The Hillsborough Township Committee recognized local support among Hillsborough High School students for racial equality at a recent meeting.
The township committee dedicated a portion of its Jan. 28 meeting to recognize Hillsborough High School students for their commitment to racial healing. The students, in conjunction with Safe and Sound Somerset, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Community Conversations, parents and educators, acknowledged the “National Day of Racial Healing” on Jan. 21.
The National Day of Racial Healing (NDORH) is aimed to offer people, organizations and communities across the United States, opportunities to recognize the need for racial healing and brings people together to take collective action for a more just and equitable world.
A Hillsborough High School student in attendance at the committee meeting to accept the proclamation from municipal officials, Kaitlyn Dundorf, discussed a workshop event held at the school on Jan. 22 to discuss racial healing. Teachers, parents, and school board members in the community participated in the workshop.
“We had a ton of people there to celebrate the day and to have a conversation about racial healing and racial literacy,” Kaitlyn said. “What we wanted to do was bring people together to have those important conversations and start to think.”
Municipal officials said the township recognizes that there is a racial divide in the country and that people must work “earnestly to heal the wounds created by racial, ethnic, and religious bias, and to build an equitable and fair society so that all children can learn and thrive.”
“If we all dedicate ourselves to the principles of truth, racial healing, and transformation, we can all bring about the necessary changes in thinking and behavior that will propel this great country forward as a unified force where racial biases will become a thing of the past,” officials said.
“It is not the responsibility of one person, one group, or even one organization to drive this work,” according to the NDORH website. “The responsibility belongs to all of us to participate in these honest, powerful and moving experiences and, pursue this journey together. Through racial healing, we can all forge deep, meaningful relationships, lay the groundwork to transform broken systems, and create a world in which, together, we are a new force for positive change.”
At the township committee meeting, mayor Doug Tomson honored Hillsborough High School students for their work to become advocates for this movement as well as their impact on the community.
“The Hillsborough Township Committee applauds the students of Hillsborough Township for their commitment to racial healing, and urges all citizens to promote racial healing and transformation in the ways that are best suited for them individually, as a means to working together to ensure the best quality of life for every child,” Tomson said.
The township was even subject to an incident in July 2019 when municipal officials reported that an anti-Semitic flier was posted at the municipal building overnight between July 14-15.
Officials said the flier was reported to be found on the building’s glass entrance doorway on the morning of July 15 by a township employee and was immediately referred to the Hillsborough Township Police Department. It was then forwarded to the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office and the New Jersey State Police in accordance with established protocols, according to officials.
A police investigation reported that the flier’s content referenced the denial that the Holocaust actually took place. The flier references an organization called the DailyStormer.name.