Last week, the Spectrum club, sponsored by math and AVID teacher Kelly Wroblewski, hosted a week of festivities to accompany Austin ISD’s annual PRIDE Week. PRIDE Week is a district tradition, coinciding with National LGBT Health Awareness Week, that celebrates students and faculty who are a part of the LGTBTQ+ community. We are proud to make the school’s observance of PRIDE Week this Tuesday’s photo essay.

SNAGGING SOME SWAG: On the first day of AISD PRIDE Week, the Spectrum club set up a table in the main hallway to hand out pride-related swag including stickers, flags and pins. Senior Mary Hendrix was drawn to the table by all the colorful goods.

“All the fun stickers and pride items caught my eye, so I went to grab some and take a look,” Hendrix said. 

Hendrix feels that hosting pride events at McCallum is important in making students of all identities feel at home in the school community. 

“I think it’s a great opportunity to help students feel welcomed and accepted,” Hendrix said. “Plus, it’s a fun way to show support for those around you or express your identity.” 

Caption by Francie Wilhelm. Photo by Shila Gill.

A KALEIDOSCOPE OF HOPE: McCallum teachers Stephannie Pinto, Robert Ely, Elaine Bohls-Graham, Margaret Smith, Tabitha Villarreal, Kelly Wroblewski and library clerk Lauren Alindogan gathered Thursday to speak on an AISD PRIDE Week Panel organized by the queer safe space club, Spectrum, that Wroblewski sponsors, and moderated by senior Marshall Clifton. The teachers discussed various issues of student acceptance, colleague acceptance and the differing levels of tolerance within AISD and beyond. 

Ely, a chemistry teacher, recounted a personal experience that touched on this theme addressed by the panel.

“I remember one of the newer teachers said after I mentioned my partner at a gathering—my other half, René—‘you’re allowed to mention your partner here?’” he said.

Many other teachers divulged similar social pressure to conceal their personal lives from their students for fear of perceived violations of contract clauses, which permit school boards to fire teachers for acts of “moral turpitude.” 

“One day there was a student who, prompted by the way I was dressed, said that gay marriage is an abomination,” Wrobleski said.

In response, Wroblewski didn’t criticize or rebuke the student for prejudice; rather, she opted for a calm, patient response.

“I will never pass,” she recalled saying. “I know it will never happen, and I need it to never happen, because I need the queers on campus to find me.”

Caption by Beatrix Lozach. Photo by Shila Gill.

BATTLING BIAS: The teacher panel that spoke on Thursday of PRIDE Week emphasized the prerogative of both teachers and administrations to combat both explicit and implicit bias of any kind in order to create a healthy learning environment for students. 

According to the 2017 GLSEN National School Climate Survey, LGBTQ+ students who have supportive teachers in the classroom have higher grade point averages. The mean reported average for students with no supportive staff was 3.0, while the mean reported average for students with 11 or more supportive staff members was 3.3. More dramatically, 43.4% of students with a supportive faculty felt unsafe at school, compared to the alarming 79.2% of students without a supportive faculty.

Pinto recalled the issue arose during a classroom discussion about bias.

“A few weeks ago we were talking about implicit bias in class, and a female student said, ‘I don’t feel comfortable having a trans person in the same bathroom as me. Is that discrimination?’” Pinto said. “And I asked, ‘Well, how would that make you feel? Would it be discrimination if someone said that to you?’” 

“And she said yes.” 

Caption by Beatrix Lozach. Photo by Shila Gill.

DANCING THE DAY AWAY: The Spectrum club at McCallum organized events every day for PRIDE Week. Monday started off this PRIDE Week which was the first day where they gave out free gay flags and stickers. Chris (who asked us to not to reveal their last name for personal reasons), who can be seen dancing to the songs played by Spectrum club members, is a member of the club and is a freshman. For them, PRIDE is about showing the world who he and others are.

“Gay pride to me means that we get the chance to show the world who we are, and I think it is really important because a lot of the time people think being gay is a joke, but it is important to show them that it’s not a joke and it’s a really deep part of who we are,” Chris said.

This event was chosen because the Spectrum club wanted everyone to be able to express themselves despite their situation.

“We [the Spectrum club] wanted to give people free stuff because some people can buy their own PRIDE stuff because some of their parents won’t give it to them or they are unable to get their own stuff because of a situation that they are in,” Chris said. “I think it’s important that PRIDE doesn’t have a price tag on it. You should be able to be who you are without having to pay for it.”

For Chris, PRIDE Week is important to show a different side of yourself.

