Waverly Zhao:
Students aren’t okay with this. We aren’t being asked about what we need. All of these laws are lacking student voice and student representation, and we are going to be the biggest stakeholder in all of this. And so why are we not being involved in these conversations?
Alec Patton:
This is High Tech High Unboxed. I’m Alec Patton. And that was Waverly Zhao, one of the co-founders of Iowa WTF, an organization founded by Iowa High School students in response to a whole bunch of state-level legislation. For example, House Bill 802, which made it illegal for Iowa schools to teach any topic which could cause anybody to feel guilt or discomfort because of their race or sex, or HF8, which banned any mention of sexual orientation or gender identity in classes from kindergarten to third grade. Iowa WTF’s response to HF8 was probably their most well-known demonstration, the We Say Gay walkout. Students from 47 schools across Iowa took part. I spoke to Waverly and to David Lee, another co-founder. I wanted to talk to them because as a teacher, I tried really hard to empower students, but I’ve always learned most by noticing when and how students seize power for themselves. I’m really inspired by Waverly and David, and I think you will be too, whether you’re a teacher and administrator or a community organizer yourself. And quick warning, as you might guess, given the name Iowa WTF, there’s some strong language.
This episode starts with a Community of Racial Equity or CORE. If you’re thinking, haven’t I heard of a civil rights organization called CORE? You’re probably thinking of the Congress for Racial Equality, which played a key role in the non-violent civil rights protests of the 1950s and ’60s. This CORE was founded in 2014 by students at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa. Specifically, it was founded by students of color who were taking advanced placement, dual enrollment and IB courses. Here’s how CORE’s website describes the impetus for the group, “Often the only students of color in their college-level classes, these high school students shared the common experience of isolation. This sense of seclusion was amplified by curricula that didn’t reflect their experiences and teachers who didn’t represent their racial backgrounds. In the community that was created, CORE members came together and helped ease tensions that came from the experience of stereotype threat, alleviate frustrations that came from racialized moments and relieve pressure by sharing strategies to navigate systems that placed unique obstacles in their paths to success.” I’ll let Waverly say more about CORE and how she got involved.
Waverly Zhao:
It had been kind of a long-running club within central Iowa, and a club was started at my high school a few years prior to me being able to join it. And so following 2020, I joined CORE because I felt like I needed to take action within my community as far as racial equity went. And so I joined my club and it started off as a really small group, and we just met over Zoom and talked about our experiences within the school. And then that following year, I became the head facilitator of the group. And so I decided to take a more legislative lens, more activist lens to our work. And so that included revamping our statewide meetings that we had been doing. Essentially, we just had the facilitators from every CORE Chapter within Iowa meet one Saturday a month and just talk about the things that we were doing at our schools, seeing how we could support each other.
And that’s kind of how I found out that a lot of the issues I had within my school district were similar to other students experiences in very different school districts with different demographics of students. And so it really showed me that there needed to be another larger approach to racial equity specifically, but also how racial equity is connected to a lot of other issues and how there was an overwhelming call to fight for public education as a student. And so David attended one of the statewide Zoom calls. I believe we were unpacking House File 802 and kind of all of the implications of the law and how we, as students, could skirt around. And so it was a collaboration between students and teachers.
Alec Patton:
And which law was that?
Waverly Zhao:
HF 802.
Alec Patton:
But what was it about?
Waverly Zhao:
Oh, sorry. Well, it bans teaching certain curriculum regarding race or gender. It’s an attempt to prevent race and gender scapegoating. But because the law is so ambiguous, it kind of just came across to educators as, I can’t teach about certain factors and parts of racism in the United States. I can’t be critical of the United States in its past laws, systems of oppression, et cetera. And so there was, again, the chilling effect like I mentioned of teachers feeling like they could no longer talk about very important issues like slavery, like Jim Crow era laws and other broader topics like white supremacy.
Alec Patton:
How many people are on this call?
Waverly Zhao:
I think probably 20 or 30 people. It was probably two students per chapter of CORE and one teacher sponsor or community sponsor per chapter. So there was a few teachers from districts around Des Moines area, and then a few other community members that had been involved in CORE.
Alec Patton:
And so what was the mood like on that call? Was it scared, angry?
