When former Media Arts teacher Cathy Leather told her fourth-period Media Arts class to separate into groups one day last year, the students eagerly strayed from their assigned seats. According to senior Gerui Sheng, most of the white students congregated on one side of the room, while the Asians gathered on the other side.

Inside the classroom, there had never been any blatant racial tension, but it was obvious that given a choice, those of the same race chose — consciously or not — to stay together. And as often happens, Sheng said students had “self-segregated.”

According to Sheng, most Asian kids choose to do a select few extracurriculars such as math club, speech and debate and badminton.

“This leads more Asian-exclusive interactions and friend groups, and [the] same goes for Caucasians,” Sheng said. “It’s like a cycle.”

Sheng’s feelings about a racial divide in the community echoes those of 2014 alumnus Samuel Liu, now a sophomore at Harvard University. Liu wrote an article this past summer for Caixin Media Company Limited, a Beijing-based media group. The article was later published on Slate.com, even though Liu originally wrote it for Caixin and had “no idea” that his writing was being published on an American website.

In this article, Liu wrote that “the culture [at Saratoga High] had split soundlessly into two separate circles, each involved in its own activities and contemptuous of the other.”

As of Sept. 30, the article had 5,200 shares on Facebook, as its racial topic has stirred conversation throughout the Bay Area.

In his article, Liu described those on either side of the divide as being contemptuous of each other. In a recent interview, though, he softened his perspective on the issue, qualifying what he meant.

“I guess it’s an antagonism of a different sort — apathy, a word I think may be the root of many issues in Saratoga,” Liu said.

Responding to Liu’s article, alumna Deepti Kannan, a 2015 graduate who now attends Stanford University, said a racial divide is apparent at Saratoga High but is in no way “contemptuous.”

“To some extent, that divide could be observed with a cursory glance around the quad,” Kannan said. “You would see some Asians only hanging out with Asians and some whites only hanging out with whites.”

The divide, she explained, can be explained by a basic principle of chemistry: People, like molecules, tend to stick to their own kind.

In a school that’s 55.6 percent Asian and 31.3 percent white as of 2013-2014, Kannan said that demographics don’t define friend groups or classroom atmosphere.

“Plenty of non-Asians are in my AP classes and plenty of non-Asians are my friends,” Kannan said. “Most kids at Saratoga are pretty accepting of who you are, regardless of ethnicity.”

Similarly, class of 2015 alumna Anna Sabel attributed the racial divide not to cultural backgrounds, but rather to academic and social mindsets.

“I know so many diverse groups of friends who have similar outlooks on school, success and life that have so little to do with their ethnic background,” Sabel said.

Freshman Justin Chao said that parenting style is not analogous to race. Chao, whose mother is white and father is Asian, often finds himself in a mix of both races, both ethnically and socially.

“I know many white parents who consume their kids in academics,” Chao said. “I also know many Asian parents who are very relaxed and allow their children to do whatever they want.”

Chao “doesn’t see much of a barrier” between races on campus, since he has friends of both races.

Perhaps the differences in opinion on the white-Asian divide are a result of personal choice, Chao said. Do students choose to let instinct push them toward people of the same race, who supposedly have more in common with them?

In order to bridge the instinctual racial gap, Liu said part of the answer is “starting the conversation.” Liu commended SHS administrators and teachers for beginning to take a look at issues of race.

“Socializing with people unlike you is so necessary and beneficial in the real world that our primal discomfort really can’t take precedence,” Liu said. “What is natural isn’t always what is right.”