A small group of students from Lyons Township High School staged a protest, saying they are taking a stand against racist and other derogatory remarks they’ve received since the election of Donald Trump.
The students, about 10 of them, gathered at the north campus in La Grange and carried signs with such statements as “Make Bridges Not Walls.” They walked in silence down Cossitt Avenue to the fountain next to La Grange Village Hall on Friday afternoon.
The protest was organized by senior Josh Leak, 17, of La Grange Park.
“After the election we’ve experienced a lot of hateful comments. We just want to be heard,” he said.
Leak said the comments have been against people of color and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students. He said they wanted to end their walk in the downtown business district to present a diverse face to the community.
“We want to be heard and seen and go into a predominantly white area,” he said.
Even before the protest was held after school, another small group of students organized another counter protest that they called “an anti protest protest.”
Colin Kubacki, a senior from Western Springs, put together the counter protest.
“This is not pro Trump,” he said. “This is anti protest.”
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Henry Groya, 18, a senior from La Grange, said the group, that numbered about a dozen, was made up of students with various political views. He said he thinks people need to accept the election results.
“The results are the results. Suck it up,” he said.
The group led by Kubacki walked around the school and took a more jocular approach to the event they staged.
Leak, who said he is a student activist for Black Lives Matters, said he plans to organize more protests.
“There is still lots of racism going on, discrimination against LGBQT, and (against) women’s rights,” he said.
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