The Black Student Union will be celebrating Black History month again for the third time with the purpose of remembering history and how far we have come as people. The Black Student Union, started by the main leaders, senior Kayla Webster and senior Terena Clemons, will be holding an assembly on February 28, 2018.

Before BSU, Phoenix Military Academy would play a movie for Black History Month, however, Webster and Clemons thought this month deserved more than just a movie. Presently, during the event, the students are sent to the gym to see everyone’s hard work on stage with a play, a dance, or other performance. Since BSU has a small amount of students, rumors around PMA started to spread in where the school has favoritism when it comes to Spanish Heritage and Black History Month.

“The celebration of Black History Month is as important as Hispanic Heritage month. It’s celebrations like these that show pride and gratitude that we are glad to be African American, Latino/a and how much of our culture should be brought into the light of today’s society to make them known for by not just being black or brown,” said senior Kiara Balleza.

PMA has a high rate of Hispanic students (75.4%) with a lower composition of black students (22.2%). According to the students, some tend to ignore part of this celebration with the thinking of “it does not apply to me”.

“A lot of our history is the same, latinos were slaves at one point too, it is just that it was not necessarily here in this country and if we just sit back and talk to each other and get to talk about what happen, we would learn to love each other,” said Webster.

Webster believes racial issues segregated everyone more than religion did, and because these topics are not touched as a school, communication is being lack.

“If you really understand what’s going on, we are all products of what happen. This school is segregated, this is what school looked like in 1950,” said Webster, clarifying that these actions are done unconsciously through human nature with the intention of being able to go with the people who are the same as oneself, yet, this action affects communication, and eventually, affects how much students seperate themselves from one another.

“I believe in these kids. I believe that they can continue with the group, I believe some of these kids can take leadership to do whatever it needs to be done to keep the group going,” said Webster.

Soon, Webster and Clemons will be graduating and their hope is to see their underclassmen take leadership to keep this group going since it is appreciated by adults and students.

“I had a laugh at the game show that Mr. Bernthal created, and his team/students did a phenomenal job with the performances,” said Mrs.Raygoza, who encourages the event incorporate other ethnicity groups as well.

BSU does more than just celebrate Black History Month. They also help the students academically to get higher scores and generally just improve.