Silver Lake Elementary School

Disappointed by Lack of Support and Persistent Racism.My experience at Silver Lake Jr./Sr. High School as a POC (Person of color). It was very frustrating, mainly due to ongoing issues with racism and a lack of support from staff and administration. Despite attempts to start a diversity group with the principal’s involvement, the initiative had barely progressed and felt more like lip service than genuine change. Racism was a real problem in the school environment. I often felt like I had to take on the role of standing up against racist language and behavior, including hearing racial slurs like the N-word frequently between 7th and 8th grade, because I was so one-sided about it, without adequate intervention from staff. It was just exhausting. I recently transferred from Silver Lake to Topeka High as of writing this. Now, I had already lived in Topeka with my parents for many years before they decided to send me to an out-of-district school, and years passed from elementary to now high school (Freshman), and I decided to finally to just go to a 501 school since I already live in Topeka. I had been thinking about this for years, but only now have I decided I needed to start fresh. I would just not recommend this place if you're a person of color or different race than Caucasian. It was just an overall unwelcoming environment to be in. And special education wasn't really all to good either.