A new movement called the Whitney PRIDE Initiative has been in development based on recommendations from the Rocklin Unified School District over the past year. The acronym, P.R.I.D.E., is meant to be a play on the school’s mascot, since wildcats in groups are called a pride. Each letter also represents a different part of the objectives the district is trying to reach.
The objective is to have people both inside and outside the school understand campus culture. Mrs. Suzie Strain, Mrs. Meredith Kane, Mr. Travis Mougeotte and Ms. Emilie Cavolt collaborated on these plans planned for change to lessen the hate around school. The initial idea was to promote this change through single lesson plans, similar to SEL lessons, but the teachers thought it’d be better if it became a schoolwide cultural shift.
“There’s always room for improvement,” Strain said. “It’s a phenomenal campus now, but I feel like some people are not being treated as fairly and justly as they need to be. I don’t promote or tolerate hate, bigotry, racism, anything you could think of. So that’s why I wanted to put my voice into it, and that’s why it became this campaign.”
To put the plan in action, Strain said it will begin during WOW Week in August. The broadcasting program has planned to release a video to help demonstrate the idea of what the P.R.I.D.E Initiative is. Following the video, teachers will follow a lesson plan discussing the expectations of students’ behaviors across campus, focusing on positive actions instead of negative actions.
Additionally, future senior mentors will be incorporating lessons on the initiative to educate their incoming freshmen. Other projects in action include designing T-shirts to be P.R.I.D.E inspired, with the acronym on the back.
Graphics IV student Christine Louie has been involved in creating posters representing P.R.I.D.E to put up all around campus.
“We went to the meeting with Strain and Kane to talk about [the P.R.I.D.E Initiative]. Ms. [Whitney] Lum wanted us there to have a student’s voice and [to] help with the design process,” Louie said. “Whitney Pride adds a slogan to the school; we want to be known for inclusiveness, a positive campus and diversity.”
However, some think that there could be more added though to improve the culture on campus, like Chris Pham.
“I think we did a pretty good job this year especially with these different events like the multicultural fest and other LTA’s where we’re trying to expand our student body,” Pham said. “[Alternative solutions] I think [are] really encouraging [people to go] to these small groups and really recognizing them. The multicultural fest involves so many students around campus, but what about these other students who are, say, LGBTQ+, or those who are not as able bodied?”
by AMELIA CHU, ROWEN KIBBY & RHAYMARK NAZARENO
