Peeps on the Street: Students discuss protest on inaction regarding race

"I’m here because there’s a lack of representation in classes that are higher-leveled, and in quite a few of my classes I’ve been the only person of color. I think that that is something huge, and we need to work on it as a school and as a district. It’s hard to learn in an environment where everyone looks like the material that you’re learning about, and you’re the only one that’s different...

“I think this is really awesome. I didn’t expect it. I think that doing something like this, and how many people have come here shows how aware as a student body we are of the problems we have as a school... It also really feels like the administration is trying to stall. They’re saying like, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re going to put a stop to this later on. We’re going to try to prevent this in t...

“I’m getting an AWOL for this. I’ve never gotten an AWOL before, so I feel strongly about this situation. I feel like being a White female, I can do more things than the people with less privilege, and I feel like it’s good to take action because others can’t. We should help each other to rise up.”

“As you know, while we are doing this protest/sit in, students don’t get excused from the classes we have sat for. We’re getting AWOL’s. This is what we choose to do because at this point we feel like we need to actually do something about it and take a stand because the administration has not done anything yet. I feel like we’ve been talking about it for way too long that there is no need ...

“I believe that the only way for the school to make progress is to continuously do all these spontaneous protests like this. Make it inconvenient for the teachers, make it inconvenient for the administrators, let them know that you can’t add one assembly, you can’t add one race day, we need actual ability to write policies. I think that’s a big problem with the school administration is that t...

“I feel like some people, usually after the MLK assembly- I’ve seen some people not take it seriously, not take what people are saying seriously. So having everyone gather down here, I feel scared by it because most people don’t see it as a problem. They’re like, ‘Oh, MLK is over, we can just go back to our regular selves,” but that’s not the case. It’s actual problems that are taking...

“There are a lot of issues that need to be solved and a lot of things that needed to be changed. But I think it’s a start when, in the middle of an F-block class, a student who feels passionate about this, comes into my class and says, ‘Hey there’s a Black Lives Matter sit-in in the atrium,’ and the whole class follows. I think it’s great to be in an environment where we can safely protest abo...

“I think that what Donnaya is advocating for is really important. I think at least one way to incorporate the full meaning of this thing, at least for me, is that this isn’t necessarily a protest like a lot of other Black Lives Matter Protests, because people have heard a lot of issues and the administration has heard everybody complaining about the problems and stuff, and they also know they ...

"I think what Donnaya’s doing is very important. It needed to be done. I’ve been thinking a lot about the curriculum idea, and how there’s been lots of electives being added, like Mr. Cawthorne and Ms. Leslie’s class, which is important. But electives are a choice and people sign up for electives, as opposed to US History, which people don’t sign up for because it’s mandatory. If you’re j...

"I know for me personally, people have said racial slurs to me, and I have felt uncomfortable being the only Black person in an honors class. I felt that coming today was a good way to have awareness because sometimes we speak and people aren’t listening, so it gets frustrating after a while. That’s why Donnaya just wanted to sit here and be quiet, and I know she has an older brother, and I hav...