On Monday, September 23, LOHS hosted their first-ever This is Us Day. This is Us Day is an event that was organized by the Diversity Council with the goal of fostering community and bring awareness about diversity to the school. 

The turnout from the student body was low with approximately 450 students marked absent. But, for the students that did show up at school, the response was positive. 

Senior John Redinbo said, “It was a great way to learn more about some new viewpoints and have some active discussion.” 

Students had a lot of flexibility to the topics that they were able to learn about. Redinbo said, “The hate crimes session was my favorite because I learned what the possible motivations behind hate crimes and I also found it interesting how technology has influenced the increase of hate crimes.”

The speakers were alumni, community leaders and students who all presented about topics that they were passionate about. Senior Doris Yang said, “The sessions where people were talking about their first-hand experiences were the best. For example, my favorite sessions were when I went to one where a man who lived through the Japanese internment talked about his story.” 

But, for some other students, they did not have as positive of an experience. Junior Connor Tolley said, “There was some good discussion, but for the most part it was unknown people talking about things people didn’t care for.” Yang believes the disengagement during the day and a large number of students not present was because “People have become disillusioned with our approach to issues of diversity since it has been a problem for so long and there have been many attempts to force change.