The Youth Activism and Leadership (YAL) club hosted a public comment workshop to teach students how to write public comments and share their concerns during District 219’s monthly board meetings, on Tuesday, Nov. 12. This was the second workshop that YAL club has hosted. During the workshop, students were taught what a public comment is, the importance of public comments and how to use them to make change in their school and community.

Niles West social studies teacher and co-sponsor DJ Kosiba often makes his own public comments during school board meetings, and he believes in the importance of teaching students how to voice their opinions and get involved in their school.

“It’s easy to become cynical or feel hopeless, but in realizing that when you understand or learn how to do things like [public comments], you can actually make a change in your community,” Kosiba said.

YAL club often collaborates with other clubs like the Middle Eastern North African Club (MENA) or the Black Student Union (BSU) to advocate for issues important to their clubs and find ways to spread awareness about issues that come up.

Senior Zaviar Ashraf is one of the YAL club leaders. He found that the workshop helped improve his confidence in speaking out as well as how to write respectful and powerful public comments.

“I feel more confident in my abilities to present in the board meeting next month…and how to speak out respectfully,” Ashraf said.

YAL club welcomes all students, and for some, this workshop was their first time getting involved with the club. Sophomore Afeefa Rahman went to the workshop to learn more about YAL club and how to get more involved at school.

“It was nice to…brainstorm ideas to write your own [public comment] and watch the past [public comments] and watch them talk about things I wasn’t aware of,” Rahman said.

During the district board meeting, Kosiba began the public comments by addressing the current calendar that District 219 follows. He advocated against this so-called religiously neutral calendar, arguing that it’s not actually religiously neutral if Christmas always falls during winter break.

“Our school would be more culturally responsive and religiously conscious if we went back to actually observing holidays like Eid, Rosh Hashanah and Good Friday…if we’re worried about first semester not having enough days in it, fine, let’s move winter break to the first two weeks of January…if your immediate reaction was there is no way…how religiously neutral are we being really?” Kosiba said.

Junior Hasan Malek-Hedayat, who attended the YAL public comments workshop, also spoke during the public comment session about what he believes to be censorship of artwork that sympathizes with Palestinians.

“To be a truly diverse school, the school can’t be afraid of diverse opinions, and the school rules should be to facilitate conversations, not shut them down…Students put their blood, sweat, and tears into their artwork and deserve to see their pieces displayed alongside their fellow students,” Hedayat said.