Students Find Their Voice : Black Lives Matter Movement

By Megan Yang

Being a person of color at school has an effect on the students at Redwood High School.

Odessa Noelanii, ‘22 is a student at Redwood Highschool. She says, “when I was younger… it wasn’t that impactful until I got older.” Noelanii says that she “started to be more self-conscious” because she “wasn’t able to reach her full potential”. She, “feels like [she is] not being taught as much”.

Noelanii has “definitely faced some adversity” in her life, but she “would never change it”. The “biggest challenge” for Noelanii was “the social impact”. She says “wanting to fit in and being part of” the school, but “also not wanting to conform to what everyone else wants”.

Noelanii says, “we should be taught how to talk to people of color and how to respect them.”

Noelanii “[helped] plan the original protest” that took place on Caldwell and Mooney. She has been in “close contact with VUSD board members concerning BLM”. Noelanii’s plan now is to get “a mural painted at El Diamante… [to] represent the minorities in Visalia and empower them”. She is also “petitioning Tulare City council” to get a mural painted in Tulare.

Noelanii protesting, photo by Abby Miller

“You are appreciated… never be afraid to advocate for yourself.”
ODessa Noelanii

Angelina Nichols, ‘24 is another student at Redwood Highschool. Nichols finds learning different because “we learn about slavery in school… [and] that prejudice still is going on.” She says, “I have gotten stares” while “being taught in those units” and “it shouldn’t be normalized”. Nichols has “been taught at a young age” about “not getting the benefit of the doubt”.

It has affected her “ability to learn in a way that [she has] to understand that not everything… is 100% true.” When Nichols was in musical theater, she was “cast in a production hairspray as one of the only very black people.”

Nichols says, “school should be a good way to teach the importance of BLM since it is our main source of education.” She finds it, “unfair to live a life with disadvantages just because of the color of [her] skin.”

Nichols went to one of the protests and she was “planning on going to others, but the timing didn’t work out.” She actually plans to “organize a BLM protest in the future”.