrolled.

At Collins Academy in Chicago, virtually every student is black and nearly every student is considered low-income, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

In the Mount Vernon school district, the most recent state data shows only eight black students are enrolled. And about 90 percent of high school students do not qualify for free or reduced price lunch, a common indicator of poverty.

Erickson used to teach at Collins Academy. For Mount Vernon's 'J-term,' a two-week period between the school's semesters, she said she wanted to give students at Mount Vernon an opportunity to explore issues of social justice and injustice.

'The goal of this class is to create empathy by building relationships with people who might appear different from us,' Erickson said.

Students in the class of about 30 said being removed from Mount Vernon's racial and socioeconomic bubble forced them to examine their own privileges.

'This isn't about feeling guilty you have a preconceived notion — it's hard not to be living where you live,' Voigt said. 'It's about adjusting to what the facts are.'

Many students said the class motivated them to act. They've volunteered for the Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity, the Mission of Hope's women's shelter and Chains Interrupted, a nonprofit that combats human trafficking.

Students said listening to stories of girls nearby who were being trafficked — many of them the students' ages or younger and from nearby towns — also pricked some of their bubbles.

Being in a class that aims to build solutions to those problems, though, has been empowering.

'I feel like I'm doing something bigger,' Grace Pisarik, 17, said.

For Erickson, facilitating students' experiences with issues of justice and injustice has been a passion project.

'In many ways, kids are kids no matter where they are,' she said. 'Similar problems exist, but there is an urgency in New York and Chicago that we don't see as much here. What I do see here is a desire to do something.'

l Comments: (319) 398-8330; molly.duffy@thegazette.com