Waverly Zhao:
So at least for me, it was mostly just an educational call because the law had already been passed, and we had already gone through the disappointment in our efforts and in CORE’s efforts to prevent the passage of this law. And there were a bunch of other groups within the Des Moines area that were working to prevent the passage of this bill. But obviously, our efforts were in vain. It passed. And so this call was really focused on what we can do now. So I don’t really think it was sad, but I do think it was a last shot attempt to try to skirt around it. And from that call, David reached out to the leaders within CORE to try to start Iowa WTF. We didn’t really know what the name of it would be. We didn’t know what the concept of it would be other than that it would be a coalition of students who were just fighting against this legislation in a more direct way.
Alec Patton:
Yeah. Why did you need to start something new? Why wasn’t CORE enough?
Waverly Zhao:
CORE I think it was definitely specifically focused on racial equity. And Iowa WTF focuses on broader issues in addition to racial equity. And I think we definitely needed something that brought all of these clubs and organizations together. And so we are largely a coalition base. We don’t really have chapters of Iowa WTF, but we do have people who are fighting for various different issues coming together to fight against a lot of this harmful legislation that impacts youth while also pushing for things that will help youth and help public schools and help youth gain power within their schools. And so David, if you have more to add.
David Lee:
Yeah, I think the big distinction is when you’re studying the structure of clubs in high schools across a state, there are already clubs that exist that fulfill a role, such as having discussions on racial equity, or a GSA would be a gay student alliance that works with students from the LGBTQ community. Those clubs already exist in respective schools all across the state. What Iowa WTF was mainly trying to do was utilize the connections we have at those clubs already, and then try and do group projects and group efforts in order to push out the agendas that we are all trying to work with on our own, but that we could just combine together and work together on.
Waverly Zhao:
It reminds me too that because CORE was a school affiliated group in every school that we were a part of, there were a lot of limitations to what we could say, what we could do. We had to abide by our school’s rules and policies, and there were a lot of restrictions financially. And just at the end of the day, we are an affiliate of this school, and so we have to abide by that. And so Iowa WTF definitely skirted around those things as well for us. I guess essentially the system of being a school club is what limited us, and so we had to seek other avenues of trying to fight against it without losing our clubs because they provide support for us within our school.
Alec Patton:
Sure. Yeah, yeah. No, that totally makes sense.
And so David, take me back into your head. You’re on this statewide call talking about HF 802, and that call ends and you’re like, we got to start a group. What was going on in your head?
David Lee:
It wasn’t that dramatic. So I had already been in contact with some of the CORE members at different schools than Waverly. I had a friend in Ankeny, which is a city that’s in between Des Moines and Ames, and she was leading a few clubs in that area around the same issues. And so I had already studied that there were so many of these clubs around the area that had been working on similar issues. And the statewide meeting just confirmed that. Honestly, what’s we were trying to do after that state call was make sure that the other schools in the area that were working on those same issues also got to have a say in what the conversations we had in CORE was about, and just help each other push this initiative of trying to raise awareness about what HF 802 was and what the consequences looked like in the schools.
And so initially, honestly, I wasn’t thinking about having a long-term type of group called Iowa WTF. It just naturally came about as a result of us trying to work together and trying to establish a working pattern of us engaging and collaborating on projects.
Alec Patton:
So what was the first meeting?
David Lee:
Yeah. So we all hopped on a meeting, and the first few discussions were about what is the best way to go about trying to address this issue that is HF 802. Do we go through a legal side? Do we go through the advocacy side? Do we go through and submit public policies and legislative bills that we could try and get sponsored by legislators in the state Senate and the House? And we researched a few avenues, found that the legal avenue was probably not going to work most efficiently. We tried looking if the legislative and the House and the Congress at the Capitol would be receptive to the idea, but with a pretty super majority red type of composition of the State House and the Senate, we didn’t think that was going to be likely.
Alec Patton:
The legal option didn’t look promising and the composition of the Iowa State House meant the legislation path was firmly closed. That left one option on the table, in David’s words…
David Lee:
To tell the state of Iowa that we wouldn’t stand for this. The students had a place in the public education system to be heard, and we didn’t want this. And we discussed having a few walkouts coordinated between the schools.
Alec Patton:
That seems like a bummer series of meetings.
Waverly Zhao:
Bummer series?
Alec Patton:
That you’re like, well, can we do this thing that’ll substantively change things? Nope. Can we do this thing that’ll substantively change things? Nope. What can we do? We can raise our voices together. That’s what we’ve got. That just seems heavy.
David Lee:
And that’s usually how it goes.
