By Eden Gentry
Staff Writer
On August 19th, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School Board of Education met to discuss a proposed Reduction-in-Force (RIF) plan. During the meeting, the Board of Education approved the RIF and is now laying off approximately 222 positions, reducing the months of employment for 300 employees, demoting 51 employees, and furloughing roughly 1,200 employees. Due to the outrage over the possible loss of the faculty, students across the district used their voices and held student-led walkouts to express their anger and frustration with this decision.
Beyond the lessons of your standard United States government class, Cristofer Wiley teaches his students to stand up for what’s right and wrong, using their voices in their community and country. For many students, these lessons become important during and after high school. At RJR, they have proven useful when protesting the district RIF.
“I like the advocacy,” Wiley said. “I like students finding their voice. It is not for me to agree or disagree in terms of anybody else assembling and speaking their minds. In part, it seems like some of the lessons that I teach are in action when we look out the window and see students making their voices heard.”
One of the seniors at RJR, Quinn Crater, took the initiative to stand up for our teachers’ and administrators’ jobs. While there were many emotions expressed during the walkout, Crater most of all felt pride throughout the student body.
“I feel a lot of pride,” Crater said. “I feel that this is our duty as American citizens; we have the freedom to express our opinions and protest what we believe in. And I feel very proud that not only I, but a majority of our school, were willing to exercise our rights and protest this. Not even protest, but just stand up for what we think is right and wrong. “
While some students feel that the protest did nothing to alleviate the RIF repercussions, Crater argues the opposite. The student body expressed their anger over the school board’s decision, and it was still important to express their anger and show support to the administration and teachers.
“I feel like it brought some comfort to the people who lost their jobs, knowing that we were willing to stand with them,” Crater said. ”But also, I feel this was very much something that was going to be unavoidable. This was going to happen. “
While many students think this is the end of student protesting, students are fully capable of enacting change throughout the district. There are many ways students can get involved in school board decisions by being active in the process of choosing who is on the school board, allowing them to play an active role in shaping what happens at our school. A significant part of being active in your community is understanding your board and their stance on key issues.
“The School Board is up for election next November, which is to say that now is about the time when candidates are starting to make their intentions known,” Wiley said. “My advice is to be out in front of those candidates who say they want to be on your school board. Largely absent from the mix is the student voice. Just like any other citizen, students have that right. More importantly, just knowing who is on your school board, knowing what kind of decisions they make, knowing what and who elected these people in the first place.”
Ultimately, genuine change in education will not occur unless students are actively involved in the process. Their voices matter, not just in the classroom, but in the decisions that shape it.