Quincy High School students feel empowered to lead social change
Young people are using their voices to demand more from school administrators. At Quincy High School, a group of students organized a walkout to call school leaders to address systemic racism.
"At the end of the day, we were really trying to work with the administration," said Noel, who is now 23. "We didn’t want to be seen as the troublesome Black people because we were already viewed as that."
Since they raised their voices, the school has undergone tremendous changes, from new leadership to anti-bias training, and an overhaul to the way the prestigious institution admits students.
"We underestimated how powerful what we were saying really was," said Webster-Cazeau, now 23 and an ethnic studies teacher at the Sarah Greenwood K-8 school in Boston, adding the whole experience taught her an important lesson. "If I have something to say, I say it now. ... I realized how much my voice and my perspective matters."
