Students decided to make their own history this month as Montpelier High School in Vermont became the first high school to raise the Black Lives Matter flag. The flag went up on Thursday, meant to fly high all black history month.
According to NBC 5, black students took turns raising the flag in a ceremony attended by students, staff and community members.
Montpelier High School in Vermont is flying a Black Lives Matter flag all month long in honor of #BlackHistoryMonth. School officials say it’s the first high school in the U.S. to do so. pic.twitter.com/6vjj2K5ARv
— AJ+ (@ajplus) February 1, 2018
"People choose their flags because they want to represented and they want to be seen," student Joelyn Mensah said. "We students do not feel like we are represented or seen in our education and we are here to raise the flag because we want to be seen and we will demand to be represented in our education."
Both students and locals from all over Vermont were in attendance of the flag raising. The flag flies below the American flag on the same pole outside the school's front entrance. A solid fit as black lives are the foundation that America was built on.
The flag raising is the first of many events meant to bring attention to the racism and social issues black people are facing every day. Montpelier High School's student population is less than five percent black, according to NBC 5. However, students still feel that they have a right to an equitable education.
"In a lot of ways, our education has been robbed from us," sad Zymora Davinchi, a senior at fellow Vermont school Hazen Union High School. "We don't have equal access to education. We don't have equal resources because we don't grow up learning anything about ourselves."
Finally, it seems real conversations on these matters can be had. According to the backlash the school has had, many people view Black Lives Matter as anti-police. Police officers from across the state were invited as a way to show that this is not the message intended to be given.
"Thank you for understanding that the decision to fly the black lives matter flag this month at Montpelier High School is not anti-police, it's anti-bias," Principal Mike McRaith said. "We are committed to improvement and this dialogue and to work for equity and racial justice in our school system…We can and we must improve our educational system to be more culturally competent and ever more inclusive to the historically marginalized and oppressed."
Students want the dialogue and conversation to continue well beyond February.
"Even after Black History Month comes to an end, we still are here, our education still matters and we will still be black," Mensah said.