Quay Hanna to help with Warwick hate crimes

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Quay Hanna to help with Warwick hate crimes

Amanda Kennedy

Grade 11

Intelligencer Journal-Freestyle

Adviser: Claudia Esbenshade

When racial tensions manifested at Warwick High School on October 3, Quay Hanna stepped in to suppress aggressive hatred amongst students.

According to an Associated Press article that appeared on CNN.com, white students at the Lititz Borough School directed racial slurs toward black students and even spread a swell of rumor concerning the possibility of bringing guns to school and commencing riots later in the week.

The involved perpetrators frequently parked their pickups in “Redneck Row,” according to the AP article. It is an area in the school parking lot where they display Confederate flags on their vehicles, racially offensive insignias reminiscent of the Civil War.

Hanna was called upon by the district to appease the tensions that have erupted because of the racial intolerance coming form a select group of students. Overall, Hanna is very systematic in his approach to dealing with issues of hatred. Once an incident has occurred, a personal presentation is made in which he provides a narrative account of past experiences, according to Hanna. Then, he interacts with those directly affected by the incident, both victims and executors, to hear both sides of the story; providing outreach to and hearing response from the public ensues.

“In the best situations, I put the groups (of victims and perpetrators) together to come to some agreement about how to make it through school without hating each other or committing acts of violence,” Hanna said.

Quay’s involvement with youth and their attitudes toward race and other issues extends across school districts as well. As founder of Penn Manor High School’s “Quay’s Club,” a response to the 1997 White-Out incident that occurred on campus, he meets with students on a weekly basis during club period to initiate a forum of serious topics.

The White-Out involved a particular group of students who wore white T-shirts to express racial hatred against another student faction.

“I want to help young people,” Hanna said in a interview with Penn Points editor Karli Eichelberger, “because they are at critical points in their lives where many of the decisions they make can have an extremely horrible effect on the rest of their lives.”

A central mantra of Hanna’s is cooperation. When he initially became a mainstay at Penn Manor, racial issues were principal concerns, so his position mostly revolved around addressing such specific matters, Hanna said. However, his presence has developed to mediate many other concerns. Hanna is a prolific public speaker and activist who addresses such topics as “racism, prejudice, hatred, and respect,” according to Hanna. This process is identical to the methods that he is initiating at Warwick High School.

Occasionally, he speaks at assemblies at all the district’s schools to expound upon respect.

Hanna also extends a hand to students new to the high school “to help them assimilate into PM culture and to help PM assimilate to the incoming students as well,” he said.

As a 1988 graduate of Lampeter-Strasburg High School and recipient of 15 credits from Lancaster Bible College for school counseling, Hanna is quite familiar with the county. He is also a 1992 graduate from Bloomsburg University, from which he obtained at B.A. in English.

“The beginning of my change was the bus trip around America in 1993,” Hanna explained. “I found myself traveling around the country with people I thought I hated my whole life. I realized that I didn’t want to invest so much of my life in this hatred of others.”

The travels that altered his life are chronicled in his book Bus America: Revelation of a Redneck, published in 1997.

Hanna cited “becoming a follower of Christ in 1195” as a prime force that furthered his awareness. He said, “I believe the Lord was already at work in the changes that occurred on the bus, but it was at the time that the Gospel gripped my heart and fully changed the course of my life.”

The racial outburst at Warwick High School rendered Hanna to be in the limelight of the media because of his acquired consultancy with the district. The news outlets took note of not only his course of action in aiding the situation but of his involvement with Quay’s Club and the Penn Manor School District, as well. On Friday, October 19, Hanna and the members of his group were filmed by major news network CNN in their natural club setting. Hanna expressed enthusiasm for the experience because of the network’s approach to the set-up of the interview.

“All I have even wanted to do is let America see what we (as a club) do week after week,” he said. “I was also very, very pleased that (CNN) wanted us to do what we always do in club: discuss controversial topics in a diverse setting to hear many different perspectives. The students were awesome. I can’t wait for America to see what I have had the privilege to witness these past 10 years.

Hanna views the racial incidences that occurred at Warwick a few weeks ago and at Penn Manor a decade ago as “similar.” The situations were not remote in their uniqueness. “(Racial tension) happens every day, all over the county, all over the state, and all over the country,” he explained. “Not everything makes the front page, though.”

Ultimately, the effects of Hanna’s public speaking venues, PMHS club, and mediation are immense. “I try and help people get along,” he said. His efforts are paying off.