Approximately 1,000 students walked out of class Sept. 23 at Parkway Central High School in the wake of another incident of racism at the school, this time graffiti covering the walls of a bathroom. The next day, students at Parkway North walked out as well.
“When is our protection, and when is us having someone to go to, going to be a priority?” a student shouted into a megaphone.
The graffiti at Central was, after an investigation by the district, discovered to have been written by a Black student at the school, though the allegations of racism in the district revealed by the protest go beyond this specific incident.
The graffiti was discovered Wednesday afternoon by a student, 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 that evening confirmed, “racist slurs were written on bathroom walls at Central and North High Schools.”
Superintendent Dr. Keith Marty sent a letter to the district on Tuesday.
“The student responsible is not white,” he wrote. “However this does not diminish the hurt it caused or the negative impact it has had on our entire community.”
He also wrote that a similar incident at Parkway North High School was under investigation, though according to school spokesperson Cathy Kelly, school officials do not believe the two incidents are related.
During the walkout at Central, 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 a policy would be discussed by the school board “by the end of the month.”
“When is our protection, and when is us having someone to go to, going to be a priority?” a student shouted into a megaphone.
“Our administration [and] 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. The school has a history of similar incidents: 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.”
Students at the protest said teachers are also implicated — one 10th 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, and a Muslim girl spoke about being dubbed a terrorist, recounting the story of a P.E. teacher at the school who gave failing grades to hijabi students for refusing to remove their head coverings in order to swim.
Marty said in his letter that the walkouts were a “clear indication that more work is needed to ensure our school cultures and communities are safe for each student regardless of their race.”
“I want to tell the thousands of students who participated on behalf of themselves and their fellow classmates: I am proud of you for supporting one another and we heard you loud and clear.”
Students, meanwhile, wonder when exactly a formal anti-racism policy and a Black Students’ Union will be made available to them, as protests regarding racism in the district continue to occur every few years.
“Early my freshman year, I was standing in this exact spot. Now I’m a senior…I’m here again,” said a student leader at the Parkway Central walkout.
McCarthy said there is a district-level committee working on “addressing these challenges [systemically] within the district.”