On the 15th of October, students at Nonsuch High School organised a protest in retaliation to incidents of inequities within the school. Nonsuch is a majority POC school and the racial diversity is incredible. I spoke to Anise Sloper, the girl responsible for organising the protest as she details her account of the day. One of the first questions I asked her was, ‘How did you organise this protest?’ “It’s not easy to have communication between a whole year group,” she admits. On Tuesday after school, they “set up a group chat with one or two people from each form,” so when something was planned, those people could take that information and send it to their own form group chats. They then “compiled a list of complaints from people in the year group and began to plan the protest”. Times, locations and speakers were decided. On Wednesday, they “made cardboard signs at school as discreetly as possible, and all speakers had written their speeches.” By the time everything was ready, an unexpected 500 people made an appearance, and the numbers kept growing. Their speakers used a “Bluetooth speaker as a megaphone.” Anise recounts: “Standing there in front of that crowd – I’ve never felt so proud to be a Nonsuch student”. “To be part of a student body that was able to pull together and do that in just two days? Nothing but pride for the students of Nonsuch at the moment.” I then went on to ask her about the change she wants to see at her school in the future. Her first plea was for a more racially diverse camaraderie of teaching staff. I then went on to ask her if she has any advice for people who want to speak out about issues such as this, or are in situations where they do not feel like they are being treated fairly. She points out that, “No one wants to be the first person to speak out about something – I certainly wasn’t. But I promise that when you do, other people will start. Even when it feels like everyone around you is against you, I promise there are people out there who will stand with you and do the right thing.” She also recommends to not “let stuff slide”. “Call people out,” she urges, “even if they’re just ‘joking’, or if they tell you to ‘calm down’. The minute you let things go, the more it will continue to happen, and the worse you will feel about it later.” Definitely some wise words from a girl who was not afraid to stand up for what she believes in.
