The Long Haul: How Four Rivers is Putting in the Work

We logged into Zoom at 9:15 on Tuesday, November 22nd for the beginning of the first Four Rivers Community Summit. The Opening Ceremony featured an Indigenous land acknowledgment, a description of the importance of the purpose of the summit, and students’ own stories about facing discrimination and finding empowerment. Alongside Mr Garbus, Ella, Delia, Liam, and Ari (grades 10th, 9th, and 8th respectively), as the leaders of the opening presentation, continued the work of bringing student voices to the forefront of the discussion around racism and privilege at Four Rivers. As someone who’s graduating this year, knowing that these students are inheriting the school is really exciting. (If I get canceled for sounding like a Boomer, I understand.)

The most significant part of the summit for me was the School Privilege workshop run by Julia Fay. In all my six years at Four Rivers, I do not recall ever having the opportunity to discuss the privilege that comes with attending Four Rivers and the context of the greater community that our school exists in. A more detailed response to this workshop and discussion around the identity and role of our school requires its own article, but I wanted to mention it.

The overwhelming response on the post-summit survey was that the workshops were a success: they contributed to the ongoing conversion that has begun at Four Rivers around racism, privilege, and empowerment. For my part, I’ll say that, no, the summit wasn’t life changing. I didn’t have the most amazing two days of my life or deconstruct my own racism or break entirely free of the internalized sexism. But holding events like this summit, that bring practice of being critical of one’s own privilege and empathetic to the reality of their fellow humans, is instrumental in bringing about the kind of experiences that really do change lives forever. As Mr. Garbus aptly put it, “We’re in this for the long haul.”