On Friday, March 23rd, 2018, Hillcrest High School senior, Donovann Lyons, led a student protest called “#DuragsMatter” –  A protest in which a handful of students participated by wearing du-rags and scarves to school.

In my interview with Donovann, he was asked what inspired him to start this movement he responded by saying “ …males have always been asked to remove their du-rags or hats in the building, but females are allowed to wear headscarves, and things of that nature. Like yeah in the rule book it states that any type of headwear isn’t allowed, but that rule is only enforced with males, which is discrimination. So the real problem is really student rights. We are not prisoners, so don’t treat us like we are… #DuRagsMatter really stands for student rights. We should be able to dress however we want because it’s not hurting anyone. No one can tell me how a durag or a scarf, etc. is a safety hazard, or  a distraction to the school environment. So if it’s not a safety hazard or a disturbance to the learning environment, why make a rule on it.” Donovann also stated before that “Hillcrest is more focused on dress code policy, then our safety or education, the things that their focus should really be on.”

I participated in the #DuragsMatter movement along with a few of my friends. The reason I participated was because to me the movement meant that  it was dumb to focus so much on a durag, or wearing a hood, or girls not being allowed to wear off the shoulder tops, rather than focusing on things students have been saying need to change all school year. For me, what I believe needs to change is the quality of the education that is being offered to us. Some teachers just seem to not care about whether we succeed or not, and it is their job to do so. I also believe there should be a change in the safety protocol we have because I don’t feel like enough is being done to ensure our safety while we are at school.

Some may say that “there’s a reason behind the rules we have,” and I don’t doubt that there is. But in my personal opinion there has been no communication to the students about changes in security. Maybe if we talked about these things we (the student body) would feel more comfortable and safe here at school, which is supposed to be a safe place.

Hopefully, changes will come in the very near future, where the focus won’t be on dress code (or things that no one even really cares about) and will be on the things that matter most.

So hey! Administration & Board members! We don’t feel safe, and we don’t feel like we’re being properly prepared for college!

And also if there is going to be a rule then it should be enforced for everyone because if it’s not then you’re just teaching us that it’s ok to discriminate.