Hyde Park Academy High School Students Stage Walkout Demanding Support for Grief and Trauma Recovery in Chicago

CHICAGO (WLS) — A group of high school students is seeking support for coping with grief and trauma.

Located near the Obama Presidential Center, these students feel their principal is neglecting their needs.

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While Hyde Park Academy High School enjoys the spotlight due to its proximity to the new Obama Presidential Center across Stony Island Avenue, some students are raising their voices about their own pressing issues.

On Thursday, a number of students from Hyde Park Academy staged a walkout during the fifth period. They held a press conference to highlight what they describe as a reduction in essential resources.

“Three students have died in one month, and the principal hasn’t addressed it. She doesn’t care about us at all,” said student Aiyanna Jackson.

The students emphasized the importance of a peace circle, previously operated by Southside Together, as a critical resource for managing trauma and loss. A community organizer from Southside Together noted that their operations, along with those of other organizations, were abruptly halted at the school earlier this month.

“It’s frustrating, it makes me angry, but mostly it is severing a relationship that we built with the young people to have their voice heard in their school and to me that’s most upsetting,” said Yvette McCaskill with Southside Together.

In April, a student was shot and killed a half block from the school. And in March, a student was struck while riding a scooter and another student was struck and killed on her way to work.

“I have another year, and that’s a lot of days to just feel depressed and angered and isolated,” student Zaynah Soyebo said.

The students say at a time when they need more support, resources have been taken away.

“If we can’t get a new principal, at least some type of way to have the principal start caring about us getting our resources back bringing in more resources,” student Liyah Juarez said.

Late Thursday afternoon, ABC7 was told that Southside Together is not a Chicago Public Schools-approved vendor.

A statement from CPS read in part, “The school has a counselor onsite and additional staff who provide mental health assistance or refer students and families to additional mental health services.”