CHICAGO — Jones College Prep students gathered for a sit-in Monday following controversy around a student who attended the school in a German military costume for Halloween and made gestures seen as antisemitic. The school’s lack of response to the incident prompted the protest, where students called for change in the school culture, saying administration has failed to properly address long-standing discrimination issues.
Students packed the school’s lobby, with many others watching from the second floor. A few students held signs toward the windows facing the street, some of which read, “You can’t hide the truth” and “Can you hear us now?”
The controversy led Chicago Public Schools on Friday to remove Principal Joseph Powers from “principal duties, effective immediately, pending the results” of an investigation into his response to the student. In an email to parents, Powers seemed to downplay the gestures, saying “it certainly appears this was not the intent of the Halloween costume.”
In the CPS email announcing Powers’ removal, the district’s CEO Pedro Martinez announced that Arthur Slater, a former CPS principal “with extensive experience in the district, will serve as the administrator in charge, effective immediately.”
The issue gained traction on social media last week after students shared posts condemning Powers’ response to the controversy. In a video shared on Twitter and TikTok, the student is shown on stage during a school costume contest, where he appears to goose-step, a marching step heavily associated with Nazi soldiers, and give a Nazi salute to a booing crowd. The video on Twitter has since gained over 450,000 views.
In a photo attached to the post, Powers stands next to the student in the costume.
The student behind the viral Twitter thread, Alex, whose father asked that only his son’s first name be used, said he heard about the costume from friends the day after Halloween and began asking classmates. From there, Alex said he decided to take action.
“I decided to go around asking as many people as I could, people that shared classes with him,” Alex said. “People were sending me screenshots from Instagram, Snapchat, and I decided to take to Twitter because I was like, I need to do something about this because we just can’t let this behavior continue.”
Last week, the Chicago Teachers Union called for Powers’ removal and students planned to stage a walkout. In an email to students and parents, Martinez acknowledged the plans of a student protest, stating CPS security and staff would be present and that students who did not return after the walkout would receive an unexcused absence.
The initial plan was a walkout, but student Jaheim Jonson, one of the organizers, said that after examining the school’s code of conduct, they felt the sit-in would better protect students from risking strikes on their record.
Although Powers has been stripped of his duties, Johnson, a member of the school’s student-led Black Coalition, felt it was important to still take a stand. For this high school senior, the students’ response was a long time coming, he said.
“It’s just a cumulative buildup of every single incident of racial and ethnic misconduct and discrimination reported to admin, and they choose to ignore our concerns,” Johnson said.
Gabriel Willis, a senior at Jones, said his sibling, who graduated seven years ago, witnessed the same inaction toward racist behavior.
“She’s seen similar things throughout the years,” Willis said. “We’re seven, eight years, down the line, and it’s still happening. Something has to change.”
Johnson said the student protest was planned in just several days, largely organized by the Black Coalition and another student group, Jewish Student Connection. Seeing the efforts come to fruition, and with a large turnout, was a proud moment, he said.
“We’re proud to be standing up for something that we believe in is right,” Johnson said. “It’s not easy planning something of this magnitude in the short time we were allowed to do it, but we took care of it and showed up.”
Johnson said he believes the school didn’t expect such a large student showing.
“I think they thought that we were going to fail,” Johnson said. “I don’t think they were expecting it to be this magnitude. But we were going to follow through with our actions.”
Johnson said that Slater initiated a conversation with students. He appreciated the outreach, but he said he left the conversation feeling skeptical that new leadership will lead to meaningful reform.
“It sounded good, but it’s nothing we haven’t heard from the incompetent administration before,” Johnson said.
For Alex, taking part in the sit-in felt “right,” especially after helping to bring awareness of the incident.
“It’s so good to see that everyone wants to come together to do the right thing,” Alex said. “The unity is inspiring.”
Alex and classmate, Olivia Pinsof-Berlowitz, said the issue is bigger than any individual, including former principal Powers, emphasizing that the school’s culture has enabled racism and other discrimination.
“There’s still certain members of staff, administration, who need to be held accountable,” Alex said. “There’s a lot of work to be done to make change, just preventing racist behavior in general.”
Pinsof-Berlowitz, a sophomore at Jones, echoed the sentiment.
“I couldn’t say that it was just the principal,” Pinsof-Berlowitz said. “I think in some ways, the elite culture of selective enrollment can create some problems.”
The students said some teachers have started conversations about the costume incident and encouraged students to share their perspectives. However, Pinsof-Berlowitz said there is still a lingering fear that incidents like this could happen again, which makes the students’ continued solidarity all the more important.
“They, unfortunately, haven’t had this quick response in the past,” Pinsof-Berlowitz said. “When it’s antisemitism, there’s action about that. There’s been so many incidents of racism in the past that have gone unaddressed. I think everybody wants to make it really clear that we will not let this happen again.”
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