Niles West Students Protest Lack of Support for Marginalized Identities
Feb 24, 2022
Students walked out of Niles West High School to protest Niles West’s lack of support for students of marginalized identities. This protest, which started at the beginning of 7th period, is the fourth demonstration in the month of February.
Originally, the protest was scheduled to take place on Wednesday, Feb. 16, but was delayed due to conflicting schedules with the Friday, Feb. 18 protest, which included various community groups who also acted as sponsors.
Students participating in the walkout left the school through the Oakton Lobby doors at the start of 7th period and gathered in the visitors parking lot. Though the number fluctuated from periods 7-8, approximately 250 people participated.
“We were protesting to bring light to the discrimination we face from administration and staff at West, on all fronts: racism, homophobia, transphobia and all sorts of bigotry, including those who have suffered from sexual assault and have been ignored,” senior Nina Cajuste said.
Many of the students feel that the way District 219 resolves actions of discrimination are performative activism—doing or saying something publicly to boost an image, while failing to enact policy that makes substantive change.
“They show [attention to racism in the district], but they don’t distribute it. The way they justify the racism that happened that day [in reference to the Feb. 10 protest] shows that they need to prove what they’re saying, instead of just saying it,” junior Jahliya Winter said.
The acts were investigated but student consequences, including suspensions for hate speech, are protected under FERPA.
Senior Yasmine Carlin said, “ I feel like the administration silences their students and sweeps everything under the rug and doesn’t care about the students and their well-being, but cares more about complaints from people who aren’t even in our community and the image of the school.”
Gathered in a circle, West students took turns sharing their own personal stories of discrimination.
Freshman Laira Biewer, who identifies as a trans student, has been subjected to such hate speech at Niles West.
“I have been hate-crimed multiple times here and it really disappoints me how they treat the attackers. Last time I was hate-crimed here, they made me sit in a little peace group, they made me talk and try to figure it out and see both sides,” Biewer said.
Peace circles, a restorative justice practice, are used to resolve conflict. Both the victim and the accused talk about the situation with the goal of healing through communication. In these peace circles, the accused and victim discuss the situation and the need to find a common ground solution.
“The way they treat these horrible incidents, the way they just dismiss it as some kind of mistake that the kids made and that they should apologize for. They don’t seem to be helping, but giving a slap on the hand and letting them go off on their day,” Biewer said.
Junior Ashley Kyobe told the crowd about when someone hacked into her zoom account her sophomore year.
“Someone went into the call, put my name into there, and spammed the n-word multiple times…I go to the administration, saying, ‘hey, this is what’s happening, I’m getting hate-crimed.’ They did not do anything. They tried to investigate and said, ‘we’re so sorry about it, we’ll make sure it never happens again.’ Two weeks later it happens again. As a black student, I’ve gone through a lot of discrimination from when I was younger to now, being called an oreo, and now I come into this school to get more hate-crimed. This is not what we need,” Kyobe said.
West students who participated had similar reasons for their presence at the protest.
“I’m protesting because I believe the administration does not do enough to support the students around us and they need to hold themselves accountable for all the students they failed,” senior Kiela Broderick said.
“I don’t think that racial attacks of any kind should happen anywhere, especially not in an area that is so racially diverse. It should not happen in a place like this or anywhere,” freshman Aidan Sisson.
“No” was a common answer among the protestors. When asked if they felt safe at Niles West, junior Hannah Cofre, along with junior Briyanna Manzaneres, strongly stated “no.”
Those protesting hope that moving forward, administrators will listen to all students and make the necessary changes to create a safe environment.
“I think that they really need to listen to the students, they say that they do and that everyone has a voice but I don’t think that they’re actually listening. I think they really need to connect more with the students and actually take proper steps to solve these issues,” senior Leslie Basco-Kent said.
“The school needs to be a lot more proactive when dealing with these issues. I hope the school will start to take student complaints seriously especially regarding issues of hate speech and anything relating to that. They need to tackle these things much faster than they’ve been doing,” senior Henry Fleck.
Niles West and district officials were contacted for comment, but a response was not received by press time.
All students who participated in the protest were marked with unexcused absences and were expected to return to their 9th period classes. Ultimately, the protest ended at 3:20 p.m. Some students returned to their 9th period for the remaining time, while others left campus.
