Students at Marin Catholic High School have begun their studies — but not in the academic sense.
The school, which starts its regular term on Sept. 8, is organizing small, coronavirus-safe groups overseen by campus ministers for the next three weeks. Dubbed “Kairos Days,” the sessions are devoted to a faith-based study of racism, justice and mercy.
Kairos is the Greek word for “time with God,” said Tim Navone, Marin Catholic president.
“As crazy as COVID is, this is going to be the greatest start of the school year ever,” Navone said.
“There is no academic pressure, as there would be in the normal whirlwind of school starting, when spiritual inquiry usually gets lost in the hamster wheel of studying, tests and homework,” he said. “This is a COVID silver lining.”
Although numerous Marin high schools are working on equity issues, diversity and anti-racism policies, Marin Catholic is only school in the county — and the only one in the local Catholic diocese group of schools — to program a spiritual and emotional “time out” for its students on the topic of racism, Navone said.
The Tamalpais Union High School District, for example, is conducting a series of race and equity “listening” forums, with the second one happening at 6 p.m. Wednesday. But time is not set aside for students to process the topic in person before the new fall term starts in distance-learning mode on Wednesday.
Navone said Marin Catholic’s focus on racism is designed to help the teens, mostly isolated for the past five months due to the pandemic, process their feelings and reconnect following the national groundswell of anti-racism activism after the death of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis.
“We wanted them to be able to take the cross off their backs by processing what they have been thinking about for the past few months,” Navone said.
According to Christian teachings, Navone said, “racism is a sin, because it means that someone is not looking at another person as a full human being.” The accompanying text for the Kairos Days classes is “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson, which was adapted into a film starring Michael B. Jordan.
“We want kids to understand justice, because then they can recognize injustice,” Navone said. “Such issues as why the numbers of people incarcerated and sentenced to the death penalty are so skewed toward people of color.”
The Kairos Days program coincides with, but is separate from, a strong push by scores of Marin Catholic alumni to change the school’s culture around racism.
About 200 alumni have signed a letter they plan to send to the school “to hold Marin Catholic accountable and actually create change,” according to Marie-Nicole Jeffroy-Meynard, a 2014 graduate and one of the letter campaign leaders. She was referring to racially offensive and hurtful incidents mentioned on the BIPOC of Marin Instagram page, an anonymous series of postings about such occurrences at Marin high schools, including Marin Catholic.
“We want to spur change for people of color in our community, and prioritize BIPOC voices,” Jeffroy-Meynard said, referring to Black, Indigenous and people of color.
Navone said he has not received the letter. However, he said, anonymous claims on social media in general can be challenging in terms of how to respond and in verifying the accuracy, he said.
“Anyone can go on there and say that so-and-so teacher did this or that, and there’s no way to prove it or react to it,” he said.
The school does have a “zero tolerance” attitude toward any form of bullying, racial slurs, vandalism or bigoted activity. Students are subject to suspension if they are found to have participated in those acts, he said.
Kelsey Fenn, also a 2014 Marin Catholic graduate and a co-leader in the letter campaign, said she thought the Kairos Days program was a “really great idea.” She said she was pleased that the school seemed to be improving its attention to racial understanding since she and her peers were students there.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Fenn said. “We’re just seeing this letter as a tool and a guide for the school to hear about the experiences of alumni. We’re just letting Marin Catholic know that the alumni are still invested in the education there.”
According to the letter, one of the prime beefs of alumni is that they found after graduation that they were unprepared and unequipped to deal with an outside world teeming with issues of diversity and structural racism at the workplace or in social environments.
“Marin Catholic prepared us to lead successful lives in many ways,” the letter states. “However, we graduated without the necessary tools to address systemic racism and fully understand how diversity, privilege and power have played into our lives.”
“During our time at Marin Catholic, we learned about slavery, oppression, civil wars and revolutions,” the letter adds. “But (we) were not taught to examine the underlying context of racism, white supremacy and inequality that still paralyzes our world.”
Navone said the school has incorporated substantial anti-racism curricula and is working to change the school culture. After the three-week Kairos Days program, the school will hold a series of equity and anti-racism classes throughout the 2020-21 school year.
“Anybody who thinks this is a one-and-done situation is way off,” Navone said. “Just like with our alcohol and drugs programs, this is ongoing.”
The Kairos Days concept was adapted from the four-day Kairos retreats, traditionally held annually for seniors. The retreats — spent unplugged from cellphones, social media and computers — are a chance for students to delve into spirituality without distractions and academic demands, Navone said.
“I think if you ask alumni what their favorite part of Marin Catholic was, it was the Kairos retreat,” Navone said.
In the current Kairos Days adaptation, the groups meet outside on campus. All four grade levels are participating, not just seniors.
Because of the pandemic, only about 80 students — out of the student population of 800 — are on campus at any one time. That means that over the next three weeks, each student will have a chance to attend a group an average of three or four times.
Regular classes will begin Sept. 8 with either all-distance-learning or a hybrid of small in-person classes and distance learning, depending on public health guidance at that time, Navone said.
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