Do Not Reopen Schools This Fall

There’s a reason we are called “marginalized”.

We are not the words, we are not the lines, we ain’t even the goddam footnotes.

We are pushed aside to the outskirts of the page so that the story can continue without our pesky needs being met or addressed.

Black, brown, southeast Asian, low income, lgbtq+, immigrant and undocumented students: We are fed up with our school systems not taking our needs and our safety seriously.

We are fed up with having to demand for things because we know that simply asking will get us nowhere.

And we are fed up with being seen as dollar signs on one hand and statistics on the other.

The educational system has never chosen to side with the narrative of the marginalized, and so today, we beg, we plead, we demand, that now, in this life or death situation, the story does not continue without us.