This piece was written as a companion to WSS’s 10/16 cover story, Unmuted.

Stories of people being called slurs, acts of harassment and discriminatory jokes. All of these things, and more, have been shared on Instagram accounts that were created for marginalized groups in the ICCSD.

The first account to be created was @blackaticcsd, and it inspired the creation of many other accounts dedicated to sharing other forms of intolerance occurring within ICCSD. These accounts, including @mentalhealthiccsd, @lgbtaticcsd, @girlsaticcsd and @latinosaticcsd, have accumulated anywhere from 250 to one thousand followers each. As a whole, they have provided a safe space for hundreds of people to share their stories. Through Instagram direct messages or through google forms that are linked in their bios, the accounts invite others to share their stories of discrimination anonymously.

Rachel Johnson ’24, a student at City High school, runs @lgbtaticcsd with three of her friends. She created the account after seeing the response and the change that the @blackaticcsd account was creating.

“I saw lots of people I knew talking about [the accounts],” Johnson said. “And I thought it was a great idea and that LGBT kids deserved a similar thing: a safe place to tell their stories.”

Johnson was surprised by the amount of attention that the account received. Most of the attention was positive, but at times the account owners were harassed. The account received multiple DMs telling them that their account was pointless or even threatening to disclose their identities. It was this reaction that led Johnson and her friends to stop running the account anonymously.

“There were a group of people that didn’t like the account and knew all of our names,” Johnson said. “I didn’t want them to feel like they had any kind of power over us.”

Johnson and her friends didn’t let the harassment stop them from running the account. Johnson felt that the issues were too important to let go of.

“I think there’s never a wrong time to share these types of stories,” Johnson said. “But I do think that some people don’t take the harassment that LGBT students face seriously. The district says that they support us and people see that, but they assume that we don’t still face lots of issues around school, even though we do.”

Johnson believes that the ICCSD is making an effort to improve equity in the district and stop acts of discrimination, but there are more steps they could be taking. When the pandemic is over and school has returned to normal, Johnson plans to get more involved and reach out to district staff.

“I want to … speak directly to the students who have experienced [discrimination] then write up a specific list of issues and the changes that we want to see and bring it to the principal to see what we can get done with his help,” Johnson said. “If that doesn’t work then I’d like to get in contact with someone on the school board.”

While Johnson and her friends are waiting until the pandemic is over to try and create big changes, several teachers in the district have already reached out to @lgbtaticcsd to ask for anything they could do to make LGBT students feel safer in classrooms.

“I think that it’s important to create an environment where LGBT students can feel safe, hanging up a pride flag and displaying your pronouns are good ways to do that. Also, if you have books in your classroom consider having a section devoted to books about being LGBT or at the very least have books with good representation,” Johnson said.

The accounts have slowed down since their creations during July and August, they were still able to spread information to a large amount of the ICCSD. These accounts have helped thousands of students, staff, parents and community members to learn about the acts of discrimination happening around the district. They also offer suggestions for what students can do to help.

“It sounds simple,” Johnson said. “But calling out bullying [and] harassment when you see it and reporting it is so important. When we ignore these incidents they become normalized and people think they can just keep doing it with no consequences.”