When roaming the KHS halls with hoods up, students are constantly reminded by faculty members to remove them, but Friday, April 6 was an exception. In memory and support of Trayvon Martin, students were allowed to wear their hoods.

Martin, a 17-year-old from Sanford, FL, was shot and killed in a gated community by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, Feb. 26. Zimmerman reported to the police that Martin looked suspicious because he was walking in the rain with a hoodie on and had something in his hand. Although it is believed Martin did nothing to provoke the incident, Zimmerman, claiming self-defense, shot the teen, who was armed with a pack of Skittles and an iced tea. Police did not arrest Zimmerman at the time, but the case was further investigated and he was later charged with second-degree murder.

“Since Kirkwood is a primarily white school, I got the impression that not too many people knew much about this issue since it brought an uproar mainly to the black community,” Dasia Johnson, BACC president and junior, said. “Our primary goal as a club was to raise awareness about the case.”

A group of students from the Black Achievement and Cultural Club (BACC), brought the Trayvon Martin case to the attention of Dr. Michael Havener, principal, March 27, when they asked permission to wear their hoods up in school to support the case. Because of the hats off and hoods down dress code, this request was out of the ordinary. The administration postponed their day of support by encouraging the students to form an organized plan. BACC responded by organizing ways to spread awareness about the case to students and the community.

“[Hoodie day] led us to other things that we could start to do locally to bring to life instances of discrimination such as this in our own area and spread it out from there, so this is just the start of our efforts,” Ramona Miller, BACC sponsor and freshman principal, said.

BACC sponsored a hoodie day, where students could pay $1 to wear their hoods up in support for Martin’s family. The $200 they collected, from students who donated to wear their hoods, went to the Martin family to help pay for his funeral and projected legal fees.

“I think it’s important [for students to wear hoodies for support] because it’s a great cause and it helps his family and friends,” Daisha Williams, sophomore and hoodie wearer, said. “He needs justice so it just feels like it’s the right thing to do.”

Johnson worried the hoodies would not be enough to spark interest among students, so she hurried to print signs reading “Justice for Trayvon Martin” that participants could wear for the day.

“I felt that since our goal was to raise awareness, we were very successful,” Johnson said. “I had 50 people, at least, come up and ask me what was up with the signs and why I was wearing my hood up.”

Along with hoodie day, BACC members signed a petition encouraging  further case investigation.

“One of the things [KHS faculty] tries to do here is raise students to become civil-minded adults and an asset to the society, so the fact that students take a stand for things and do it in a correct manner is very important,” Miller said. “Everyone should feel like they have a voice, and in this case it’s our students having a voice on something they feel strongly about. We see that so much with the students here at Kirkwood because they take such a diverse stand on so many different issues.”