10/10/2015
It has been two weeks since residents of Lowell were shocked by the mishandling of the racially charged threats and insults directed towards Cameroonian-American senior class president Anye Nkimbeng.
The Cameroonians of Lowell Association Inc., in collaboration with local advocacy groups, and some churches organized a protest Saturday morning marching from Lowell High School to City Hall to address the administration’s response to hate speech.
The family attorney, Ahanna Igwe said that the school has made many attempts to cover up the incident than to support the Nkimbeng family.
“We will call for a federal investigation,” he said. “We need to rethink how they [the administration] do things.”
During the march, more than 50 demonstrators blocked one lane of traffic across the street from St. Anne’s Episcopal Church on Merrimack Street in downtown.
Leaders from the African community and Black Lives Matter Cambridge led chants shouting, “if we don’t get it, shut it down” and “all day all night we will fight for Anye.”
In a speech, speaker Katherine Martinez of Black Live Matter Cambridge told the crowd that the group is committed to ending institutional racism, beginning with giving emotional support to Nkimbeng, which the school failed to give him. “He has yet to be offered counseling,” she said. “We are actively finding him counseling.”
Lowell High School students like Amy Boateng, 17, said that since the incident there has been tension between “whites and minorities” in the school. She couldn’t understand why this wasn’t the first time an African-American was elected president and wondered why Anye was any different.
“This makes me mad, she said. “Lowell might be a diverse city, but in a way I am happy the world can see what we deal with everyday. Our community has a long way to go.”
Leaders in protest called for the school to remove certain administrators, one of them being Housemaster Deidre Haley, in hopes to diversify the school staff which is 90 percent white. They also expressed concern of the return of the suspended students.
Tina Degree, Co-founder of Community Advocates for Justice & Equality (C.A.J.E) said the students don’t have anyone to relate to because the faculty doesn’t reflect the school population.
“I am tired of the double standard,” she said. “The consequences should fit the behavior. How do you expect students to concentrate in school when dealing with such issues?”
In a heartfelt speech, Nkimbeng thanked the crowd for their support. He encouraged other youth to be fearless in their endeavors to pursuit their dreams. His main mission now is to focus on his education and be a leader that his class elected him to be.
“Life has certainly changed for me,” he said. “I’m going to make sure that my graduating class will go down as the best class in LHS history.”
Laura O. 