Anonymous wrote:Reminds me of attending my niece's hooding ceremony when she graduated from medical school and no joke, it was like 15 straight minutes of Patel, Patel, Patel, Patel, Patel.

My HS had a lot of Kims, my cousin included. During graduation, when all the Kims were called in a row, people giggled.

I would imagine if there was a HS full of Joneses or Smiths, people would also have a laugh during graduation when the names were called. Some might even make some comment about inbreeding.

I actually work with a lot of Indians, and yes, there are several with the same names.

Anonymous wrote:That's how you end up with a heavily Scots Irish class.

dying. Bring on the bagpipes!

Anonymous wrote:You must mention this! What a terrible idea for sooo many reasons. For one thing, most Chinese people have 1 of 5 last names. It's utterly insane to do it that way.

It’s not “utterly insane.” Geez, now alphabetical lists are racist. Poor school districts.

I was thinking Al- something from
Arabic. In any event, obviously the school doesn’t appreciate the history of enmity so either deal with it or speak up.

You must mention this! What a terrible idea for sooo many reasons. For one thing, most Chinese people have 1 of 5 last names. It's utterly insane to do it that way.

Anonymous wrote:I am Japanese and I have no clue what OP is referring to.

The school probably doesn't realize there's a problem, so against your son's wishes (teens never want their parents' interference!), you should make a face-to-face appointment with the Principal and explain the problem. I suggest you meet directly with the Principal, and not a counselor or assistant Principal, because this is serious: it's the underlying organizational structure of the school that contributes to institutional racism/discrimination. Please be very clear about the issues, because the Principal will need to be walked through them. Ask that your son be placed in a different homeroom, and suggest a letter of the alphabet that you believe will be safe for him.

+1

I agree with all of this. The school probably doesn't know or understand. OP needs to step up and speak for her DC.

Reminds me of attending my niece's hooding ceremony when she graduated from medical school and no joke, it was like 15 straight minutes of Patel, Patel, Patel, Patel, Patel.

Anonymous wrote:Probably X

+1

My guess in X and Chinese and the son is of Uyghur or Tiwanese decent or something?

Give him your name instead

I am Japanese and I have no clue what OP is referring to.

The school probably doesn't realize there's a problem, so against your son's wishes (teens never want their parents' interference!), you should make a face-to-face appointment with the Principal and explain the problem. I suggest you meet directly with the Principal, and not a counselor or assistant Principal, because this is serious: it's the underlying organizational structure of the school that contributes to institutional racism/discrimination. Please be very clear about the issues, because the Principal will need to be walked through them. Ask that your son be placed in a different homeroom, and suggest a letter of the alphabet that you believe will be safe for him.

Probably X

Can you give the name, or at least which ethnic group you’re talking about? Sorry but I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about otherwise. First thing I thought was maybe letter C for Chan etc being an Asian group but seems like that’s not what you’re talking about. My guess is that the school has no idea either.

That's how you end up with a heavily Scots Irish class.

If you haven't complained, they may be unaware.

Fwiw, against the wishes of my DS, I emailed someone in student services before 9th grade, requesting that my DS not be placed in the 4-year homeroom class with another student. Not for other classes, but specifically for the "community building" same-students-for-4-years homeroom class. Which they honored.

I'm wondering if anyone else sees an issue with this. My son's high school is very large, and it's not unusual for kids to see completely different kids every hour and every year. However, the school has one daily homeroom/study hall-type class that it keeps the same for all 4 years. At orientation, they bragged about this great "community-building" feature. These classes are made up by alphabetical order - they just divide them up into groups of about 25 by going down a giant alphabetical list. The result is that my son's class consists almost entirely of one ethno-religious group, because surnames in that country commonly start with the same few letters. We share that type of name because my husband's family is from the same country, but they are members of a minority that is heavily persecuted. So heavily, that my son has to be cautious never to tell anyone at school about it, because it would not go over well with the other members of the class.

I see several problems with this alphabet method, from the obvious (albeit unintentional) segregation to the specific problem my son has. I don't want to mention the specific countries/religions/ethnicities involved, but they are well known enough that it is completely obvious to the students and teacher that the class is all one group and also not possible that the enmity of that group toward the group we are associated with is not noticeable (the students in the class have been very vocal about it).

My son won't let me interfere, so I am not going to say anything. Am I making too big a deal of this? It just seems really surprising to me that the school would use alphabet order and not notice this consequence - or that they have, and they don't care.