Dear MO, It was in my sophomore year of high school that I choose to wear a hijab (Muslim head covering). After some time reflecting on its meaning and evaluating how I wanted to practice my faith, the decision I came to was one I was proud of, as I…

Dear MO, When our child was in second grade, they came home on Columbus Day very upset about having been made to sing a song praising Columbus, and went straight to the recycling bin and ripped up the song and recycled it. When we asked what happened, our child said…

Dear MO, As much as I love this town, there are many issues regarding race. As a person of color, I have seen and experienced racism in its many forms. Even with the diversity in the district today, there are still microaggressions and acts of racism that are present. When…

Dear MO, Well, I have had many experiences living in MO. I’m gonna start off by saying I’m Puerto Rican and Black, and a lot of people know that about me. In the first grade, I was on the bus riding home and a classmate told me “go back to…

Dear MO, When I was in middle school, I was bullied so much about being Muslim that I grew to not respect my religion as I should have. I hated it. I wanted to be anything but who I was. I was always told to go back to where I…

Dear MO, My first year at MOMS I was told that I should go back to Mexico and eat tacos because I said I was excited to get a job. I was called an illegal immigrant, people asked for my green card, and called me multiple racist, homophobic, and transphobic…

Dear MO, As an Asian-American, I’ve never really experienced blatant, overt racism often like others have from this town, but somehow I still have been uncomfortable all my life and subtly treated like an outsider. Getting dirty, condescending looks from classmates in high school who silently conveyed that I was…

Dear MO, I was raised in this town from a very young age and have grown to become a strong African American young woman who is on her way to graduating college. I take care in mentioning my race because my experience as a POC growing up in this town…

Dear MO, I grew up in Mount Olive as a Caucasian female. For years, when asked about Mount Olive, I would speak about how diverse the district was. When I saw this page and read into all of the stories previous students have told, I paused. I started to question…