Children’s March Asks Adults To Listen

Hundreds of elementary, middle, and high schoolers gathered to send a message to adults: We’re not too young to be worth hearing.

The students conveyed that message, along with information about a myriad of social justice causes they had researched, in spirited chants and soaring speeches at the annual Children’s March in Edgewood Park on Thursday.

The march was organized by Elm City Montessori educators, including Director of Anti-Bias and Anti-Racism Sade Jean-Jacques and Magnet Resource Teacher Dave Weinreb — a relatively new tradition forged after the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. 

Throughout the afternoon, kids read speeches and held up signs about issues ranging from police racism to climate change to bullying. 

Kindergartners and Pre‑K students marched through the 495 Blake St. school’s parking lot on Thursday morning, followed by first through third graders, who protested around the neighborhood. In the final and largest stage of the protest, fourth through eighth graders at Elm City Montessori convened at the northwest corner of Edgewood Park — joining students from L.W. Beecher Museum Magnet School of Arts and Sciences, Common Ground High School, Edgewood Creative Thinking Through STEAM Magnet, Barnard Environmental Science & Technology School, and Davis Street Arts and Academics School.

“This is what community looks like!” chanted Elm City Montessori students along Whalley Avenue, on the way to Edgewood Park. Small groups of kids drummed a protest beat, joining the passionate voices of their classmates.

Along the way, a ten-year-old student named Corinne listed some of the issues that matter most to her: ​“immigration, Black Lives Matter, disability rights, and LGBTQ+ issues.” 

Like the other kids at her school, Corinne had spent weeks researching a social justice topic as part of a group project. She would later deliver a speech advocating against immigrant deportations with some of her peers.

Though the protest originated in the classroom, the issues that galvanize Corinne most are personal. ​“My best friend from childhood is pansexual,” she said. ​“My mentor has family affected by immigration. And I’m Black, so Black lives matter.” 

Once at Edgewood Park, the kids joined their peers from other schools and marched in a circle. ​“The people united will never be divided,” they yelled in a call-and-response chant.

Kicking off the rally portion of the protest, Jean-Jacques summarized what the kids attending had learned about the Birmingham Children’s Crusade of 1963, in which over a thousand kids marched against racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. ​“They were met with firehoses and they were met with dogs,” Jean-Jacques said — but, in the end, their demands were taken seriously. ​“We want you to understand that you matter.”

A series of student speakers followed.

Common Ground High School student Aaliyah Jones spoke about the need for schools to teach in-depth and accurate history about people of color. 

“Young people of color are not being educated about their history,” Jones said. At a time when American schools and lawmakers have increasingly moved to censor Black history, Jones called on adults to ​“widen the spectrum of historical knowledge taught in schools.”

Two Elm City Montessori students spoke up about disability rights.

“We believe able-bodied people should listen to what people with disabilities need,” said ten-year-old Theodora Anderholt.

The pair noted that many buildings — even some schools — don’t have elevators or safe paths for physically disabled people.

They also urged their listeners not to underestimate disabled people. ​“I have a disability and I am still giving this speech,” said ten-year-old Elizabeth Laconi.

Eleven-year-old Ja’mese, a sixth-grader at Edgewood School, raised awareness about housing insecurity: ​“We need to stop making kids feel like nothing” when they live in homeless shelters.

Ja’mese later elaborated that the speech was inspired by a friend who found themselves living in a homeless shelter. ​“I do have a friend that was really struggling,” she said.

She was followed by Jasin Rivers, an Edgewood School student who focused on gun violence. ​“My friend’s cousin was murdered brutally. It was very sad.” Rivers urged the audience to participate in making their communities safer: ​“If you see something, say something.”

That issue resonated with Camila Torres, a 15-year-old sophomore at Common Ground. Torres, like the majority of students attending the protest, did not have a chance to speak before the crowd — but carried strongly held beliefs and personal experiences that resonated with the words of her peers.

“On my street, all I hear is guns,” said Torres, who lives in the Annex. She mimicked the pop-pop sound of gunshots.

GSA: Our Identities Are Real

One group of Elm City Montessori students spoke out in response to a comment under a recent Independent article about the school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), which suggested that fourth graders are too young to know their sexual orientations. That idea, along with the notion that transgender kids can’t really know their gender identities, has fueled book bans and curriculum restrictions across the country, including Florida’s infamous ​“Don’t Say Gay” law.

“A few weeks ago, we received a lot of comments saying that a fourth grade student knowing she was pansexual” was impossible, said one of the speakers before the crowd.

But kids aren’t too young to know their own gender and sexual identities, the students insisted.

After the protest ended, members of the GSA gathered in the yard behind their school to expound on their message as their peers munched on popsicles.

“We have the right to say who we are,” said fifth grader Quinn Price. Price began to use they/them pronouns in fourth grade, and the pronouns ​“felt right,” they said. ​“I actually felt like it fit.”

Ten-year-old Sascha recently started using both she/her and they/them pronouns. They described the feeling of being referred to as ​“they” or ​“them”: ​“It’s like double vibes.”

Meanwhile, fourth-grader Keely Smith described learning about different possible genders and realizing that she/her pronouns — the pronouns she’s used since birth — felt right to her.

Having a space to talk about queer identities has been helpful for kids who are straight or who are still figuring out their identities, too. Avery Beard, for instance, said they’ve found the GSA affirming because ​“my mom has a girlfriend.”

The GSA kids could be confident that young people are capable of identifying as queer because of their own experiences and the experiences of other kids they know. 

Their convictions are backed up by child development experts. Research shows that kids frequently develop a strong and lasting sense of their gender identities at a young age — in some cases as young as three to five years old. And according to the American Psychological Association, ​“the core attractions that form the basis for adult sexual orientation typically emerge between middle childhood and early adolescence”; in other words, many kids develop a sense of their sexual orientation between ages six and 13.

Knowing that many grown-ups don’t believe those findings, the GSA members offered words of advice to kids whose identities have been denied because of their age.

“Don’t be afraid to be who you are,” said fifth-grader Estela Rivera. ​“Who are they to judge?”

“You’re amazing just the way you are,” added Price. ​“That’s no one’s choice but you.”