“We’re trying to develop a community that listens and seeks out ways we can enrich our lives by including many voices.”
Dr. Phaizon Wood, Buckley Trustee

Building and supporting a diverse community – diverse in all its forms - is a top priority for our school.  We want to be a community that reflects the world around us; a community that not only respects diversity but desires it, whether that diversity is racial, economic, gender, religious or any other form.  Through this, we will provide our students with the sensitivity and communication skills necessary to live in today’s wonderfully varied and global world.

Diversity efforts at Buckley are collaborative and include both organic and planned programs.  Our Committee on Diversity is comprised of members from the school administration, parents, board members, faculty and staff, and Parents’ Association leaders – and we often call upon students and alumni to illuminate our discussions.  The coordinator of diversity, Joelina Machera, is a resource for our entire community. But much of real work happens on in our classrooms and by our students, through our curriculum and school events, and in student clubs, such as the Lower School’s Culture Club or the Upper School’s Student Diversity Leadership Club.

Goals

• raise awareness of diversity and the issues that surround it; 
• help our students develop skills for living in a diverse community;
• ensure that the diversity of our students, our Los Angeles community, and our world is honored and celebrated in classrooms, curricula and in our many extra-curricular programs
• provide diversity training to all  Buckley faculty and administrators
• recruit and support a diverse student and faculty body

Recent and Relevant

• The Laramie Project – this important work was staged as Buckley’s Spring drama.  In the weeks before the show, the cast put on a character education assembly, after which students met for advisory group discussions.
• Buckley gets AAMMP’d – the African American Male Mentorship Program.  AAMMP, a group for young men in grades 6-12, offers mentoring and support to help students realize their academic potential, develop leadership skills, and form a sense of community within the larger Buckley community.  Led by our own Coach Hamilton, the group meets for an hour after school every other week for open discussion and homework, and once a month for a weekend social gathering.
• This Fall Buckley’s Heritage Families group was founded to provide opportunities for our families of African and African American descent to socialize and make connections.
• Student Diversity Leadership Club (SDLC) takes the “diversity” to Junior States of America meeting.  SDLC members want to encourage students to be actively engaged in discussions of diversity and social justice, so in February, they put the topic on the calendar of JSA, a very popular Upper School debate club.
• On-going library displays  - Iranian New Year, Black History Month, Women’s History Month
• Professional Development:  In March, 18 faculty and staff members attended a presentation by renowned author, professor and social justice advocate Angela Davis. In the fall the full faculty met with artist and professor Kip Fulbeck on issues of identity in today’s diverse society (this followed Fulbeck’s presentations to students in grades 4-12 as well as to parents.
• Lula Washington Dance Troupe performed a K-12 Culture Concert in honor of Black History Month.