Opinion

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editorial

DOES WE-SIDE WORK?

WE-SIDE stands for Welcoming Equity Support and Dignity for Everyone, an initiative that has been trying to ensure that every student and staff member at Westside feels like they belong. According to Westside Community Schools’ 2020-2021 Selected Demographic and Statistical Data, 69 percent of students identified as white, three percent identified as Asian and 10 percent identified as African American.

In an effort to ensure that Westside Community Schools continues to grow as a more diverse and inclusive school system, District 66 has been working towards helping students of all backgrounds feel welcome within the past two years. While the idea of WE-SIDE is good, in theory, junior Malaika Kathurima feels that there is a need for more inclusion and diversity from what she has experienced. “It doesn’t feel like many changes have been made because there are still many spaces where I and kids of color don’t really feel accepted, or certain types of kids we can’t talk to because we just know we will get asked weird questions,” Kathurima said.

WE-SIDE, as defined by one of the initiative’s founders, Superintendent Mike Lucas, is an initiative that creates a sense of belonging and acceptance for all in the Westside community.

“[WE-SIDE is] creating a sense of belonging for everybody, all students, all staff, all visitors who come to any of our 13 campuses,” Dr. Lucas said.

When Dr. Lucas was hired as District 66’s superintendent, he, along with members of the school board, realized that District 66 needed to take steps to be inclusive of all students, regardless of their backgrounds.

“[WE-SIDE] started back in the Winter of 2019, talking with the Board of Education ... about different things the District wanted to focus on,” Dr. Lucas said. “We just discussed how we wanted to tear down some of the walls within Westside [such as] the walls [between] option-in students and resident students.”

According to Dr. Lucas, there were some incidents that led to the implementation of WESIDE, mostly resulting from student behaviors, and he wanted to ensure that they would not happen again.

“We have had some religious issues, some anti-semitism, so we were just trying to figure out strategies and different things we could do that got our students and staff and community to focus on all the things that bring us together instead of the things that can bring us apart,” Dr. Lucas said.

According to Dr. Lucas, WE-SIDE was not politically or religously motivated.

“We’re not focusing on any one theory, any one speaker, any one author or book, we’re really just focused on being good people and teammates,” Dr. Lucas said.

While WE-SIDE as a whole is not focused on a particular group or movement, it was used as a response for social justice during the summer of 2020, when the Black Lives Matter Movement was in full effect.

Kathurima feels that WE-SIDE is something that the administration created to make District 66 look better and more diverse. “I would say that [WE-SIDE] is very performative, it shows that a lot of the administration [and] the parents don’t know what we see and hear daily in the hallways at school,” Kathurima said.

Although WE-SIDE has been in the works for over two years, the initiative has been slow to start. Dr. Lucas admits that it will be a while until there is enough measurable data to prove if the initiative is effective or not.

“I think WE-SIDE is an effective initiative so far, but we have a long way to go,” Dr. Lucas said. “I would like to see WE-SIDE have some real tangible, measurable results that people can feel good about.”

Although WE-SIDE is attempting to make District 66 a better environment for all, its effects are sometimes hard to see. According to Dr. Lucas, a drawback in the initiative is that there are not any ways to see tangible results within the same school year or calendar year.

Kathurima feels that WE-SIDE has not been as effective as it can be and that WE-SIDE needs to focus on changing biases. “I didn’t know that [WE-SIDE] was trying to be inclusive with different races, religions and sexualities because sometimes it doesn’t really feel like that,” Kathurima said. “In order for anything to be fixed, it would have to be the students and the staff having to unpack their

own personal biases they don’t realize they have before they can fix anything.” Assistant principal Tola Dada said that Westside is more diverse than it has been historically and that WE-SIDE will continue focusing on the community. “Listening to feedback from students, parents, and teachers [WE-SIDE] is really trying to focus on just listening,” Dada said. Sophomore Hanan Loroto feels that WESIDE needs to take more action to achieve their goal of ensuring everyone feels like they belong. “Honestly I don’t think that it is taking any steps to get the job done of what the initiative is actually for,” Loroto said. Even though some students haven’t seen WE-SIDE’s work, the administrative committee has sponsored multiple events to get the community involved and learning about WESIDE, such as speech and drawing contests. In the beginning of November, WE-SIDE held meetings for community members to attend and learn about goals from administrators, and what has been accomplished in the past two years of this initiative. Brandi Paul shared that WE-SIDE is sponsoring across District 66 including speakers for teachers, conducting sense of belonging surveys and adopting an ant-hate/racial slur policy that would make sure consequences are administered to those using the words. “All thirteen of our buildings are working on getting a No Place for Hate Distinction from the Anti-Defamation League, it will be the first time in a school district that all thirteen schools will have earned that at the same time,” Dr. Lucas said. Additionally, Dr. Lucas hopes that WE-SIDE will forever be a part of Westside’s culture. “The thing about a lot of initiatives, they are one and done, [but] WE-SIDE is not going to be like that, it’s really [going] to be ingrained into our culture,” Dr. Lucas said. “Just like we are always going to talk about reading, math, science, social studies, fine arts and activities as a school district, we are always going to talk about the importance of WE-SIDE and the culture of team and family.” Overall, WE-SIDE’s mission to create inclusion and belonging is something that District 66 could benefit from if executed properly. With that being said, WE-SIDE still has a long way to go to change the social climate of District 66 long-term. Story by Kiera Ginn, Design by Kate Stevens, Graphic by Sydney Rolles