Waverly Zhao:
Yes, it is heavy, but it is the reality that we’ve had to experience. And I also think it’s important that a lot of students who participate in this work, and I feel like especially David and I, and all the other people involved in Iowa WTF, we’re doing all of this and we’re trying to skirt around everything and we’re coming up with all these ideas because we feel like we have to. And so it’s more about trying to do what we can, even if it’s not the ideal solution, but it’s because it’s needed and it’s because we feel like, what else can we do other than try to fight back as much as possible?
Alec Patton:
So you all are, I’m noticing, just exceptionally strategic and thoughtful in the way that you’re approaching power and resisting power and resisting oppression. And with that in mind, let’s talk about the name.
Waverly Zhao:
Oh, my goodness. This is my favorite question.
Alec Patton:
How did that name come about?
Waverly Zhao:
I believe we were sitting on a call and we were trying to think of something that would be broad enough to where we weren’t tied down to one specific issue, but would also be eye catching enough and memorable. And I suggested we include a curse word, and I think it kind of just also came down to what wasn’t already taken as an Instagram handle. And so we landed on Iowa WTF.
Alec Patton:
Why do you think it needed a curse word?
Waverly Zhao:
Well, this is what I was thinking in my mind was I’m angry. I’m young. There’s a lot of angst in this. And so I think it’s representative of the youth and of our anger towards the state, towards our leadership, to have this curse word. And it also is something that a lot of people can agree with. And right off the bat, people see our name and they’re like, yeah, what the F? And so I think it just encompasses a lot of the negative feelings we’ve had for a while. And just a lot of, like you said, the losses we’ve had and how we’re just still trying to push on. And so our name is very simple. We often get asked, what does the W and T and the F mean? And we’re like, it means what it means because, I mean, what else? It’s okay to be blunt about things sometimes.
Alec Patton:
I’m guessing that not everybody in the world knows that WTF stands for what the fuck? Do you have people sometimes who are just literally, what does that mean?
Waverly Zhao:
Yes. And when they do, it’s really funny because we’re like, well, it means, what the fuck? And they’re like, oh, okay. They’re a little taken aback, but it also means they know we’re not messing around.
Alec Patton:
Yeah. All right, so what was it like telling your parents that you were founding an activist organization and it was essentially called what the fuck?
Waverly Zhao:
My mom didn’t really care. I think she loved the name. She also was kind of involved and my biggest supporter in the work I had been doing for my own community. You should definitely look up Johnston Community School District and read through some of those articles because you’ll find some very interesting things happening there.
Alec Patton:
We did, and there’s a link to the article in the show notes.
Waverly Zhao:
She definitely understood from not only the work I’d been doing just in my town, but also in conversations we’ve had over the past several years of the state of things within Iowa and just my own experience. And she has tried to come to almost all of our events that we put on, all of our walkouts because we lived so close to my high school. She would walk over, take photos, root on the sidelines for all the students. And it was really cool to see having that extra adult support and also just other community members who were close to me coming out and saying that they really loved this organization and they were really proud and that they agreed, like Iowa WTF, like this isn’t the Iowa that I moved to, this isn’t the Iowa that I chose to raise a family in. And so I think adults really understand the importance of our name, and it wasn’t as big of a deal as I think it could have been.
Alec Patton:
David, what about you?
David Lee:
My parents don’t know a lot about the activism or advocacy work that I do, not because they would be opposed to it. They’re just not the people I go to talk about state politics. I think it really just depends on what family you grew up in. So Waverly and Jemma’s parents are a little more involved in the affairs of state politics. While my mom would probably have no idea what’s going on.
Alec Patton:
Is that really true?
David Lee:
And then my dad lives in Korea. Well-
Alec Patton:
There’s news articles about you guys.
David Lee:
Yeah, my mom… So, okay. I was on a TV little segment for one of the other projects that I had done where we were trying to implement a mentoring system at one of the elementary schools that was in our district. And my dad, he lives in Korea, and that’s where his job is. He found out about that segment before my mom did, and then he sent it to my mom, and my mom was actually not living with me at the time, so my mom’s up three and a half hours away. Now she’s a choir teacher in a school district, but for the past 13 years, she was a student in the college school system.
Yeah, so she wasn’t that all updated on state politics and what’s going on. I think it’s just if you’re in that niche of politics, advocacy work or activism work in the school system, then you know what’s happening. And if you’re not, then you’re not. And I think a majority of the students at a school district, even if it’s a public education system, most of them don’t know what’s happening. And that’s where we came in. That’s where we were trying to raise awareness through these clubs and through Iowa WTF about the affairs that were affecting us behind the scenes, but that students didn’t always recognize and see.
