7
Navigating Dorsey
“You can kind of tell they try to keep their distance away from each other. They
have their spot and we have our spot,” said Paradise Donaldson, a junior at Dorsey,
referring to Latino students on campus.
Donaldson arrived at Dorsey High School in 2009 as a sophomore. Before
Dorsey, she attended Monroe High School in North Hills. When her mother passed away,
she moved in with her best friend’s family and started attending Dorsey.
In Donaldson’s eyes, Dorsey has yet to achieve racial cohesion. And that can be
seen, she said, by taking a look around during lunch.
Indeed, when walking onto the Dorsey campus at lunchtime, there appears to be a
split between the Latino and African-American students. In interviews, students and
teachers alike point to lunch period as an example of the lingering segregation on
campus.
“If you walk around you’ll see like all the Latinos hanging out in one place, all
the black student hanging out in one place, all the smart kids hanging out in class. We
just always divide ourselves,” said Isaias Perez, a junior.
Lunch is not just a time eating, but for socializing. The school’s main entrance
opens into the quad. On one side, a group of African-American students talk together; on
the other side a group of Latino students sit on a bench doing the same thing. Beyond the
semi-circle of corridors where most classes are held is the “strip,” an open air space that
teems with energy. The volume is high and students gather in clusters or walk through the
center of activity calling out to friends passing by.