By: Delia Agular, Giovanni Varela-Benitez & Arela Varela-Arroyo
Photos By: Delia Aguilar
Riverside High School is full of diverse students from all types of different ethnic backgrounds, but it hasn’t always been this way.
In 2011, about 17% of Riverside students were Hispanic. In 2024, it’s 39.3%, making it the largest demographic in the school.
How the Hispanic population grew, both within the school and throughout Durham, and what it means for both Riverside and the students, is a story almost as diverse as the school itself.
Throughout America’s history, families have come to the US in search of a better life and education, many of whom did not speak English. When they choose to move to Durham and attend Riverside, it’s the English as a Second Language program (ESL) that leads them to succeed in school.
At the beginning of the 2023-24 school year Riverside had less than 100 students enrolled in the ESL program, but as the year progressed the number shot up to 467 and counting.
“It’s definitely increasing over the last six years,” said Karen Keim. “The population of students who are identified as English language learners has grown tremendously.”
Keim is an ESL graduation coach. She has been working at Riverside for six years and believes that shelter classes, which provide a simple way of learning, are not a good idea for ESL students because the goal for these students is to have them integrate into mainstream school culture.
ESL students aren’t just Hispanics. There are kids from all over the world who are made to take these classes.
“For instance, Iraq, or African countries, they come usually through a refugee organization,” said Keim.
Lately, there has been an increase of students from Afghanistan who are taking ESL classes which is one of the changes in the demographics throughout the years of having ESL.
“I don’t think there were any Afghan students when I started here,” said Jeremiah Safford.
Safford teaches two classes this semester, these classes include English four and ESL.
He has been teaching at Riverside for five years. And while his ESL students come from all over the world, the majority of them are Hispanic.
As he helps his students acclimate to the English language and American schools, one of the most challenging parts of his job is helping them access the same opportunities as Riverside’s general student population.
He states that the representation of Hispanic students could be better and an example of this could be the student government including more Hispanic students. Also noting that the ROTC program holds a large amount of Hispanic students and the soccer team as well.
In his perspective, he states that he heard that people in general have been having trouble with being social but he thinks that it has brought students together to some extent. Meaning that the students can talk about the things that they like or don’t like about school.
For some of his kids, English is indeed their second language but in many cases, he had students that already came with 3 or more languages already learned.
“ESL shouldn’t be about trying to replace the other language, right? Like it needs to be about having respect for both,” said Safford.
He encourages his students to keep practicing their home languages and practice both languages at the same time because it can help develop your brain in many ways. Plus, the ability to speak multiple languages is a valuable skill.
“It’s helping them find the resources that they need and helping them understand what’s going on around them. And that’s what I really like about ESL,” said Safford.
Safford would like to see more opportunities for ESL students to take honors and AP classes but noted it’s difficult because advanced classes have more content and often move faster.
He also stated that there may be social obstacles that may stop ESL students from taking AP and Honors classes, too.
“Especially if it’s the majority of people who are native English speakers,” he said. “I’ve heard from students that they feel intimidated. They don’t want to talk.”
When students first arrive in the U.S. they will take ESL classes. Once they have ____, they are put into mainstream classes but one of the classes is kept as a sheltered class.
“We’ll keep the English class as an ESL class as a shelter,” said Safford.
But he still encourages students to take AP classes if they are planning to go to universities because it’s free, and would like to someday offer an honors or AP class specifically for ESL students.
“We’d have to have the staff for it, and people would have the certificates and also enough students who are interested,” he said.
The Pirates’ Hook put together a poll for a group of ESL students asking them questions about their background. Out of 17 people our data showed us the majority of them were from Honduras.
On another question, it showed out of 17 ESL students that took the survey, the majority of students said they had lived in the U.S for two to four years.
As we witness these students being constantly left out, how can the Riverside community push for a more inclusive school? This is a question that ESL teachers often face, but these staff members should not be the only people facing this. Ways the Riverside community can include these students would be by treating all these students the same.
