Grand Island Central Catholic students lead the way to Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance

Grand Island Central Catholic seniors Lucy Ghaifan and Ishmael Nadir spoke up so GICC could have Martin Luther King Jr. Day off.

Last year, the Sunday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, then-senior Wargak Tut approached Principal Jordan Engle about closing school to observe the holiday.

“(Wargak) kind of started this movement himself last year, asking questions around Martin Luther King (Jr.) Day.”

Tut asked Engle why GICC didn’t have the day off in observance.

“To be honest, we had no good answer,” Engle said. “We haven’t looked at it in the past, just because of the inertia of change – you don’t really feel like making changes when it doesn’t come right to your mind.”

Because it was so close to the holiday, Tut and Engle tabled the idea. When this school year began, Engle needed some students to “carry the torch.”

“I looked at our student body and thought to myself, who is going to be a leader in this? Who has the relationship with (Wargak) and the same ideas that he has to push this through?

“Immediately those two (Ghaifan and Nadir) came to mind.”

The two seniors were on board. Nadir said it made perfect sense, especially as a student.

“(Martin Luther King Jr. is) the reason why we’re able to go to school here and we’re able to use public bathrooms, just associate with other races.”

Ghaifan added, “I feel like a lot of people also don’t see that nowadays, but we wouldn’t be playing sports with them. We wouldn’t be like getting an education … we wouldn’t be having the same amount of friends that we do now.”

Ghaifan pointed out King’s solid faith.

“He was also really, really religious. Christ really helped him lead the way.”

The pair wrote an essay to be read in front of the school board to make a case for getting the day off.

Both admitted they were nervous, but they pressed on.

“I just thought it was important to stand up,” Ghaifan said. “It was good for us to educate people on it and show them that it was the right choice to get the day off.”

Over the course of last few years, Engle said, the GICC student body has become more diverse.

“These guys are a part of the generation that’s changing the tides here at Central Catholic. I’m so proud of them for … helping make changes like this so that we can be more able to cater to all of the students that call Central Catholic home.”

Ghaifan and Nadir both said GICC made them feel like family, but sometimes the rest of the world sees people differently.

Ghaifan said, “We’ll always have hate for us around the world, but we’re just gonna have to push past it.”

“All the stuff that is happening with Black people just around the world just really hit us in the heart,” Nadir said. “I feel like that’s really what brought us to do this.”

After the school board approved their proposal, word traveled the GICC hallways, Nadir said.

“After we read the (essay) and after we got the day off, everyone came up to us and congratulated us. Teachers came up to me, talking about how important we are to them.”

Ghaifan said she hopes their efforts can be an inspiration to all students at GICC, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity.

“I feel like some people like that aren’t like minorities or whatever are scared to stand up for that sometimes because they care about like what others think, but it’s always like the right thing to do.

“Us doing that in front of the school board, I feel like that will show that how strong we are and how they can do it, too.”

Engle said the school is already looking to implement a service element to Martin Luther King Jr. Days in the future.

Engle said, “It’s a strong life lesson, not only them, but for all of our students about how to see something through and how to make a change.”

He added that Ghaifan and Nadir showed that going through the right channels can lead to making the right thing happen.

“These kids are kind of growing up as part of the protest generation, where sometimes the right steps to advocate for yourself get lost in the shuffle.

“Seeing these guys go through the steps and approach the school board in a calm way, state their case and be gracious for the time that they got, they earned the result that they wanted by doing it the right way.

“My hope is that that example serves my entire student body going forward so that they can make the positive changes that they want to see in their school.”

Ghaifan said of King’s assassination in 1968: “He just wanted to change something. Even though he got shot, there’s still people carrying it on throughout like the years.”

Nadir said reading the book “Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.?” in elementary school sparked his interest in King.

“It really started from there. I learned about the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, that he’s the reason why we’re able to go to school with all these people,” Nadir said. “I kept learning and learning and learning about more stuff he did over the years. I feel like I know a lot now.”

Engle said the pair probably doesn’t realize the impact they are having on the school.

“My hope is that at a time in the future where they need to reference this and make a difference somewhere else that they’re able to pull from this experience and doing the same thing,” Engle said.

“These are two seniors that are going into high school doing their thing, living their life, which right now is pretty scripted. I think that someday when some of that youth – for lack of a better word – wears off and they will see the world and how it actually works.”