The Black Student Union (BSU) at Central Kitsap High School is entering its second year of being reformed after a long absence. CKHS has had a long history of BSU, but around the 70’s and 80’s, the club dropped off, according to the current club advisor Emilia Ford. 

Students wanted to start a BSU within the years Ford started working at Central Kitsap, but COVID ended up sending the state into lockdown before they were able to start. Furthermore, Ford worked at a different school during the lockdown, so they held off until she came back.

“The year that I didn’t teach here the students who wanted to start the BSU didn’t feel comfortable having an advisor that was not a black teacher,” Ford said.

Ford returned to Central Kitsap in 2021, and the club restarted almost immediately.

“Once I came back, we kind of jumped right into it and started it in order to try to make that happen,” Ford continues.

So far this year, they have nothing specific planned, and are simply trying to get started to try and figure out what they want to do with the club, including events, fundraisers, etc.

Last year, the BSU organized a walkout protesting racism at the school. While they so far don’t have any plans to do something similar, the school district is planning to have a designated day for walkouts specifically, in order to prevent students from being marked absent by their teachers. 

The BSU plans on working with other culture and identity based clubs such as the Gender Sexuality Awareness, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Latino Student Union in order to help create events and fundraisers that incorporate all of them. 

“It is just kind of trying to celebrate all these different identities and how people can be a part of more than one especially, you know?” Ford says.