“It’s important to show who you are and being gay is a part of yourself,” Chris said. “A lot of the time people don’t let you show that part of yourself so it’s good to have your own time [PRIDE Week], but being gay and being prideful shouldn’t just be for a week; you should always be proud of who you are.”

Caption and photo by Shila Gill.

PRIDE PRONOUN PINS: On Tuesday, the Spectrum Club organized its second event of the week where they gave out pride stickers as well as pronoun pins and temporary tattoos. 

Senior Adrian Recar, co-president of the Spectrum Club, thinks it’s crucial to celebrate pride to combat past and modern issues.

“It’s important to celebrate gay pride because of all the discrimination that has happened in the past and now,” Recar said.

Recar hopes to accomplish many goals with events like these.

“My hope for this event is to give people a sense of community and happiness and to do some cool things while feeling seen and heard and welcome,” he said.

Recar’s advice for anyone struggling with identity is to reach out to those around you.

“Talk to people,” he said. “There are a lot of people who have gone through the same thing and know people who are going through the same thing. There are so many resources in person or online.”

Recar encourages people to participate in these Pride Week events.

“Don’t be afraid to come do the activities and try new things,” Recar said.

Caption and photo by Shila Gill. 

A PRIDE-FUL WEEK OF CELEBRATION: As part of AISD’s week-long celebration of PRIDE, students of the McCallum Spectrum club worked to create a week full of activities, prizes and helping hands to support the school’s LGBTQ+ community. The club is open for anyone to join and specializes in creating a safe space for students to share and give advice. While PRIDE Month is not until June, AISD designates one week in March to celebrate and commemorate the importance of letting people be themselves on all AISD campuses. 

As part of the week of festivities, the club held a booth in the front hall handing out PRIDE stickers, pins and merch to passers by. Senior Zane Joly said the booth idea was brought up as a way for students to engage with one another and connect with the community. 

“I call out to people in the halls, ‘Hey, do you want stickers?’” Joly said. “We just give out free PRIDE stickers and sometimes other free PRIDE merch to the students of McCallum because everybody likes PRIDE stickers.” 

While the week itself is packed with different activities, the overall goal is to bring students closer together and create a safer environment for self-expression at McCallum. 

“The idea for the student panel largely came from the Black [history] student panel that is done during Black History Month,” Joly said. “And the idea for giving out free stuff was developed at Spectrum last year.”

Joly is not only a member of the Spectrum club, but also holds a leadership position giving them a more hands-on role with the projects and PRIDE Week activities. 

“McCallum has a very high queer population,” Joly said. “I think It’s nice that we get a chance to celebrate PRIDE because PRIDE Month is during the summer, and I think it’s just a nice thing for the community and getting to just celebrate it.”

While the merch table at lunch was only a small part of the numerous parts of McCallum’s PRIDE week, for Joly this small impact made all the difference. 

“The purpose of PRIDE is to make people not feel alone and to make them feel safe,” Joly said. “The goal is [to make people] happy about a part of themselves that they’re often conditioned to not feel good about.”

Caption by Chloe Lewcock. Photo by Shila Gill.

STUDENT VOICES HEARD: On Wednesday a panel of students held an open Q&A in the library as part of AISD’s PRIDE Week, taking questions from students concerning personal matters, inquiries in the LGBTQIA community, and creating a safe space for students to have their questions answered.

Senior Marshall Clifton, the panel’s moderator, was not expecting the large turnout.

“I wasn’t expecting much based on our turnout from last year, but I’m happy with what we ended up having,” Clifton said. “I would definitely love to see more awareness and attendance in future years, but I’m really proud of us all.”

As Clifton said, the intention of the panel was to raise awareness for the acceptance of the LGBTQIA students at McCallum. The panelists took questions from students wanting to learn more, and were able to answer with personal experiences. The majority of the questions pertained to how teachers and other students can make McCallum a more welcoming space for queer students.

“The attendees were incredibly lovely, and all very clearly wanted to learn,” Clifton said. “They asked some really awesome questions about what it’s like being part of the LGBTQ community at McCallum, and all of our panelists said that they’ve had a much more welcoming time here than where they were previously.”

Tasked with answering a variety of questions, the panelists had to phrase their answers so the audience would take away the main points of the discussion.

“The overwhelming answer was asking teachers to educate themselves and become more knowledgeable and welcoming to different queer identities,” Clifton said. “The panel did a very good job of answering questions.”

Caption by Priya Thoppil. Photo by Maggie Mass.