Alec Patton:
All right, so what was your first campaign? I don’t know if that’s the right word.
Waverly Zhao:
Yeah. Our very first action was our first statewide walkouts. I believe they were in March of 2022. Oh, no, they were in April, April of 2022. We were founded in March of 2022. But basically our statewide walkouts, I think it featured around five of the major school districts within Central Iowa. And we all walked out on the same day at the same time, just to not only educate the students that walked out with us about the current state of our legislature and all of the bills that were going through that would potentially impact students if they were passed, but to also say like, hey, this isn’t okay, to gain attention in the media about students aren’t okay with this. We aren’t being asked about what we need. All of these laws are lacking student voice and student representation, and we are going to be the biggest stakeholder in all of this, and so why are we not being involved in these conversations?
And so I mean, it was a really great start considering that we literally, I don’t even think we had a hundred followers yet. It was all of the schools that all of the founders were from. And so just our first round definitely didn’t garner us a lot of attention, but it did get students to think in our schools specifically, what is going on and why are these changes happening? And it really got students to pay a little bit more attention to the state legislature and to their own school board.
Alec Patton:
Was this the We Say Gay walkout?
Waverly Zhao:
This was before the We Say Gay walkout. So this one was… I don’t think it had a title. It was just Student Walkout Fighting for Teachers and Education is what it was titled as. You can find the information about it towards the bottom of our Instagram.
Alec Patton:
We put a link to that Instagram post in the show notes.
One thing I’m really curious about, I, as a 42-year-old, find the idea of walking up to people not knowing if they’re going to agree with me or not, and being like, hey, you want to get involved in this thing? I find that scary. I find the idea of in high school going up to people and being like, hey, we’re going to do a walkout. Are you interested? That sounds terrifying to me. How did you do that?
Waverly Zhao:
I’ll go. And then David can share as well. I mostly shared about the walkout through CORE, and that’s kind of how a lot of our clubs come into play again, and the coalition base of this is because I led this group, I already had people who were tuned into these issues and who were already willing to support our cause. And so I shared it with CORE and shared all of these bills. And we did a big info session the week before. And then I asked, hey, tell your friends. Tell your friends’ friends, talk at lunch. And because of school rules, again, you can’t actually put up posters or use school resources or school facilities to promote a school walkout. And so it was really a big thing of word of mouth, spreading it on social media. Social media is one of our biggest tools, but also, again, using the fact that we have already established clubs to use the group of students and that captured audience we already have to spread our message.
David Lee:
Yeah, I think in terms of you finding it scary to approach someone in high school, I don’t think it was necessarily a problem for most of the students because it was something personal to them. And when an issue is personal to you, then it’s not a matter of whether you’re scared to do something, you just do it because you have to. There were aspects of it when I was organizing it that I was scared that it might not turn out the way I envisioned it.
Alec Patton:
What were you worried about?
David Lee:
Okay, so when I was organizing the first walkouts that we did at my school, I had a plan of what it might look like. I ran it by the administrators. We got in contact with the police. We had everything set up. And then after we walked out and ended up in the football field, we were going to have students speak about it, et cetera. And towards a couple of days or a day before, everybody backed out due to either conflicts or they weren’t ready or they didn’t want to do it anymore. And I was unsure if I wanted to go through with the walkouts. That’s where Waverly came in and we were talking on one of the meetings and she was like, it doesn’t really matter how many students you get or how it goes or who speaks or whatever you envisioned it to be. The fact that even a few people are there in support of this idea, that are trying to use their student voices, that is what matters at the end of the day.
And that’s one of the things I’ve learned doing advocacy work is it doesn’t really matter how many people show up. It matters if this idea that you are creating or if this fight that you’re trying to have has real purpose behind it. And if it matters, then it’s going to catch on and other people are going to see how it matters later on too. So yeah, it turned out actually really great.
Waverly Zhao:
Yeah.
David Lee:
At our school, there was around 300 students, that first walkout. We just sat in the middle of the football field in a circle like we usually do for my club, is we have weekly circle discussions at a place. And we just moved it out to the field after we did the walkout and everybody got a chance to speak, and we just kind of bonded over that experience. So that was amazing. And I had legislators there from my district that I invited, so they got to hear the students speak too.
