Approximately 1,000 students walked out of class Thursday morning at Parkway Central High School in the wake of yet another incident of racism at the school, this time graffiti covering the walls of a bathroom.
The graffiti was discovered Wednesday afternoon by a student in a bathroom, and included the n-word and the phrase “hope all Black people die.” A note from Parkway Central principal Tim McCarthy in response to the graffiti was distributed that evening and said “racist slurs were written on bathroom walls at Central and North High Schools.”
That evening, a group chat of less than ten Black Parkway Central seniors discussed walking out of school in protest. News of the third-period walkout spread via Instagram and they were joined by about a thousand classmates. The group marched to Parkway’s administrative building, filling the school parking lot for hours to demand change and air grievances about pervasive racism from students and staff — not only at Central, but throughout the district.
Students demanded the creation and support of a Black Students’ Union, as well as the implementation of an anti-racism policy by the school’s administration. McCarthy told the crowd that such a policy would be discussed by the school board “by the end of the month,” and was met with outrage and shouting, as students asked that it be moved up in the schedule. About a half hour into the protest, he requested that students disperse or move to a gymnasium, but they refused to do so.
News of the third-period walkout spread via Instagram and they were joined by about a thousand classmates. The group marched to Parkway’s administrative building, filling the school parking lot for hours to demand change and air grievances about pervasive racism from students and staff — not only at Central, but throughout the district.
Parkway Central has a history of similar incidents, and similar walkouts.
“Early my freshman year, I was standing in this exact spot. Now I’m a senior…I’m here again,” a student leader shouted into the megaphone.
“We want a Black Student Union,” another student added. “When is our protection, and when is us having someone to go to, going to be a priority?”
“Our administration, our teachers need to realize that our Black students don’t feel protected, at all.”
About 40% of Parkway Central students are people of color, with 15% of that group identifying as Black.
In 2017, a racist message was found in a bathroom at Parkway Central, and in 2019, students from the high school appeared in a video threatening Black people and chanting “slavery, slavery, slavery.” And students at the protest said teachers are also implicated — one tenth grade student recounted her first day in the district, as a first-grader, in which she said she was told she was “pretty for a Black girl” by her first-grade teacher. A Mexican student talked about being called slurs by his classmates, something his older brother, who attended school in the district years prior, had experienced too. A Muslim girl spoke about being called a terrorist, and about a P.E. teacher who failed hijabi students for refusing to remove their head coverings in order to swim.
Several parents also attended the walkout, many saying that this sort of event occurred when they were students in the district, too.
“We will continue to work with our students, and with our parents, and with our Black community,” McCarthy said, who added that he “absolutely supports” the formation of a Black Student Union.
“Then do it!” students responded.
Other comparable county districts do have similar Black students’ organizations — Clayton High School, for example, has a long-standing BSU, where Black students in the predominantly-white district can meet, build solidarity and discuss challenges they face.
McCarthy said that there is currently a district-level committee working on “addressing these challenges systematically within the district.”