➤ Howard Blake is a long-standing school which has proven the test of time, but with the recent years and current administration, students are suffering violations of their rights, harassment, and lack of action from the administration.

Bathrooms

During September 2021—three years ago—students asked the administration to install gender-neutral bathrooms in the school. This is not only a resource for trans youth, but the many intersex students who attend. Intersex students and trans youth do not feel safe going to their assigned gender’s bathroom due to constant harassment, and often go through the day without using the facilities at all. That’s eight hours straight without using the bathroom, plus additional hours if they take the bus.

The administration persistently denied applications for this resource, and students are still petitioning for this installment today.

Sexual Abuse

During December 2021—also three years ago—students petitioned for their safety due to the sheer amount of sexual harassment in the school, from both students and teachers. Students that reported the situation were normally the ones being framed and expelled, and things escalated to the point it caught the attention of the New York Times. This situation first came to light in 2020, and to this day, in 2024, students are still failing to be heard despite the outreach they have made. During the infamous Safety & Bullying presentation (2023-2024), one of the assistant principals outright told Sophomores that “If you get raped, it’s your fault,” causing a multitude of students distress and further highlighting the administrations lack of remorse.

The petition for action against this is still active to this day.

Curriculum 

During September 2023—this school year—students petitioned against the school intending on removing a class for having “too little students” when the administration failed to schedule the 200 students who applied correctly, resulting in the small class. A petition has since then been made and succeeded, but out of the previously mentioned, this is one of the few petitions that managed to make a change.

➤ Not many of the situations at Blake get out to parents and the public, as, according to teachers at the school, the administration aims to keep things under wraps. However there are many more actively affecting our students to this day.

Counseling

As all public schools do, counseling is available to students. However, students that apply can spend an entire school year without receiving needed mental health due to the toxic and irresponsible administration in the student affairs office. The staff have reportedly been seen making tiktoks and gossiping instead of attending students, and there have been many cases of harassment in the office. Students have had panic attacks in the office before and failed to receive any help from the nearby adults. A now retired guidance counselor would tell students “If I liked you, I would help you and let you come down here anytime, but I don’t.” She would viciously harass students, including those who came to ask the available caseworker to call CPS to report abuse at home, which many students at Blake struggle with.

She may have retired, but the guidance counselors who have been hired in her stead uphold her previous behavior, continuing to maltreat students. There have been multiple attempts to ‘convert’ trans students and repetitive shaming and misgendering, along with neglect to handle bullying and harassment of students.

Religion

During April 20, 2024’s “Blake Fest,” a fundraising festival for the school, a youth group from one of the assistant principal's church—who actively donates to the school—was invited to the school. They hosted a booth at the festival, which gave the students the freedom to choose to attend or not, just barely following the law. Meanwhile, another group would go up to convert the “trouble students.” This group mistakenly went to the special needs student’s “calm room,” in which they received verbal harassment.

“It started out fine enough. We could tune them out pretty easily—although some were paying attention to argue with them on the concept of christianity. They were going on about the usual stuff about how there’s ‘a hole in your heart that Jesus could fill,’ before saying they were going to pray for us. It was making me uncomfortable but I was going to ignore it since they weren’t making me pray with them, right? Immediately they started saying we had to bow our heads and pray with them, and started getting aggressive when people refused.”

The quoted student is a pagan, and many of the students in the room were from varying beliefs, with a good portion being atheists. A teacher intervened and informed the youth group they couldn’t force students to pray, in which they angrily explained they were told to talk to the ‘trouble students.’ It was explained they were in the wrong room, and the teachers told the present students not to report it, even though the school had just violated the constitution and bill of rights, specifically the first amendment.

Whistle Blowing

On April 22, 2024, students protested against the administration “escorting” assistant principal Clark out of the school for whistleblowing on nepotism, toxic workplace, and other behavior by leaking an email online.

During the protest, the administration came out and harassed students until they went back to their classes, before following up with an intercom announcement to pressure students into keeping quiet. 

➤ All of this has occurred over the past few years at Blake High School, and many of the parents of victims (to the religious incident and harassment) cannot afford to pursue a lawsuit against the school due to being low income or minority families. They have been waiting for “someone else to deal with it” for a while, however we need action, now.

Students are truly struggling here, to the point school ratings have dropped.

We have to do something for these kids, as the home of the yellow jackets has become a real hornet’s nest. 

They are Blake. They are Proud. And they have to Thrive.

For the students sake.