“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said.

Trump has built a platform for his presidential campaign off of what some consider rampant, outrageous racism against Latinos. At the dawn of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which started last week, Raza Latina, SCHS’s Hispanic club on campus, fired back.

In direct response to Trump’s comments, Raza Latina put up six posters containing the statements “we are not rapists,” “Trump, we are not criminals,” “no human is illegal,” and one poster in Spanish, “no somos criminales,” which translates  to “we are not criminals.” According to the club’s adviser Cory Morbo, Raza Latina wanted to “reach as many eyes as they could.”

Agreeing with Morbo, co-president of Raza Latina Cecilia Subia added that the posters “made a statement” through their simplicity.

Subia also said that the club started planning these posters around the time Trump declared his candidacy. Raza Latina’s current 15 members worked on these posters during lunch and after school for about three days.

The club’s hard work has paid off, as many students and faculty approve of the posters. “I don’t have any problem with it,” college and career technician Anthony Butler said.  “It’s the First Amendment: free speech.”

The posters sparked controversy, however. Last week, principal Greg Shelby removed a poster that said “we are not rapists.” Shelby said that the poster was out of context and had no information about Trump or Raza Latina itself, making the poster offensive.

“You walk into school and the first thing you see is a sign saying ‘we are not rapists’ and it’s confusing,” Shelby said. “We require all posters to say who put them up, too.”

The posters hadn’t been approved since they must go through the vice principal of activities, a position that at the time was vacant, Shelby said.

The next day, Raza Latina members made a new poster with context, adding the club’s name at the bottom of the poster and directing the message to Donald Trump. The poster now reads “Trump, we are not rapists. Raza Latina.”

With this, Morbo and Subia both share a positive outlook with regards to future protests. Currently, they have none planned, but Subia hopes to have more when elections get closer.
“Donald Trump cannot be president of the United States. He is the biggest symbol of hatred and xenophobia in this country,” Subia said.