A Message from the President

Good afternoon,

It is with great urgency and sadness that I write to you today. These few past weeks have been incredibly challenging for our country, our city, and for our school community at Boston College High School. Principal Lewis and I have been actively engaged in dialogue with our students, alumni and members of our community around race and bias at BC High. The pain resulting from these conversations and the racially-charged injustices in our country has been immense.

These injustices are heartbreaking, as are the student and alumni experiences that we are learning about through the recently launched Black at BC High Instagram account. The stories and personal truths describing instances of blatant racism against students of color within our own school community are raw. They are painful to read and absorb, and I can’t even begin to imagine how painful to have been lived through. As a Jesuit, Catholic school, committed to social justice, we must take swift action to uncover and remedy the attitudes and culture that have contributed to this behavior. We have no room for racism at BC High.

To our students and alumni of color: I’m sorry. I’m sorry that our school has not done more to protect you and prevent you from enduring this mistreatment. We must do better. We must be more intentional. And we must dedicate ourselves to real, meaningful change and be held accountable for our actions. We are committed to you, and we are committed to actively challenging and changing unjust structures so that we may dismantle systems of racism and oppression.

My promise to you is that I will continue to work with the Board of Trustees, Principal Lewis, and our students and our community to implement an institutional approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Together, we are taking time to pause, reflect, discern on our response and action. We will embark on an internal audit and an honest review of our current context. This is truly a Kairos moment, one that presents BC High with an opportunity to bring our community together in one of the most important conversations in our 157-year history. We invite you into that conversation as partners in our mission as men and women for others, open to growth, and committed to doing what is right and just for our young men at BC High.

We will communicate with you over the next few weeks regarding our next steps and plans for facilitating this very necessary dialogue. In the meantime, please continue to share your stories and experiences, in whatever forum you feel most comfortable, and that includes speaking directly with me.

AMDG,

President Grace Cotter Regan P’12