The social justice clubs at the high school came together for the third annual Social Justice Week (SJW) to discuss topics that are relevant in society by preparing presentations, which they presented to an audience of students and staff. This year, SJW took place on February 11 through the 15 in the library during all lunch waves.

After students presented on a specific topic, they interacted with the audience by allowing questions and conversation where people were able to speak openly about the topic and voice their opinions.

“We want to not only spread awareness about the topics presented by our students but hopefully help change the way people think and view the topics discussed during SJW, as well as how to make a difference or change if students are inspired to do so,” school counselor Chris Loomis said.

Social Justice Week is a way for the clubs and people involved to unite and spread their passion around the community, as well as bring awareness to certain topics. Past years, there have been presentations on segregation, the environment, and diversity, and this year there was an array of subjects being discussed as well.

“We had a variety of topics lined up from Environmental Justice to Microaggressions. We want to bring a positive change to our school community, by having these presentations. We also want to start a dialogue between students about these difficult and, at times, uncomfortable issues,” junior Sia Goel said.

Clubs such as The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), BRAVE, Black Student Union (BSU), Indian Student Union (ISU), Multicultural Student Union (MCSU), Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), Social Justice, and UNITY sent representatives from their club to biweekly meetings for them to consider the subjects being presented during Social Justice Week.

Additionally, as further preparation for this event, members from each social justice club went to a Social Justice Conference in November at Southern Connecticut State University to bring students together from different schools to discuss local, regional, and national social justice topics.

This year’s SJW sparked up conversation between students and staff, as well as the students’ who presented had the opportunity to reflect on their specific topics and observe how the audience reacted and was impacted.

“I hope my presentation impacted the audience. Many people opened up and asked questions on how they should improve themselves,” senior Shagun Prabhu, who presented on images of the media and beauty said.