My name is Tj Pickett -Pinex and to begin making my community a better place, when I was a junior, I initiated Project Peace because of my racist experiences. Incidents similar to George Floyd, the pandemic, and more caused damage. To start, I reached out to a desired advisor to help plan. Simultaneously, I asked four peers if they would be interested in helping me lead a club that cultivates a safe environment , with learning opportunities about topics related to the experiences of people who live in our community, and finally, takes action through education and service. Official in May of 2021, since then we have done marathons for transgender youth in Chicago along with packing for Feed My Starving Children. Doing vital equity work within our communities will put us on path to learn to love each other for our differences. For some background: our school district signed a contract with a program that was assigned to come into our district and fix problems regarding equity. The program is called Deep Equity and it would provide adequate training to teachers and staff on how to interact with minority students, etc. In the midst of all this, the board members had been pretty private about the program itself and there was clearly lots of miscommunication. Most of the anti-deep equity parents argue CRT, which they don’t even know what it actually is. They also argue that they don’t want their kids to be taught that Caucasians were the oppressors, which is understandable, yet that is not the intent of this program, nor would the kids be the subject of direct teaching. My self and peers have spoken at board meetings numerous times, yet our cries are ignored. It hurts when you hear parents complaining about how their children will be discriminated against if they have to wear masks upon return to school, yet all the kids who can’t take off their skin tone, who can’t take off their head garments due to their religion, who can’t take off their eyes, and so many more, are also discriminated against for something they have no option in taking off or putting on. So the board decided to revote on whether or not they would cancel the contract or not. What is currently happening, is not fair to kids similar to me and the plague of community members being blind to the problem is overwhelming. We can all get ahead start on these same issues globally if we come together now. I plan to amplify the voices of the unheard. I started a club called Project-Peace at my school and the whole idea is around learning from one another about each other through different experiences while serving the community. And to carry this belief with me, will be one of my utmost priorities.

My name is Tj Pickett -Pinex and to begin making my community a better place, when I was a junior, I initiated Project Peace because of my racist experiences. Incidents similar to George Floyd, the pandemic, and more caused damage. To start, I reached out to a desired advisor to help plan. Simultaneously, I asked four peers if they would be interested in helping me lead a club that cultivates a safe environment , with learning opportunities about topics related to the experiences of people who live in our community, and finally, takes action through education and service. Official in May of 2021, since then we have done marathons for transgender youth in Chicago along with packing for Feed My Starving Children. Doing vital equity work within our communities will put us on path to learn to love each other for our differences. For some background: our school district signed a contract with a program that was assigned to come into our district and fix problems regarding equity. The program is called Deep Equity and it would provide adequate training to teachers and staff on how to interact with minority students, etc. In the midst of all this, the board members had been pretty private about the program itself and there was clearly lots of miscommunication. Most of the anti-deep equity parents argue CRT, which they don’t even know what it actually is. They also argue that they don’t want their kids to be taught that Caucasians were the oppressors, which is understandable, yet that is not the intent of this program, nor would the kids be the subject of direct teaching. My self and peers have spoken at board meetings numerous times, yet our cries are ignored. It hurts when you hear parents complaining about how their children will be discriminated against if they have to wear masks upon return to school, yet all the kids who can’t take off their skin tone, who can’t take off their head garments due to their religion, who can’t take off their eyes, and so many more, are also discriminated against for something they have no option in taking off or putting on. So the board decided to revote on whether or not they would cancel the contract or not. What is currently happening, is not fair to kids similar to me and the plague of community members being blind to the problem is overwhelming. We can all get ahead start on these same issues globally if we come together now.