In recent years, SHS has not been lacking diversity, welcoming students from all different races and sexualities. The diversity is clear in the clubs starting to show up around SHS. Pride Alliance Club is an open place where kids that are part of the LGBTQ+ community can come to feel supported and have a voice.

“Pride Alliance Club is for (LGBTQ+) members and straight allies,” director of the club Timothy Case said.

The campaign for the club this year is “No G Word,” meant to raise awareness about the word “gay” being used in a negative light and bring a stop to students using this word to describe things they think are bad. The plan for this year is to actively help the use of the word decrease. The club members are taking steps with flyers and posters to put their message out there.

“People now are walking around saying ‘You’re gay’… when they’re talking about something bad, and that’s offensive to real gay people,” Case said.

Taking steps to put the club out there is in the hands of senior Pride Alliance Club president Sierra Perkins and senior vice president Madison Deane. Perkins has been in the club since the middle of her sophomore year. Her role was to make sure everything went smoothly, and she also came up with ideas for the rest of the club to participate in. Deane has been in the club for three years. Both hope to leave an impacting influence on SHS and to help the student body become more accepting. This is applying to all kids around the community, not just in the Pride Alliance Club.

“Different youths from around this area… come together so they can talk about their problems or be there for someone else,” Deane said.

SHS’s campaign is part of a larger multi-school campaign introduced by Prism. According to Deane and Perkins, Prism is a safe haven for kids that aren’t open and even those that are open to involve themselves more, seek shelter and feel safe and comfortable.

“Prism is all the Southside schools where all the (LGBTQ+) community and people can join and not have to worry about others knowing they’re a part of this community.” Perkins said.

Prism has come up with many events for Southside schools to take part in to give their LGBTQ+ students a voice. Also, these events allow the schools to be a place for these students to come in and find support from others going through the same difficulties.

This campaign started to initiate the stop of using hurtful words. SHS has been involved with another campaign similar to this. It was a “No R Word” campaign through Best Buddies. This campaign was to stop the use of the word ‘retarded,’ because it was causing a lot of offense.

“Kids used to say ‘you’re retarded’ all the time,” Case said. “They started a ‘No R Word’ campaign because it’s offensive to people with mental disabilities.”

Pride Alliance meetings are the first Thursday of every month, and its first callout meeting is on Sep. 15. They have big events planned for this school year, according to Case. Their first event is a sidewalk chalk art event.

“In the past year we haven’t really done a lot, but I would like to change that and do more stuff… seeing what the limits are for what we can do,” Perkins said, hoping to be more active in the school community.