It was the year 2007, and SHS was bustling with students. However, in that year, SHS was greeted by the first 20 students from a specific country: Myanmar.

Those refugees were the start of a flood of students from Myanmar coming to SHS due to the religious persecution in their country or their desire to join their family in America.

With this came difficulties for not only the refugee students but for the teachers at SHS.

Many refugees didn’t have the resources they needed to adapt to school in a new country.

SHS simply had no support systems in place for this situation.

For many refugees coming from Myanmar, they had to face many challenges before they could get to where they are now.

One of those was the language barrier.

Hlawn Kip Tlem, a student from the first wave of Chin students coming to SHS, struggled with speaking English.

“The very first day that I came to Southport High School, I was asked what is my schedule,” Tlem said. “And I didn’t even know what a schedule meant.”

Struggles such as the language barrier and finding adequate housing proved to be some of the most common challenges for the refugees, leaving the south side of Indianapolis and the staff of SHS baffled.

“We were in a bit of a panic,” said Barbara Brouwer, then principal of SHS, “because we had students coming to us that we were unfamiliar with and they were unfamiliar with us.”

Seventeen years later, however, SHS is no longer the school that didn’t have support systems for these students. It now thrives with several support systems in place for refugees from Myanmar and looks nothing compared to what it once did.

One of the biggest changes and proof of its growth is having a new class that helps Chin students reconnect back to their roots.

Growing pains

As the Chin population expanded, SHS knew it had to do something to help these students.

For example, administrators decided that when the first wave of Chin students arrived, they were going to implement sheltered classes, which are meant to help students with the English language. To this day, they are still helpful for students from Myanmar and other countries.

“We rearranged the curriculum so that Chin students were having math and having the sheltered English class,” Brouwer said. “We couldn’t have them do social studies and science until they understood English enough to do it.”

Initially, English was the only sheltered class offered, and it was only offered to ninth and 10th-grade students.

Within a few years, sheltered math was offered. Eventually, classes ranging from science to social studies were added.

Amy Peddie was the first-ever EL teacher for SHS.

She, however, did not make this choice herself.

“I actually started as a French teacher in Southport Middle School” Peddie said. “In about four years after I started working, at that time we were starting to see new students coming into the township, and (administrators) said, ‘You’re going to teach EL,’ and they didn’t really give me a choice.”

At first, Peddie was upset and had a fear of taking on this role. However, once she got started, she grew to have fun seeing students learn English, new cultures and their languages.

As time went on, more sheltered teachers joined the staff, and a total of 18 sheltered teachers now work here at SHS.

Organizations such as the Burmese American Community Institute were established to support the Chin students who were struggling and who needed a place to celebrate their culture.

This club, which started with students having picnics, grew into a program that is now a support network for the Chin community.

Another club is the Myanmar Student Association and was created to help students connect not only to school but to their culture.

Writing history

As of this year, SHS is offering a Hakha heritage language class for Chin students, a testament to how much the Chin community has evolved.

This class is specifically a heritage class designed for native Hakha speakers to help them reconnect with their roots compared to a regular language class that primarily teaches a language itself.

Sui Tial, the teacher of the Hakha class, says she was surprised when she discovered that SHS would be offering a Hakha language course.

“My first reaction was ‘It’s amazing. I don’t know where that is coming from,’” Tial said.

Tial says that there are challenges that come with teaching this class since she is starting from scratch.

However, she says it’s a tremendous opportunity for the students.

“In our country, we are not allowed to learn our language, even at school,” Tial said. “So now, in this generation, we can have that chance. It’s like a daydream come true.”

The Hakha language class also serves as a way to stay in touch with Chin students’ culture and identity, as many Chin students are born in America and need help reconnecting to their culture.

Sophomore Chan Thawng Hnin says this class has helped him with speaking his language at home.

“My mom always said that my Hakha is kinda bad,” Hnin said. “I told her that this class could help me out.”

Freshman Ruth Par says this class has benefited her in many ways regarding her culture.

“I’ve dived deeper in my culture, and I see how much things our ancestors went through,” Par said. “It really makes me proud to see how much we came from.”

Although this class has just started, Tial has big ambitions and high hopes for it.

“After a year we will see the good result in everything,” Tial said.

SHS has come very far with helping the Chin community and this class is clear proof of that.

What was once a school scrambling to find and create resources for a small group of students from Myanmar has grown into a history-making community that continues to grow and show their independence each day.

“We are writing history here at Southport,” Tial said.