Synceire Bivens just wanted the world to know what happened.

In late April, a girl at Wilson High School yelled the n-word at a group of black boys, and video of the incident began circulating on Snapchat. The footage started fights, eventually putting the school on lockdown as police heard another brawl may be brewing.

Administrators issued a statement, saying the lockout was a “precautionary measure” made necessary by a “potential threat by a student.”

“They didn’t say anything about the n-word,” Bivens, a sophomore and president of the school’s Black Student Union, said. “Instead, a lot of parents only learned about it when they read it in The Oregonian.”

So on Friday, Bivens and at least 100 other students walked out of class and rallied in the cafeteria to demand action. They want administrators to begin forthrightly describing incidents and drop vague statements about “precautionary measures” and “potential threats.”

The students are also demanding that the school make an effort to hire more staff and faculty of color. Wilson freshman Molly Cogburn-Frary, who is black, said she rarely sees adults roaming the school’s halls who look like her.

She said the few faculty members of color have been the ones most likely to check in with students when incidents like April’s surface. She said student leaders are typically left on their own to address issues of race and intolerance at the majority-white school.

Wilson is the whitest high school in Portland. Nine percent of Wilson students identify as Latinx. Another 5% are mixed race and 5% are black, according to Portland Public Schools.

“We’re the ones making the effort,” Cogburn-Frary said.

The students who walked out of class on Friday also want more schoolwide conversations on diversity and racial history throughout the year. Sophomore Isa de Los Santos said Wilson High teachers led in-class conversations at the beginning of the year centered on those subjects.

Then, nothing. (At least not until the fights broke out in April.)

Freshman Aslan Newson, who is also black, said she wants the school to push for more conversations about race. Newson said her white peers sometimes say things that make her slightly uncomfortable — not because the white teens are racist, but because they don’t know any better.

She wants the 75% of her classmates who rarely, if ever, have to confront racism to know what it looks like.

“The majority of the class may not experience it. But to every student who does, it matters,” Newson said.

So on Friday afternoon, Newson, Cogburn-Frary, Bivens and their peers made those demands during a two-hour rally in the cafeteria. They walked out of class at 12:45 p.m. and flooded the commons.

Some students made posters and signs as their classmates filled the room. After about 10 minutes, Bivens addressed the room to make his demands. Then, he asked his peers to share their stories.

Bivens expected a few students of color to relay their experiences to their mostly white peers for a little more than half an hour. Instead, kids of all stripes, one after the other, spoke to the crowd for more than two hours, Bivens said.

Students of color talked about the racism they face every day. Some told stories Bivens had never heard before. White students also spoke, many of them pledging to do better.

Administrators in the Portland Public Schools’ central offices were also listening.

In a statement, High School Program Director Elisa Schorr said faculty and staff will organize listening sessions and collaborate with incoming Principal Filip Hristic on a plan to ensure students feel safe at school.

The district’s school climate team will also participate in efforts to aid Hristic and the Wilson staff.

“This is ongoing work and will be at the forefront of plans for next year,” Schorr wrote.

Bivens said Hristic is also meeting with the Black Student Union to listen to their concerns and collaborate on solutions. It’s a start, the sophomore said. But he plans to hold administrators — both at the central office and on the Wilson High campus — to their promises.

“We want public acknowledgement when things like this happen. We want education,” Bivens said.