UPrep is in the middle of its first Social Justice Week. Over the past few years, Social Justice Days have been losing student interest. Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Taylor Kanemori thought that a weeklong event would reduce absences.
“We had almost 200 students out last year,” Kanemori said. “We were making 630 unique schedules, which is a lot to undertake for a third of the school to not show up.”
The numerous absences resulted in the shift to a full week, including a full Community Time keynote by UPrep alum Kelabe Tewolde. However, this schedule change has caused increased stress among students who feel that the loss of Community Time will affect their academics. 
“When I take time out of Community Time, I tend to do worse in all my classes,” sophomore Lucas Keppler said. “I can’t meet with teachers, and I have just less homework time. And that tends to stress me out.”
As seniors near the end of their high school careers, they find themselves wanting Community Time for themselves.
“Now that I’m a senior and I don’t have much time left, it’s nice to meet and actually do the things I’d like to do whenever I have the chance,” senior Fiachra Burke said. “To spread out all of the Social Justice Day stuff to the rest of the week is just going to take away some time.”
Despite the negative opinions, some students think that it is important for our student body to take advantage of the chance to learn.
“That type of education and outreach is a privilege, and I think that we should be taking our opportunities when we can get them,” sophomore Aslan Malik said.
Emma Esselstyn, integrated learning specialist for ninth and tenth graders, feels that Social Justice Week is a positive experience.
“It just benefits everyone to be able to have an understandingand appreciation of diversity,” Esselstyn said. “Wherever you go, you’re going to experience people different than you, and if you’re able to work together with them and empathize with them and be curious about each other, that’s how we build a great society.”
Shavette McGhee, previous director of diversity and community, who started Social Justice Day at UPrep and has since moved on to become assistant head of school for student experience at SAAS believes that Social Justice Week is an important experience for students.
“This is school. Especially seniors, this is getting them ready for college,” McGhee said. “If they can’t have these difficult conversations with their classmates that they’ve been with since sixth grade, some of them, how are they going to go to college and have roommates from all over the world?”
