Juana Vazquez, who has a seventh grader at Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies, said her daughter, Destiny, has high anxiety around not seeing her friends or teachers.
Destiny Vazquez’s anxiety stems from Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Superintendent Angel Turner’s Oct. 16 email to families announcing that seventh and eighth grade classrooms at Bessie Rhodes would be closed after Nov. 15 due to staffing difficulties.
Instead, students like Destiny will be sent to their neighborhood middle schools. The announcement comes after the District 65 Board of Education voted to close the school after the 2025-26 school year.
Destiny Vazquez said that, in her classroom, she and her friends are trying to spend as much time as possible together and that many of them cry in class.
Juana Vazquez added that teachers are not allowed to say anything about the closure, creating an “intense” and “frightening” school environment.
“I can see them sad in the eyes,” Destiny Vazquez said. “Even the smiles, they used to be up, not down. They’re being sad — not funny, just sad.”
Juana and Destiny Vazquez were two of the about 100 children, parents and community members who walked from Bessie Rhodes to the Joseph E. Hill Early Childhood Center in protest of this announcement before the school board meeting Monday.
Right before the meeting started, District 65 Educators’ Council held an unrelated protest regarding fair contracts for teachers.
Juana Vazquez, who also has a sixth grader and a fourth grader at Bessie Rhodes, said the way the district handled communication about the staffing situation was “really upsetting.”
She said the entire situation has taken an emotional toll on her family and the community.
Although the district usually sends out emails in both English and Spanish — both of which Juana Vazquez is signed up for — she said she did not get one in Spanish, which poses a barrier for migrant families in the district. She said finding time to attend the protest also proved difficult.
“The hardest thing is finding time out of work to come and say something and stand united,” Juana Vazquez said. “I know many parents want to be here, like Latino parents, they want to say something, they want to speak.”
Arikpo Dada, a parent of two Bessie Rhodes alumni and one Bessie Rhodes eighth grader, said families deserved more respect from the district in getting communications in a more timely manner.
She added that parents might have been able to give the district ideas if given the chance.
“The same parents now who are organizing not to close the school would have just as easily organized to figure out a solution, but we weren’t given that opportunity,” Dada said.
Dada was at the front of the protesters, leading chants like “Save Bessie Rhodes,” “We pick here” and “We won’t wait, save seventh and eighth.”
Several protesters also held signs made by students with phrases including “My school is like my family” and “Apoyen A Bessie Rhodes,” which translates to “Support Bessie Rhodes.”
Bessie Rhodes eighth grader Leo Chavez held a sign that said “Family’s choice” on one side and “Not the district’s” on the other.
His father, Juan Chavez, said families should get to decide where their children go to school. He added that no matter what, students should not be pulled out of school in the middle of the year because transitioning to high school is a “crucial” point in their academic careers.
Dada echoed Juan Chavez’s sentiment and emphasized that closing seventh and eighth grade was “devastating” because families in the Bessie Rhodes community had chosen the magnet school for their children.
“I chose to be here, and to say my choice doesn’t matter, you’re going to put my child where you want to put my child, I think it’s unfair,” Dada said.
Parents at the protest wanted their children and the entire Bessie Rhodes community to see that they had support, Juan Chavez said.
Juana Vazquez said even if the community’s efforts fail to prevent the closure, the experience will teach the next generation how to speak and express their opinions without fear.
She added that for her, the experience hasn’t made her feel “valued” as an Evanston resident. She said there are still a lot of unknowns for her family, including transportation to school and her daughter’s Individualized Education Program, on which the district has been silent.
“We are not prepared — not financially, not mentally, not physically prepared — for this huge ordeal,” Juana Vazquez said.
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Related Stories:
— Bessie Rhodes families protest planned closure of 7th, 8th grade classes
— District 65 Board of Education passes FY25 budget with $13 million deficit, sets cost-reduction plan
— District 65 School Board votes to close Dr. Bessie Rhodes School
