There were several issues at the forefront of students’ minds as they started the Student Identity Protection Alliance (SIPA). Among these, was poor communication from the administration and a lack of all-user bathrooms. Additionally, there was no Community Learning Experience (CLE) planned for the 2025-26 school year focusing on race.
SIPA was formed in November after hearing about the transition from “Days of” to CLEs. They aim to address student frustration in other areas of the high school as well, including improving all-user bathrooms. The group meets weekly over Zoom, and has started both a newsletter and Instagram account. SIPA has also been involved in protesting against ICE.
Senior and member Noah Krewinghaus said that people felt enraged by the switch to CLEs. This was for a variety of reasons: feeling silenced, missing important learning opportunities and not having a role in the decision making process.
“I remember hearing people saying, ‘This is totally not right. They can’t be doing this right now. This is so unbelievable,’” Krewinghaus said. “I think people really loved the “Days of,” and people [whose] identities fit the “Days of,” found them really, really important; they are really important. So, some people also took [the switch to CLEs] as a personal attack or as the administration saying, ‘We don’t care enough about you or your identity.’”
Senior and SIPA president Echo Kaufman said that while the switch to CLEs was the catalyst for starting the group, it is ultimately the result of years of frustration with the administration.
“It felt like there was no room for our voices at the school. There were so many upsetting things happening both in our country and in our Brookline communities that we felt like nobody was giving us the space to speak about and fight for what we wanted and what we believed in,” Kaufman said. “[SIPA] was really a response to a deeper-rooted issue that a lot of us have been feeling for a long time; that there’s just not space for student voices in decisions that are being made about minority groups.”
One of the changes introduced in the switch to CLEs this year is the opt-in structure; teachers can choose whether or not their classes attend the special programming during their blocks. Kaufman said this was one of their biggest concerns in the switch.
“In so many ways, [the opt-in format] felt like it was negating the importance of hearing minority voices in a school and educating about minority voices,” Kaufman said. “It furthered the belief and mentality that I think a lot of us in Brookline have: because we’re better than so many other places, we’re doing a good job. I think any minority student can tell you that that’s not the case.”
According to junior and SIPA vice president Chora Bayer, another of SIPA’s central concerns is that with the switch to CLE’s, there is not going to be a day dedicated to discussing race similar to the Day of Racial Reform and Solidarity (DoRRS). The first step they took in addressing this was reaching out to students to gauge and gather support. They received statements of support from 123 people within 24 hours, which they cited in their first email to the administration regarding concerns about not having a CLE on race.
“We said, ‘Hey, if you want to see DoRRS happen this year, and want to help try and make a change, we would love your support,’” Bayer said. “I was very surprised at the large number of signatures that we got, and I was just really happy, and it gave me a lot of hope.”
According to Kaufman, SIPA has met with deans and administrators several times following this initial communication. Their main focus has been planning a “Telling our Stories” block, where students and faculty have the opportunity to give speeches relating their experiences to the school. In the spring, there will be a “Telling our Stories” block, similar to what DoRRS has previously offered. It will remain opt-in, but students with teachers who have opted out can attend with a permission slip. According to Kaufman, in efforts to avoid previous controversy sparked by “Telling our Stories,” speakers will follow a guiding question this year.
“Our guiding questions right now are: how do you celebrate your racial and ethnic identity? How did you come to terms with your racial and ethnic identity?” Kaufman said. “I think a lot of what we’re also trying to do right now, especially in a time that’s so incredibly difficult and dark and upsetting for so many different minority groups, is focusing on finding hope and how we can still find ways to love and celebrate ourselves when it doesn’t feel safe to be who we are.”
Krewinghaus said that “Telling our Stories” in past years was especially important as it serves as a reminder that, in school, not only academics are important; learning about peers is crucial as well. Krewinghaus said their perspective has been broadened by previous assemblies.
“I remember there was a speaker who talked about hair and her experience with her hair, and it just made me have this complete reflection. I remember sitting in my classroom listening to the speech, and immediately [started] thinking back to things that I had done that had been microaggressions that I wasn’t aware of,” Krewinghaus said.
SIPA helped organize the MLK assembly, during which guest speaker Raphael Feliciano Cumbas spoke about the importance of having dreams and aspirations to work towards. Bayer said that SIPA coordinated with Cumbas for his speech.
“We wanted to have guest speakers for [the CLE being planned], but [administration] said that we weren’t going to be able to have three blocks, one lesson planned, one telling our stories and one guest speaker, so we compromised and decided to have the guest speaker during the MLK assembly,” Bayer said.
SIPA is also focused on improving all-user bathrooms at the high school. According to Kaufman, many students are impacted daily by the high school’s lack and poor conditions of all-user bathrooms. Kaufman said this is an issue they have been advocating for with administration (through emails, conversations and meetings) for years, without seeing much progress. Part of what SIPA planned to do is release all of the communications they have had with the administration.
According to Kaufman, SIPA has also been working to support different student-led anti-ICE initiatives at the high school. They’ve used their weekly email list to reach people in the community and also helped advertise the walkout on Feb. 4.
Ultimately, Kaufman said that leading SIPA has helped them take more of a role in decision making at the high school.
“MLK Day was such a huge thing and such a huge change. We were able to help organize that event; we played a very large hand behind the scenes in deciding the proceedings of the event and we got the outside speaker. We’ve [now] kickstarted this entire planning for having a ‘Telling our Stories’ block,” Kaufman said. “I think the other huge part of [SIPA] is making the administration aware that students care about these issues and that students are willing to fight for these issues.”
