Over the past few years, Uni has been trying to make our school a more inclusive and inviting place. We’ve put in place measures to increase awareness of mental health and make people from communities of underrepresented minorities feel included. Recently, MPAG went a step further, to ensure inclusivity for those with disabilities.
The Multicultural Parent Advisory Committee, or MPAG, is a group of parents that guides Uni in creating an inclusive and welcoming environment in our school, with people of different religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. This group plays a vital part in making sure admissions, hiring, and our school’s curriculum are broadened so that we have equity in education for all students.
A disability inclusivity sub-committee was “proposed by a Uni parent participating in MPAG,” English teacher Valerie O’Brien said. A blurb in the Uni newsletter about the sub-committee stated that students, staff, and parents can join to give suggestions and voice their opinions on ways Uni could increase its inclusivity of people with disabilities. They especially want to hear from people with disabilities about their opinions and perspectives on inclusivity at Uni.
O’Brien said that “a handful of students” and one faculty have joined so far, as this initiative is still getting off the ground. She added that a different sub-committee, the student advisory group for equity, or SAGE, was already having “conversations about Uni [needing to be] more inclusive of students with learning differences and disabilities,” so this has been a crucial issue for a while.
One of the top suggestions that students had was hiring a third counselor. O’Brien acknowledges that this is financially difficult for Uni right now, but was still highly supported by students. Additionally, she said that students want more transparency about confidentiality from the SSO, such as “what gets reported to parents and what are the limits of student counselor confidentiality for minors.”
O’Brien believes this new sub-committee is an “important priority” for MPAG and our school.
