Dontrielle

“This was my first protest. In my community, I’ve never seen anything like it happen.”

By Students of NYC

March 29^th, 2023

In January of 2023, students at Springfield Gardens high school came together to fight against the Success Academy proposals to co-locate at their school and take up essential space in their campus. Their student-led advocacy resulted in the proposals being withdrawn two days before they were set to be voted on — an unprecedented victory for the community.

"For the protest planning, we all had to have a role. And I was like, wait a minute, none of us are focused on safety, and that’s a number-one priority. I had only used Google Earth before to look at my house. I made the safety plan as a project within Google Earth, and I made different sections with different colors, showing where students would be, where we shouldn’t go, and the area where we would be protesting.

Some students we trusted, like student council members, would wear a yellow vest with a whistle so they could signal to students when to cross the street. It wasn’t too hard, but I did have one challenge. I worked for a really long time to create it, and then it didn’t save. So I had to do it all again.

“It’s not just about the school. It’s about the students that go into it.

When I was applying for this school, there were some stereotypes. And you know, people could internalize that. That's what I expected when I came here, but it was way different. Right now I'm in this program, SEO Scholars. I’ve been doing it since ninth grade. On Thursdays, I go to Mount Sinai for pulmonology classes.

At the Zoom meeting with the PEP, every student had a proposal saying why Success shouldn’t come into our building. We stayed at the meeting until 2 a.m.

I think a lot of students have probably never experienced something like this before. In my community, I’ve never seen anything like it happen. It’s a cycle of indifference — when we see other people not doing anything, naturally it’s going to keep happening. But eventually, we have to step out and break that cycle.

Personally, this is my first protest. Like Damyr said, we left a mark. And next time something like this happens, more students will be inspired because they have seen what can be done. I think success is like growth. Any growth. No matter how big or small, that growth can have an impact.”