In an open forum for Upper Schoolers held last May by Dr. Derrick Gay, current senior Olivia Garg’s hand was raised high in a sea of a dozen other hands. The topic they discussed was diversity, equity, and inclusion at Parker. Nearly all of the students attending had something to say.

After the blue folding chairs were packed away, Gay––along with the faculty Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Coordinators, Head of the Upper School Performing Arts Leslie Holland-Pryor, Upper School Coordinator Rolanda Shepard, and Physical Education teacher Terry Davis––decided to start a DEI taskforce for students to continue the conversation. Nearly half a year has passed, and now Garg is a part of the student DEI task force along with 19 of her peers.

“I joined the task force because there are a lot things at Parker that make me frustrated,” Garg said. “I want to help fix them.”

Students of different races, genders, sexual orientations, grades and more sit together on the student DEI task force. According to Holland-Pryor, the task force must consist of various perspectives for it to be successful.

“It’s impossible for one person to do it all,” Holland-Pryor said. “Dina Levy shouldered the entire scope and sequence of DEI work. That is an tenable responsibility for an individual.”

Garg agrees that with a diverse group of students leading this taskforce they have a better shot at being successful. “I don’t know what success is for us yet,” Garg said, “but my goal is to make Parker a safer environment.”

Holland-Pryor has been teaching at Parker for 20 years. She’s noticed tensions that have gone unspoken and those who have been silenced in and out of the classroom.

“Systematic oppression still exists,” Holland-Pryor said. “The difference between now and ten or twenty years ago is that it is being called out.”

Issues regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion are not unique to Parker. Down the street at the Latin School of Chicago, seventh grade “Global Perspectives” teacher Jeff Nichols spoke out some of the issues he noticed in his school community.

Nichols began teaching at Latin eight years ago. My classes look and feel more racially and ethnically diverse,” Nichols said, “but I am not sure that these students feel more included into Latin’s social milieu than previous students. It is my hope that students feel included based on the efforts by the school to address in an explicit way race, gender and class.”

Parker has been in contact with a network of schools all over the country addressing issues of diversity equity, and inclusion in their institutions. Although Head of Upper School Justin Brandon is not currently a DEI coordinator, he regularly meets with the DEI coordinators to serve as a support system and offer advice.

“What people may not know about is that I was a DEI coordinator for five years collectively at two other schools,” Head of Upper School Justin Brandon said. “I’ve been through this process twice before.”

Shepard decided to become a DEI coordinator because she was already working on these issues in the community informally.

“Another reason I decided to become a coordinator was because of my son who just entered JK,” Shepard said. “I now see these issues through the lens of a parent. I get to affect what type of environment my kid will grow up and learn in.”

Holland-Pryor, along with everyone else involved, is dedicated to changing the school’s environment, for the better. Holland-Pryor said, “I’ll leave you with this: your peers are all ears.”