Former Curtis students upset by inequities sought change at their old school. They got it

It started when Keoni Dilay, 20, sent a group text to his friends.

Dilay, who was influenced by the Black Lives Matter movement, felt that Curtis High School in University Place was overdue to reform and change policies that are racially unjust.

Graduating from Curtis High School two years ago, Dilay wanted to spearhead change to bring more awareness to racial injustices that minority students faced at his former high school.

That’s when he texted some of his friends about what they could do to show support. They came up with the idea to paint Curtis’ rock to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement. The rock is displayed at the front entrance of the school and is big enough to be seen by drivers passing the school.

So, Dilay and a group of his friends set up a meeting with Curtis principal Tom Adams.

“Some alumni reached out to me and asked if they could paint the rock,” said Adams. “I asked them to come meet with me, and when they came in, we had a great conversation which covered several important topics about students of color’s experiences and perspectives.”

For their meeting with Adams, Dilay and his friends presented a list of racial injustices that students faced during their time at Curtis. Dilay and his friends asked current and former students on social media to submit their experiences when they felt injustice.

“We got excited about the idea of making change to Curtis. So we invited a few more people into our group who were excited about helping. We talked about what our next plan could be and we decided it’ll be really cool if we started an organization,” said Dilay.

Dilay and his friends created an organization called the Youth Education Board near the beginning of July.

Including Dilay, the other six board members are Kekoa Dilay, 16; Kenzie Jones, 18; Kate Burney, 18; Moe’Neyah Holland, 19; Joey Packer, 20; and Ariona Thompson, 21.

“Our mission is to cultivate a cultural consciousness in public schools and to promote education tools and resources that infuse perspectives of historically marginalized people in existing educational structures,” said Dilay.

Dilay and his friends realized that painting the rock was the starting point.

“The conversation ended up going several hours, and we talked about a lot of program stuff here at the high school and what we are doing,” said Adams.

Dilay realized there was so much more that needed to be done to address racial injustices in the public schools system.

“We’re not only trying to focus on Curtis. We’re going to try and move on to other schools in the community, anywhere we can help, really,” said Dilay.

Not only did Dilay meet with the principal of Curtis, but he also met with the school’s choir, drama and athletic directors to talk about what they could improve in their departments.

On July 3, the Youth Education Board painted the rock with the words “Black Lives Matter” and the names of those who have been killed by police.

“We started with the rock because it was pretty much the easiest thing on our list because it was the first action item that we could tangibly do. It is a symbol of what we are later planning on doing,” said Burney. “It was a good jumping off point for us.”

The next morning they woke up to see that someone had painted the words “Blue Lives Matter” over their work. Blues Lives Matter is often used as a rallying cry by people who support law enforcement.

The Youth Education Board was not going to let that hinder their actions. They planned on setting a new date to paint the rock.

Before doing so, Curtis’s student leadership team stepped up and offered to repaint the rock.

“Supporting Black Lives Matter as a human rights statement painted on the rock is important to me because our current leadership students met with our leadership advisor and assistant principal Jackie Thomas, and decided they wanted to paint the rock with this statement. When our students look at something and it becomes something they want to explore at school, we work with and support them,” said Adams.

Like he did with the alumni on the Youth Education Board, Adams said he has been meeting with several current and former students of color throughout the summer to gain perspective into their experiences at Curtis and to listen to their thoughts about how to improve Curtis for students and families of color.

“(UPSD and Curtis) are looking at our curriculum to make important and necessary changes,” said Adams. “There are many different racial, gender and cultural lenses that need to be represented in our curriculum to improve and broaden historical and literary perspectives and understanding.”

Adams said that includes expanding the district’s equity advisory team to help develop a plan for professional development around racial equity in the district.

The district also is partnering with higher education to improve the accuracy of social studies curriculum to ensure it reflects perspectives of people of color, he said.

At the high school, English language arts teams have begun reviewing curriculum, and administrators and teachers are in the process of adopting a new U.S. history curriculum, Adams added.

“These steps are part of our sustained effort to improve our curriculum,” he said.

Dilay said that he hopes to promote resources on his organization’s website that educators can use to teach their students on racial topics such as equality and diversity.

“We’re looking at books, articles, videos, and plays. Once we do what we can at Curtis, we want to move on to other schools that are looking for help. Even like the City Council and talking to them about how they can help less fortunate minority students,” said Dilay.

Girls With A Vision

Burney and Holland also are the founding members of GWAV, Girls With A Vision.

G.W.A.V was formed over a year ago when Burney and Holland were still seniors at Curtis High School. Like Dilay, Burney created a group chat with all her female friends. She hoped to spark conversation and introduce all her friends to one another.

They soon realized they all had a common goal: to promote feminism through empowering girls and women in the community.

The other three board members include: Sanata Dawa, 18; Avery Hunter, 19; and Ava Weller, 19.

The group’s mission statement says, “We believe in emphasizing the intersectionality of feminism, the power of inclusive education and the value in expressing our most authentic selves upholding these values empowers women to creatively enact change in the community through collaborative servanthood.”

One of the first events GWAV held was picking up trash around the school. From there, the group began to bring in more members and develop a group of people who had the same visions and goals.

Their first large project was held in the summer of 2019. GWAV members painted a mural at Narrows View Intermediate School in University Place representing powerful women from history.

“We wanted to work with younger girls and empower younger women. So we started off with Narrows View, and we were like, ‘How do we show these young women that they have a voice?’” said Weller. “So we decided to paint a mural of really powerful women in history, and it was awesome because we got to talk to some younger girls about why we were doing this.”

One of the group’s goals is to mentor younger girls and educate them about what they should expect in the future.

“Knowledge is power, so if you’re not given a chance to be exposed to things like equal access to health care and equal pay, you’ll never know how to fight for them,” said Dawa. “One of our biggest things in mentorship is education.”

Dawa said once women are educated about issues, it will be easier for them to fight for it.

After the 2019-2020 school year started, the group took a hiatus because its board members started their freshman year of college in different states. But they knew they were going to come back in 2020 with even larger visions and goals.

So, when GWAV noticed the protests and events that were happening due to the Black Lives Matter movement, Burney and her friends knew what they needed to focus on this summer.

“We kind of decided that (Black Lives Matter) would be our primary focus, and I think it’s really cool to be a part of this group and see the support from all the members,” said Burney. “It’s not feminism, but it shows the intersectionality of caring for feminism and caring about racism because there are those intersections that feminists should care about.”

Holland said, “You can’t care about feminism and then disregard racism.”

For the past two months, GWAV has been organizing protests and events. Its members hope to see their largest turnout on July 25 for their Black Lives Matter protest in Ruston.

Holland understands how necessary it is to have a broad support system.

“It’s everyone’s civic duty and responsibility to care about these things. Because we could just be positive and act like these issues don’t exist, but no. We need to check ourselves every day. We need to keep on educating ourselves because we’re not perfect, but we’re trying to take a stand against injustice,” said Holland.

In the past year, GWAV has expanded to include a website with gear for purchase, including face masks and stickers. The group also has an official website that contains information about the group and its members.

GWAV is a nonprofit organization, so donations are used to fund projects and anything else that can be used to give back to the community.

In the future, GWAV hopes to expand to different college campuses.

“We wished that we had a group of young women to look up to growing up. So, we really hope that we can be an influence on our community and the young girls in it and that they have someone to look up,” said Hunter.