Alec Patton:
Oh, wow. So the first one happens. It feels positive. It feels successful. Yeah, is that fair to say?
Waverly Zhao:
I think all things considered, yes.
Alec Patton:
And so what happened next?
David Lee:
One thing I would like to preface is not all of the school districts that walked out had that big of a show or a positive experience.
Waverly Zhao:
And also not a lot of them took photos or videos to protect students from potential dangers that they had faced from community members in the past. So there was a lot of fear going into the walkouts as well.
Alec Patton:
Were you worried about counter protests?
Waverly Zhao:
Yeah. At my walkout, there were actually counter protesters. There were students who made a lot of racist gestures and comments towards the students of color that chose to walk out or chose to speak at the walkout. And my school administration had to get involved in asking them to return to class if they weren’t going to walk out with us. There were also a lot of students that walked out without any knowledge of what they were walking out for just to skip class. There were a lot of factors that, at least for me as the organizer, I felt like I probably could have done more to minimize those things or worked more closely with my administrators to limit the amount of harm that would’ve potentially be done. But also at the same time, again, being in the PWI, those things were kind of expected.
Alec Patton:
What’s the PWI?
Waverly Zhao:
Predominantly white institutions. Sorry.
Alec Patton:
Oh, right, right. Got it.
Waverly Zhao:
So it obviously got me prepared for the next walkout we did, but it also, the fact that those things happened really empowered the students that were there, and it really strengthened, I guess, the argument we were making and the purpose that we had walking out. It was like, it’s literally these students, this behavior, the lack of action from our administrators, this is all things that we should be doing instead of banning books, instead of passing legislation that limits our history education, et cetera.
Alec Patton:
Yeah, I mean, don’t want to… The whole kind of fiction of a lot of this legislation seems like it’s kind of like, oh, we’re just trying to get on with our lives and these people are shoving this race stuff in our face. And so it seems like they pretty clearly demonstrated that wasn’t the case.
Waverly Zhao:
Yeah, and I think that’s true for a lot of the other action we ended up taking later. Like us doing things, abiding by the law, speaking eloquently, having really well organized points and doing things in a way that’s very strategic, it angered these people. It angered the people who are in positions of power making these choices. It angered the opposition. And so that anger was shown in ways that lacked decorum, to put it nicely, and so I think it definitely helped our case a lot. In almost every issue we’ve had, there have either been counter protesters or haters in the comments, obviously, because these are a lot of hot topic issues that we’re talking about. But at the end of the day, their comment also serves to boost our posts by getting us views and engagement. The warmer bodies that are counter protesting against us just serve to, again, embolden those who did choose to walk out. And it shows their bravery as well, so.
Alec Patton:
I mean, that sounds terrifying to me, I have to say. I just need to say that. So hats off to you folks. That sounds so stressful.
Waverly Zhao:
It definitely was, but it was worth it.
David Lee:
I’m going to have to hop off. I have something else that I need to get to.
Waverly Zhao:
Thanks, David.
Alec Patton:
I can probably edit this down as a part one and then return to talk about the We Say Gay walkout because that’s what it seems like certainly the one that got the most news coverage.
Waverly Zhao:
Yes. Yeah, I think that one has a lot more to the story. We can probably end this by just saying, after our first walkouts, we initially just started picking up other issues. I know David had a shooting in his hometown, and so that was something that we chose to focus on. And then we also, the overturning of Roe v. Wade was a big issue we covered. And so just periodically, we covered random issues that were specific to Iowa youth, Iowa students that either dealt with anti-racism, gun violence, bodily autonomy, et cetera. And then that kind of led up to us growing our base, and then we enter the 2023 legislative session, and that’s when things really took off for us. So…
Alec Patton:
Awesome.
Waverly Zhao:
… dig into that later.
Alec Patton:
Sweet. Thank you so much.
High Tech High Unboxed, it’s hosted and edited by me, Alec Patton. Our theme music is by Brother Hershel. Waverly and David both graduated from high school last year. David is taking a gap year in auditing classes at Iowa State University in his hometown of Ames, Iowa. And Waverly is going to American University in Washington, D.C.
As you heard, this was part one. Look out for part two in the next few weeks. It’ll get into how Iowa WTF and other groups organize the We Say Gay walkout as well as their work on gun violence. And if you have a question you want answered, send it to unboxed@hthgse.edu. Thanks for listening.
Brother Hershel:
(singing)
TAGS: