School Organizations

In June 2020, hundreds of McLean students, teachers and parents marched to protest the murder of George Floyd. The march was covered by local news and featured students who gave speeches about race at McLean.
“I talked about my experiences with racism and being exposed to police brutality at a young age,” said senior Zora Rodgers, who spoke at the rally.
Soon after the march, Rodgers started the SAFE club to address racial issues within the community by hosting informational meetings and donation drives.
“The club strives to educate the public about certain social justice issues, whether it’s racial justice or current events,” Rodgers said. “It’s [made to] dispel ignorance.”
SAFE is not the only club to have had such an impact on the McLean community, as many similar organizations have been brought into the spotlight this year.
In the fall of 2021, junior Jasmine Andresol formed the BSU to create a safe space for Black students and take action on issues involving racism at school. On Feb. 2, 2022, members of the club painted the rock in honor of Black History Month. It featured phrases such as “I’m Black and proud” and “BLM.” Around 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 8, vandals defaced the rock with “ALM,” meaning “All Lives Matter,” a term coined to counter the BLM movement.
The Highlander posted an Instagram picture of the rock the night it was defaced, and it quickly garnered attention across the county, reaching over 9,300 different accounts. The photo was shared over 1,500 times, with more than 250 comments both in support and defense of the vandals.
“I wish all the racists at McLean would keep their mouths shut, ears open and hands to themselves,” one comment said. “Not a single person wants to hear them or their bigotry.”
Other students suggested that the All Lives Matter movement wasn’t necessarily racist and that the vandalism wasn’t an act of hate. A majority of these comments were deleted by the posters themselves because of backlash.
“I wasn’t surprised about the vandalism because I know the type of people that go to McLean,” said junior Adona Amanuel, an officer for the BSU. “I expected some form of retaliation to the rock, and it unfortunately happened quicker than I expected.”
For those who support Black Lives Matter, especially those who painted the rock, it was an emotional experience.
“I was angry, and I was dissatisfied,” Andresol said. “I was angry at the way that there could be one person out of all these 2,250 people in the school that doesn’t believe that Black lives matter.”
While racially charged incidents in FCPS are rare, they have the power to spark large-scale movements.
On Dec. 14, 2021, Ekran Mohamed, a Muslim sophomore at Fairfax High School, was allegedly called racial slurs, assaulted and had her hijab forcibly removed by a classmate.
Just days after the incident, schools across Fairfax County held walkouts in support of Mohamed. Though McLean did not hold a walkout, some McLean students attended rallies at other schools. Later that day, McLean’s MSA released a statement on Instagram about Mohamed’s situation. The post quickly caught people’s attention, gaining over 16,500 likes, 18,500 shares and roughly 500 comments—many of which were deleted by the MSA because of hateful language.
“We were able to organize quickly. It was a show of power that everyone can stand united, not just Muslim students, against racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia,” said freshman Zakareya Hamed, president of McLean’s MSA. “It was a really empowering moment for all of us.”
Later that week, a group of 21 MSAs across the county, including McLean’s, posted a joint statement on Fairfax High School’s MSA Instagram. The statement denounced the police’s investigation, which ruled that the incident was not a hate crime because it reported no evidence of being motivated by race, religion or ethnicity. The MSAs’ joint statement argued that the walkouts were intended to spur more long-term change, not just punish the offenders. Though not as widely spread as the McLean MSA’s post, it still got over 1,500 likes.
Since the incident at Fairfax High School, the McLean MSA has worked to implement concrete change, including collaborating with the McLean administration to address how Muslims are depicted in history lessons.
“We sent out [guidelines] to the history department on how World History 1 should portray Islam, because there are a lot of misconceptions that we were able to bring to the teachers’ attention,” Hamed said. “We’re going to fight these biases to portray the truth.”
The social studies department reviewed the guidelines and agreed to alter the wording of certain lessons during the unit on Islam.