CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Washington High School senior Deon Harrison, 17, wants Black students in the Cedar Rapids Community School District to realize their “great potential,” succeed academically and become leaders of their schools.

Harrison is a member of Washington’s Black Student Union, an organization working to build up a community of Black students at all four Cedar Rapids high schools — Washington, Kennedy, Jefferson and Metro. The district this fall renewed its efforts to support the organizations at all four schools. And to encourage membership at a time when all the high schools are meeting virtually while damage to the buildings from the Aug. 10 derecho is repaired, the Black Student Unions held a cookout last week on the lawn of the African American Museum of Iowa in Cedar Rapids.

The Gazette reports about 50 students, community members and Cedar Rapids Community School District employees mingled outside with masks on while enjoying hot chocolate from Brewhemia and food from Willie Ray’s Q Shack and listened to students and community members speak about their dreams for equity in schools.

For many students, this was their first chance to see each other in person since March, when the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close for the remainder of the academic year.

Harrison said as a freshman, he saw his Black friends struggling academically as his white friends were succeeding. He doesn’t want his friends to “be another statistic,” he said.

“They’ve been put into a system that sees them as criminals and undermines them,” he said. “I want to build up students as African American leaders in every part of the school. You have great potential.”

The Kennedy High School Black Student Union has been meeting weekly and meets with the school’s administration, including Principal Jason Kline, monthly.

Co-founder of the Kennedy Black Student Union Raafa Elsheikh, 17, a senior, said the group is asking the school to implement restorative justice practices, include Black history in course curriculum, and to hire more teachers of color.

Elsheikh said she is “sad and frustrated” because she feels the school doesn’t have a plan to implement the Black Student Union’s demands.

Kline said the student leadership for the Black Student Union is “exceptional.” As a white person who doesn’t have the same experiences, he said he is spending a lot of time listening.

“It hurts we’re not making progress we want to, a sentiment we find all across the country right now,” Kline said. “We have to keep working at it.”

Jefferson High School senior Nkasa Bolumbu, 17, said she feels like Black students are “divided” and she hopes the student unions help them find common ground and support.