Ethnicity, Class and Suicide Lead a Hamptons School to Reach Out



Three suicides in three years have focused officials at East Hampton
High School on the alienation of many immigrant students. 

 East Hampton, N. Y. — As he walked the East Hampton High School Campus on the past day of categories last week, Adam S. Fine appeared that ought to be one satisfied principal. Graduating seniors were moving on to colleges together with Brown and Cornell Universities ; class-cutting was down ; and Newsweek had ranked the faculty among the 2, 000 best public schools within the nation, all that ought to be expected within the zip code synonymous with success.

Other then, asked to reflect inside the year or a, he sighed and moved his hand up and down, suggesting a roller coaster. “Resiliency, ” he aforesaid. “That’s my theme word for graduation. ”

This have been a year like none alternative for East Hampton High, that faced an uncomfortable ethnic integration problem that had been festering within the background for years other then was thrust onto the foreground by a tragedy for the opening as to firmly the faculty year.

A 16-year-old junior from Ecuador, David Hernandez, hanged himself simply many days after homecoming in September ; finally it was the second student suicide in 3 years. 2 months later, a student who was on the brink of transfer onto the faculty committed suicide. 3 suicides in 3 years within the faculty community of about 900 students is way on high of the regional average. And all as to firmly the students who killed themselves were Hispanic.

The suicides, taken along, brought onto the surface a division involving the relatively small and economically comfortable Anglo-Saxons for whom the faculty was founded and its newer, poorer Hispanic residents, whose numbers are rising rapidly. and then they will made the faculty district address the matter directly.

The divide, administrators found, was adding to your sense of alienation among a few as to firmly the a lot of vulnerable immigrant students, several of whom had moved to East Hampton years after their oldsters had arrived, having to readjust thus to actually their mothers and fathers for the same time as they simply entered a fresh faculty, with the use of a new language, within the place that would be rarefied even by your standards as to firmly the average American student.

“What I aforesaid like the building leader and person liable for everything was, ‘something’s happening here, ’ ” Mr. Fine aforesaid within the recent interview. “ ‘We ought to take a real onerous look. ’ ”

The principal, the grieving mother of 1 as to firmly the suicide victims, a native newspaper while a recent graduate as to firmly the faculty who had herself experienced this sense of alienation — and actually has now returned to assist others — all played significant roles in efforts to gain a few management as to firmly the situation. It's a prime example of how this town of a little over 21, 000 residents — a few of those famous, a few of those from families who are here for generations, and a few of those simply here within the summer — has sought to trot out huge demographic changes which have consist of become a beacon of American attainment.

The Hispanic small portion East Hampton Township’s population nearly doubled between 2000 and 2010, consistent with census figures, to 26. 4 percent from 14. 8 percent ; finally it was 5 percent in 1990. Hispanics made up 41 percent as to firmly the East Hampton Union Free Faculty District’s student population in 2012, up from 21. 7 percent 10 years earlier and 5 percent 10 years before that, consistent with state education department figures.

The district has tried to maintain up, with the use of a robust program in English being a second language, 3 Spanish-speaking social workers and, within the High School, 2 Spanish-speaking secretaries. A few lessons are learned by trial and error. for example, the English-as-a-second language classrooms were once along within the cluster, that one parent of the former student aforesaid had been known as “little Mexico” by a few ; now the classrooms are through the entire building.

“It’s a dramatic demographic modification, ” aforesaid Richard J. Burns, superintendent as to firmly the East Hampton Faculty District. “It takes a whereas ; obtaining your arms around it's troublesome. ”

Other then within the months since the foremost recent suicides, the very same living of the faculty has also been altered in ways giant and tiny, within the concerted effort to bring about modification a lot of quickly.

And much it had to carry out along with the hiring of somebody uniquely qualified to bridge the gap involving the college and therefore the oldsters of its Hispanic students — Ana Núñez, 23, who had endured the travails from being an Ecuadorean Student at East Hampton High however who had overcome them, won a scholarship to Columbia university and graduated by having a little in economics and political science.

She was employed by your District a number of weeks after David Hernandez’s suicide, that had made it clear that the district required a liaison who may directly address the rifts involving the Spanish-speaking community and therefore the English-speaking College District.

David, 16, had moved to East Hampton from Ecuador 3 years earlier, to endure his mother, who had left Ecuador for America when he was a toddler. And though it's virtually not possible to divine with any certainty the motives in suicides, David was questioning his sexuality, family friends and officers with expertise in his case aforesaid. There have been allegations of bullying from fellow Hispanic students, and proof of previous makes an attempt to kill himself.

His mother, Carmita Barros, gathered with fellow Hispanic oldsters after the suicide and complained towards the native newspaper, the east Hampton star, that his case had been ignored as a result of he was Hispanic ; the college vigorously denied the charge. however the oldsters additionally complained that as a gaggle these felt distanced coming from the college in general.

Should that was news towards the College District, it was eventually not news to Ms. Núñez, who had been in town close to actually the time as to actually the suicides, staying along with her mother — who works on a hotel in Napeague, the narrow stretch of beach between Amagansett and Montauk — as she thought-about her next move, possibly law college. she had shared her own family’s experience throughout a visit that fall by having former teacher, Patricia hope, who was upon the college board and had reached out for Ms. Núñez’s reaction.

Ms. Núñez described an “issue that is what deeper and broader than i had ever given thought to, ” Ms. hope aforesaid. She introduced Ms. Núñez to district officers, who employed her as their community liaison in December.

At the very 1st few meeting she known as with Hispanic oldsters, merely 18 individuals showed up. She extracted a promise from them that they'd help her build attendance for an additional one a month later.

At that meeting, in February, about 250 individuals showed up. clearly as the dialogue began, the college began learning of issues it had not known existed.

several oldsters, as an example, couldn't perceive the report cards their youngsters brought home as a result of the college used a grading system completely different coming from the ones used in his or her home countries. “In Ecuador, these grade your work from a regular to twenty, with 20 being the best, ” Ms. Núñez aforesaid. “So, here, if a kid’s doing 60, it appears like, ‘60 ? that sounds nice !’ no, it sounds like you’re failing. ”

In one case, the mother of the Hispanic student knew that her daughter was upon the high honor roll, “but she never very knew what that meant, ” aforesaid Robert Tymann, the assistant superintendent, who has got worked closely with Ms. Núñez. as soon as the mother was told what it meant, he aforesaid, “she started crying. ”

It additionally came as news towards the college so it was sending cultural miscues. South American oldsters were frequently pulling their youngsters away from college within the whole winter for visits for their home countries. Annoyed teachers would send homework around with them, however, Ms. Núñez aforesaid, that left the impression with oldsters that the absences were permissible. Schools in Ecuador, she aforesaid, would never be thus lax. A committee was formed to address absenteeism.

One mother from Mexico, Adriana Gonzalez, who uses a ninth grader within the whole college, aforesaid her son dissuaded her from attending college conferences, telling her these were not vital. And the moment she did go, she aforesaid in Spanish, “I didn’t perceive something. ”

After being drawn in by Ms. Núñez, she aforesaid, she has begun showing up at a lot of conferences, and “loosened my tongue. ” She has begun complaining that the college should institute drug testing, one thing several as to actually the American oldsters abhor as an invasion of privacy.

Till now, she aforesaid, “who would raise a Latino parent her opinion, or cared ?” she joked, “Now these wish to listen, however perhaps later they’re intending to say ‘stop it. ’ ”