Topeka High students march to Statehouse to show unity after presidential election

With chants of “T-High unified!”, 400 to 500 Topeka High School students marched to the Statehouse on Wednesday to show unity in their diversity after the Nov. 8 election.

“After the election from last week, we’ve just been hearing a lot of reports of discrimination brewing not only toward Mexicans, but the blacks, LGBT community,” said Angelo Campos, 18, a Topeka High senior who organized the march with his sister, Kristana Campos, 16, a Topeka High sophomore. “It just really led me to stand up for these students because it’s my school and I take pride, I take pride in them.”

Rebecca Morrisey, principal of Topeka High, said the march happened during the school’s “Trojan Time” when all of Topeka High’s estimated 1,800 students are in homeroom from 9:30 to 11:10 a.m.

“They’re not missing any academic class,” she said. “This is being done at a time when they have options anyway. Everyone was voluntarily allowed to participate. Nobody was made to participate, or pressured to participate. We’ve been working very hard to make sure we honor both sides of the political spectrum and that we don’t allow negative hate speech from either side of the political spectrum.”

Morrisey said forums have been held this week at Topeka High to allow students to voice their opinions, regardless of their thoughts on the outcome of the presidential election. She said they have encouraged the students to use “positive language” in airing their concerns so the anxiety and stress felt by many students can begin to lessen.

“We’ve come back together and understand that it’s hard sometimes to sit down with someone who doesn’t believe what you believe,” Morrisey said. “But there’s power in being heard, both of you being heard.”

“If you know Topeka High,” she continued, “we’re very diverse. We’re very diverse in every possible meaning of the word and our kids have always been highly tolerant. There’s always incidents of insensitivity, but they’re pretty minimal. It’s rare that we can’t bring ourselves back together.”

Katie Wood, a Topeka High art teacher, said she was marching Wednesday to support her students. She said the school’s atmosphere since the Nov. 8 election has been “a little bit tense.”

“And that makes me sad to see because I want all of my kids to feel like they’re at home and I want them to feel safe,” Wood said. “In my classroom, at least, I feel like my students have felt comfortable enough to voice their concerns and opinions on both sides.”

Brody Cunningham, 17, a Topeka High junior, said tension among different groups of the students at the school existed before the election.

“It’s important to realize that we can’t just silence these things once they die down,” he said. “We always have to remember to stay together and unite.”

Aja Gamble, 16, also a junior, said whether the tensions continue to simmer at Topeka High depends on the students themselves.

“If we sit here and we let it escalate and we don’t do anything, then it’s going to prolong itself,” she said. “But if we come together like we are today, it’s going to die down because we can’t just sit here and let people be harassed and feel uncomfortable. Like Brody said, it’s always been here but we can kind of suppress it while we’re working together.”

When asked by a reporter why she thought less than half of the student body chose to participate in the march, she said she thought some students weren’t comfortable participating in the event.

“I think it’s because it’s very political and they’d rather stay out of controversial issues because it’s still an uncomfortable thing for a lot of people here,” she said.

Outside of Topeka High School last week, a student said she witnessed an argument between white and black students related to the election. She said the verbal confrontation between the two groups nearly turned into a fight. Jordan Large, a junior, had said several students in the school’s LGBT community were crying and anxious as a result of Donald Trump’s victory.

Larry Robbins, USD 501 deputy superintendent, said he was at the march to support the Topeka High students and staff who were marching in a peaceful way to have their voices heard. He said if other USD 501 schools want to hold similar marches, he said district officials will plan accordingly.

“That’s a hypothetical situation,” he said. “We would decide how to address if and when that were to occur.”

Matt Pivarnik, president and CEO of the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce, said he was at Topeka High Wednesday morning for Topeka USD 501’s annual “Principal for a Day” event where community members shadow building administrators and experience what a typical day is like for a principal. He said he was honored to march with the students who are, as he described, “our future talent, our future Topeka and Shawnee County.”

“I was scheduled to be here already,” Pivarnik said, “but I have to say I’m proud of Topeka High and administration of USD 501 and these young people that are expressing themselves and doing it in a unified manner, in a peaceful manner. I am very supportive of their right to free speech.”

Contact reporter Angela Deines at (785) 295-1143 or Twitter @AngelaDeines.