When Emilianna Jones was in eighth grade, two student groups in Providence, Rhode Island, organized a walkout to protest the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. News of the walkout had spread on social media, so “pretty much every student in Providence knew it was happening,” Emilianna told Teen Vogue. On the day of the walkout, the administration at her school dispatched security guards, who Emilianna said blocked the doors so that students couldn’t leave. “I felt like that was the moment I realized they don’t want to hear us. And that just made me want to be heard more.” (A spokesperson for the district said that public safety officials were dispatched to schools on the day of the walkout, but would not confirm that exits were blocked. Two middle schoolers in the district walked out, according to the spokesperson.)

Milly Asherov claims that students at her Providence middle school were also prevented from leaving on the day of the walkout. “I definitely understand that we were in middle school, they had to keep us safe,” Milly said. “[But] my school didn’t address it, we didn’t talk about it. It was just like, ‘You are not powerful. You are staying inside whether you like it or not.’”

Emilianna and Milly are now students at Classical High School in Providence, and are on the leadership committee of the Providence Student Union (PSU), one of the groups that organized the walkout back in January 2017. They have turned their frustration into action, and now work to organize other students fighting for reforms in the city’s public schools.

In the past two years, the school system in Providence has been accused of failing to adequately educate and support students and teachers. A lawsuit filed in November 2018 on behalf of a group of public school students against the state of Rhode Island claims the state has failed to provide them with basic educational opportunities. Then, last summer, the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Education Policy published a report about the Providence schools, which found that that “very little visible student learning was going on in the majority of classrooms and schools we visited — most especially in the middle and high schools.” The report had been commissioned by state officials.

The report found that “across the grade levels, a full 90% of students are not proficient in math, and a full 86% are not proficient in English Language Arts.” The report also noted that many students and teachers did not feel safe in school, that school buildings were in poor condition and in some cases unsafe, and that racial equity appeared to be a low priority for the district. A spokesperson for the district told Teen Vogue that the report, “made a compelling case for reform.” State education commissioner Angélica Infante-Green said in an email that the report “reinforced what Providence students, families, and educators have felt for some time: that the system is broken.”

In response to the report, along with commentary the state received as part of a public outreach campaign, the state Department of Education announced it was assuming full control over the city’s schools for at least the next five years, beginning on November 1, 2019.