A new club has been formed in the aftermath of a t-shirt incident at Columbia High School in November in which white students wrote messages considered pro-slavery on their t-shirts for an in-school volleyball tournament. However, school officials said they were unable to comment on any disciplinarian action that was or was not taken regarding individual students involved in the incident.

According to a message from school district Communications Coordinator Judith Levy, "'Diversity Rocks!' is a newly formed social, academic, and philanthropic club, that seeks to bring students together to learn about and celebrate their racial, ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, gender identity, and sexual orientation diversity within Columbia High School and the South Orange/Maplewood community at large."

The club advisor is Phil McCormick, teacher of Social Studies/Psychology. Besides teaching Psychology and AP Psychology at CHS, McCormick is also currently taking graduate classes for Social Work.

McCormick said that, after the t-shirt incident was resolved, "students approached me about advising a diversity club. Students' goals were for this to be a positive outcome of this misunderstanding."

McCormick said that the club is open to all students. It meets on Thursdays after school at 3:15 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre. "As of right now, we are seeing a regular turn-out of about 30-40 students at meetings," reported McCormick.

The club launched its philanthropic work this month with students volunteering  for the Battle of the Basement Bands event on January 21 at Our Lady of Sorrows School. As part of their work for the event, the students also collected canned foods and goods for the Community FoodBank of NJ.

Currently, the club members are also working to restore the Achieve Tutor Program at Marshall Elementary School "because we believe that we need to motivate younger students to do well in school," said McCormick.

In the near future, McCormick added, the club also plans to host educational events, "teaching us about race and respect for other cultures, which will be open to the community."

In addition, "A percentage of our fundraisers will be donated to various charities."

"A big push for the club — expressed by students — was the idea of getting kids out of their own comfort level/cliques and to meet with other kids with whom they might not otherwise interact," said McCormick. Also, we feel that there are many great learning opportunities for students, given the community's diversity  — racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, LGBT/gender identity — which often is not found in neighboring towns. By trying to bring students together, we would like to create events that celebrate, educate, and discuss issues pertaining to our diversity."

Patch also asked school district officials if the students involved in the November t-shirt incident had been exonerated or disciplined. The district had this reply:

“We are not able to discuss the details pertaining to any particular student. The district’s Code of Conduct provides a spectrum of consequences and interventions based on the history of the student and the severity of behavior.”

The incident provoked a quick response from district administation and resulted in upset parents and students turning out at the November Board of Education meeting to voice their concerns.