WESTBROOK, Maine — The conversation about race is once again front-and-center at Westbrook schools, following an incident in the community over the weekend.
On Monday, June 4, dozens of students from Westbrook Middle and High Schools left their classrooms early in the day to lead a protest through the city to the public safety department.
They said they decided to do so in response to a situation that happened on Saturday at the Westbrook Together Days festival when their Black classmate was detained and issued a written trespass warning.
"We wanted to come out here because we feel like it’s necessary because of the things that are happening and the things that happened over the weekend at the park," Emma Brown, a high school student, said.
"We watched our friend [who's] a person that everyone in Westbrook knows get detained for no reason," Hadil Zackaria, the protest's organizer, said.
Zackaria told NEWS CENTER Maine the officer involved would not disclose his or her badge number or name. Her classmate has been banned from the Riverbank Park for a year.
The Westbrook Police Department released a statement after Monday's protest. In it, Chief Sean Lally said officers responded to a report of a male fighting around 6:34 p.m. He said officers recognized him from the night before at the festival when he engaged in similar behavior.
Lally said officers asked the male to leave the park and took him a "short distance" to the park entrance to issue a written trespass warning. The male allegedly refused to give his name and date of birth to officers. That's when a crowd formed around the officers. Lally said officers brought the male to the Westbrook Public Safety Building to "de-escalate the situation." He said before that, officers found a hidden knife in the male's pocket.
Lally said while the male was there, a crowd of young people banged on the windows of the building. They left after between 20 and 30 minutes. No one was arrested. Lally said the male "was never handcuffed or mistreated," and he was released to his grandmother at 7:27 p.m.
In a statement, Lally said, "The detention of this juvenile had nothing to do with race. It had to do with behavior. Fighting is illegal. So is criminal trespass. There are consequences to unlawful behavior. Moreover, Officers working the detail at Together Days trespassed numerous people of different races from the park over the course of two days for fighting and unruly behavior. Together Days is a community event and the officers working the detail are responsible to maintain a safe environment for patrons to enjoy."
Students spoke about more than this weekend's incident at the protest, though. A handful of them relayed their experiences with racial discrimination at school to NEWS CENTER Maine.
"There’s been a bunch of times in our school where people have called us as black people 'monkeys' and the N-word," Zackaria said.
"In my math class, I'm the only colored student," eighth-grader Aaliyah Malual said, also adding, "They don’t understand me because I’m a colored person who has been through traumatizing stuff."
Muslim students who follow the Islam faith said they have also experienced discrimination.
"I had my scarf pulled off two times at school. The first time I let it go, and the second time I didn’t," Palwasha, an eighth-grader who didn't provide her last name, said, also adding, "They just think it’s a piece of cloth on [my] head when really it means more than that."
"[I've been] called a bomber and a terrorist because I’m Muslim," sixth-grader Amjad Almamouri said. "It does not feel good."
It's why students were pushing for change during their protest, chanting phrases like, "B-L-M" for Black Lives Matter and "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!"
"Racial issues just overall in Maine [have] become so common, and it just became something that no one really wants to talk about anymore," Zackaria said.
"For me personally, it’s pretty hurtful because there’s like a whole community of us, and our school doesn’t do nothing about it," Annissa Alston, an eighth-grade student, said.
Westbrook School Department superintendent Peter Lancia said school staff members are actively working on solutions.
"It’s eye-opening that some of that work [we have already done] has not gone as far as it needs to go," Lancia said. "Events like this are an opportunity for dialogue."
Lancia said after the protest, the principal, assistant principal, and other Westbrook Middle School staff members met to discuss next steps. He said they're planning to have a smaller group dialogue on Wednesday to give students a couple of days to think about what they want to mention. Lancia said he had a similar meeting with high administrators about a week ago.
"It says that we're raising children well when they’re advocating for themselves," Lancia said about Monday's protest.