SOUTH BEND — Against the backdrop of the imposing facade of the Morris Performing Arts Center, Blake Belcher, a short 15-year-old sophomore at John Adams High School, stood alone in front of a microphone.
Clad in a T-shirt emblazoned with queer pop star Chappell Roan’s face, Blake faced a crowd of more than 50 people assembled at the Jon R. Hunt Memorial Plaza.
“I’m non-binary and last year I was able to legally change my name and gender. But when I went to get my learner’s permit at the BMV, that wasn’t reflected,” Blake said. “Why? Because our governor decided that his belief in two genders should triumph our right to be ourselves.”
The crowd booed in agreement when Blake talked about Republican Gov. Mike Braun and whistled when Blake criticized the Trump administration. The attendees were a mix of Blake’s classmates from Adams and adults of all ages affiliated with progressive groups like the Michiana Alliance for Democracy.
They held signs that read “Deport Musk,” “Stop the Steal of my Liberties” and “What Will Republicans Say When They Meet God?”
Some dressed up as handmaids, wearing a red robe and a white hood, a nod to Margaret Atwood’s novel about a totalitarian state where women don’t have reproductive freedom.
Others dressed up as the Statue of Liberty. Pop songs by Charli XCX and Sabrina Carpenter played in the background, and volunteers affiliated with the League of Women Voters of the South Bend Area passed out voter registration information.
Ingrid “Iggy” Mason, a friend of Blake’s and a fellow sophomore at Adams, came up with the idea to organize a protest a few weeks ago when they were drawing during art class.
Iggy and Blake had attended the “Hands Off” rally protesting Trump’s executive orders in April and were inspired to organize young people like themselves by talking specifically about issues that affect them, such as school shootings, LBGTQ rights, federal funding for education, immigration and climate change.
The event began at 1 p.m. and included short speeches by Blake, Iggy and Braedon Troy, a 2023 graduate of Saint Joseph High School in South Bend and current sophomore at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. South Bend Mayor James Mueller made a short speech as well.
After the speeches, around 1:45 p.m., the attendees lined up by the side of North Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near the Morris and held up their signs to passing cars. They chanted call-and-response slogans like “Show me what democracy looks like/This is what democracy looks like” and “Education is a right, not a privilege” until around 3 p.m.
Standing up for public school students
Blake talked about how Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education would affect students.
“This will leave millions of children without the money to be able to afford their school lunches, it will leave disabled kids without the resources necessary to thrive, and it will leave after-school programs scrambling to find funds for after-school activities,” Blake said.
This resonated with Ashley Person, Boys and Girls club director of the O.C. Carmichael Jr. Youth Center that hosts after-school programs. These programs partially rely on federal funding that may be cut off by Trump’s efforts. Person had attended the protest with her two daughters Kira, 14 and Olivia, 12.
“I’m concerned about them taking away funding for after-school programs. I feel like they’re trying to silence our students … they need to have an outlet,” Person said.
Iggy, a sophomore at Adams, spoke about how public school students like herself regularly fear gun violence.
“We are scared to … learn in a windowless classroom and scared to leave the house each morning without saying bye to our parents,” Iggy said.
She also expressed her disappointment with the current administration’s views on the issue.
“When commenting on a school shooting in Georgia, (Vice President) J.D. Vance said … ‘we don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality that we live in. We’ve got to deal with it,’” Iggy said. After the crowd booed the quote from Vance, she said, “This is not just a normal fact of life. I’m tired of being scared.”
Kricket Emvall-Sweeney, 15, also a student at Adams, agreed with what Iggy said.
“The amount of fear that the election brought … isn’t equal to what a high schooler should be feeling about politics,” Kricket said.
A college student’s perspective
Troy, the Georgetown University sophomore who spoke at the protest, said that his interest in politics was sparked when Pete Buttigieg, then-mayor of South Bend, ran for president in 2019. This inspired him to organize a March for Our Lives rally in South Bend in 2022.
Troy told the crowd about his experience of the first 100 days of the Trump administration as a student in D.C. He talked about the impact of Trump’s policies on higher education.
“Now he’s cut 780 research grants that were leading the fight against HPV, maternal health care, HIV and cancer, meaning that it is not hyperbole to say that Donald Trump and Elon Musk literally want the American people to get cancer,” Troy said.
He urged the attendees to stay involved in politics in preparation for the midterm election in November 2026.
“(Trump and Musk) fear a public that is getting up on a Saturday in a deep red state and coming out here with their friends and families and their church, neighbors and coworkers and standing up against all of this crap,” Troy said.
Bringing people of all generations together
Although the protest was aimed at young people, people of all generations attended. Hailey Salisbury, 29, a kindergarten teacher in Elkhart, said, “It’s nice to see a bunch of different generations come out and support younger kids that are trying to make a difference … especially since they can’t vote yet.”
Retiree and 1975 Adams graduate Anne Thacker, 68, said she was concerned about the Trump administration not following the Constitution and due process and wanted to stand with young people.
“’I’m so sorry my generation couldn’t straighten things out before we got to this point,” Thacker said.
Mueller, 42, talked about what he described as the Trump administration’s disregard for the rule of law and referenced its policies on trade in his speech at the protest.
“They are sabotaging our growth, and they are sabotaging our future,” the Democrat said. “It’s so evident, even our high schoolers see it, and they’re the ones who are going to be destroyed by it the most.”
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend high school students lead multigenerational protest against Trump’s policies
Reporting by Angela Mathew / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
