The members of Westerville Central High School’s Student Equity Council gathered for the first time on Tuesday, getting to know each other and learning about the issues they want to tackle to make their school a more equitable and inclusive space.
They set ground rules for future meetings before diving into three topics that would drive their work for the rest of the school year: Equity issues at WCHS, good things the school can build on and ways to address inequity and injustice.
Meanwhile, members of Blendon Middle School’s Student Equity Ambassadors want to raise awareness of the inappropriate jokes, malicious comments and verbal microaggressions they hear among their peers and adults. On Thursday, they continued work on their capstone project to address the issue: The group is creating a song with Columbus-based nonprofit We Amplify Voices that captures their emotions and conveys their message of inclusivity.
Last week, Genoa Middle School’s Student Equity Council gathered for the first time to connect and set expectations and common goals.
Schools around the district have launched student equity councils to give students a voice in the work and empower them to champion equity throughout their school community.
“As adults, we don’t always see things, but kids see everything,” said Educational Equity coordinator Anitra Simmons. “The fact that we have these councils provides the space for kids to bring those things that they see that are concerning to them and share them with adults.”
Simmons helped launch the first student equity council in the district at Heritage Middle School last year. Council members met monthly for day-long workshops that covered lessons based on the Learning for Justice's Social Justice Standards. Students also learned about other cultures within their school community and worked on creating solutions to issues they see are related to equity at Heritage.
Emerson Elementary’s student equity council — The Equity at Emerson Changemakers — made their debut during the school’s Start with Hello Week festivities in September, supporting class activities and school-wide projects focused on inclusion, belonging and equity.
Hanby and McVay elementaries as well as Westerville North High School have also recently launched student equity councils this year, forming plans for their future work.
Genoa’s council is doing the same. Following last Friday’s inaugural meeting, the council will reconnect next week to create a common vocabulary when discussing issues of inequity across their learning community.
“Our main purpose or goal is to give students a voice in the important conversations adults are having about equity and inclusion in our building and throughout the district,” said council advisor Bryan Stumpf, who teaches Language Arts and American History. “We will focus on students' experiences and explore ways to make our school more inclusive for all.”
Blendon’s Student Equity Ambassadors have met since October, drawing as many as 40 students “who wanted to change the world today,” co-advisor and Medical Detectives teacher David Grimes said.
During the group’s earlier meetings, students created their own bylaws, listened to each other and brainstormed on what issue they wanted to address as equity ambassadors. Grimes, who advises the group with Language Arts teacher Lee Rutherford, wanted the group to wrap their work around a capstone project they could share with the Blendon and Westerville community.
Students decided to focus their project on the terms and phrases they’ve heard from their peers and adults that have a negative connotation, such as “That’s so gay.”
“They want to tackle what’s being said by their peers, what’s being said and not said by staff and in the greater community,” Grimes said.
Students decided to convey their message by creating their own song with We Amplify Voices, which hosts workshops and youth programs that help amplify underrepresented voices through the arts. Blendon’s PTO, a grant from the Westerville Education Foundation and donations provided financial support to bring We Amplify Voices to Blendon.
Equity ambassadors started work on their song last month with plans to complete it this spring.
“Every group was concerned about what they were hearing,” Grimes said. “They thought this was attainable in the short term. It’s not fixing poverty or racism; it’s starting with the way we speak to one another.”
While the work of student equity councils vary by grade level and building, Simmons said they are focused on creating a sense of belonging for everyone. While elementary and middle schools have dedicated their efforts to the changes students can make in their building, high school students are using the space as a platform to address injustice they see in the world.
The death of WCHS alumni Donovan Lewis in September inspired calls for justice by high school students across the district. WCHS students wore red ribbons in honor of Lewis and his family, while WCHS and WNHS students organized student-led walkouts at their schools. For WCHS, the event led to discussions with the school’s Equity Council that focused on finding ways for students’ voices to be heard and invoke positive change.
“It became clear that we needed to really intentionally bring in the student voice after personally meeting with students,” said WCHS mental health specialist Azalea Tang, who led the school’s Student Equity Council meeting.
During Tuesday’s meeting, the group of 30 students who represent different populations across WCHS shared the equity issues they’ve seen and experienced and offered suggestions on how to address them. Among their ideas: having a safe space to speak and holding more conversations across the school community.
The group will meet three more times for the rest of the school year to identify and work on a project that will foster a more inclusive community at WCHS.
Senior Lena Szewczyk-O’Neal said she joined the equity council because she wants to be part of the change she hopes will happen.
“The things we talk about here — I hope we see them be changed in school,” she said. “I want to see things talked about publicly, to see that we’re more like Warhawks.”
Senior Tera Berko wants to see change too but recognizes that it will take time.
“It’s very hard to incite change right away but if we start here and start to understand each other more and spread ideas amongst ourselves, it can lead to a greater change that can go past Westerville Central but into the communities we will all enter as adults,” she said.