Rocky Hill Country Day School offers affinity groups for students; asks students for their pronouns, race, and sexuality before joining affinity groups

The Rocky Hill Country Day School is a private school located in Rhode Island. The school’s website has a page promoting an “Office of Equity + Belonging.” The page states that the school will “expand professional development and curriculum to continue to build an anti-racist, just, equitable and inclusive institution.” A goal is to change the curriculum taught to students to “develop deeper understanding of curriculum flow through an equity lens.”

The school also promotes affinity groups on the page for students, faculty, parents, and alumni. Affinity groups are groups of people segregated by their characteristics, such as race and sexual orientation. Affinity groups listed by the school include an “Asian Affinity Group,” “BBIPOC/People of Color Group,” “Black Affinity Forum,” “Jewish Affinity Forum,” “Latinx/Latine Affinity Group,” “LGBTQ+ Affinity Group,” “Middle Eastern/North African,” “Multiracial Affinity Group,” “Native/Indigenous/First Nations,” “Neurodivergent Affinity Group,” and “White Allyship Affinity Group.”

The Google form for students and others who want to join an affinity group asks for personal information. The form asks for the preferred pronouns of students, with “they/them/theirs” and “other” as options. The Google form also asks for the “race/ethnicity,” “genders,” and “sexualities” of students. The list of genders includes “agender,” “cisgender man,” “cisgender woman,” “nonbinary,” “trans man,” “trans woman,” and “two-spirit.” The list of sexualities includes “asexual,” “bisexual,” “gay,” “lesbian,” “queer,” “questioning,” “straight,” and “pansexual/omnisexual.”

The Google form also links to a presentation from the school on “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice and Belonging.” This presentation tells people to “lean into discomfort” and be willing to have a “courageous conversation.” Participants are also told to “accept non-closure” and to “accept working through conflict to its resolution as a catalyst for learning.”

The school district’s page also has an option to “report discrimination.” This links to a Google form titled “RHCD’s Bias/Discrimination Reporting Form.” The Google form states that incidents of “microaggressions” can be reported:

Faculty, staff, students, and parents/guardians are strongly encouraged to report incidents of bias or microaggressive behaviors that occur at Rocky Hill Country Day School. This form is used if you have been directly involved in, impacted by, or were a witness to a bias incident or microaggression.

People filling out the form are encouraged to provide the name of the “offender” and the reason why. One example of discrimination is the “threat of ‘outing’ or disclosure about identity.” A list is provided for why victims could be targeted, including “gender identity,” “sexual orientation,” and “family structure.”