Over the years Lane Tech High School has produced outstanding athletes and high-scoring academics but few, if any, social activists. For better or worse, it’s just not the kind of school that breeds outspokenness; at Lane, when a kid steps out of line for whatever cause, the principal usually pushes him back in. “Around here they don’t like people who speak out–they call you an enemy of Lane,” says Jim Parker, a member of Lane’s local school council. “Nobody wants to shake the boat.”
It was the practical matter of filthy bathrooms–long a source of shame at Lane–that forced Zefran to speak out. Many bathrooms reek of urine because the urinals don’t flush and the toilets are flooded; there’s no privacy because the stalls have no doors; and needless to say, walls and mirrors are streaked with graffiti. Earlier this school year somebody–not Zefran–circulated a petition that hundreds of students signed, pleading that the bathrooms be cleaned. Principal David Schlichting (who wouldn’t comment for this story) responded by calling for patience.
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“Schlichting said the problem was we were short on custodial staff,” says William Rankin, another LSC member. “That’s no excuse. We have 21 janitors here; we spend a million dollars a year in janitorial salaries. And we don’t even have toilet paper in some bathrooms. That’s inexcusable.”
The next day Zefran confessed. “Schlichting wasn’t happy,” he says. “He was with another LSC member and they seemed insulted. He said ‘Thanks, Joe,’ really sarcastically. Then the other guy let me have it good. He said this is bad publicity, and that my timing couldn’t be worse, what with prospective freshmen coming around to look at the school. He said I was making the school look bad. Schlichting took me to his office and talked to me for 50 minutes. He told me how tough it is to run a school, and he concluded by saying, ‘Don’t go behind my back again.’”
Zefran decided to organize a student protest, which was no easy task. “It’s not like all the students are in one place where I could tell them what was going on, and I don’t have access to the school loudspeaker. Plus, there are so many cliques you have to work around. You have the jocks, who play sports, and the headbangers, who love heavy metal and Beavis and Butt-head, and the trendies, who wear clothes from the Gap, and the Danbros, who are techno kids, which means they listen to fast-dance, beat music, and play video games. I’m not sure why they’re called Danbros, though they do say “bro’ a lot. And the Tree People, and the ROTC crowd, and the–”
In the aftermath Foley asked to meet with Zefran and the French Club. “I told them that there had been some disinformation,” says Foley. “I told them that the general policy was against any kind of kissing, be it homosexual or heterosexual.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jon Randolph.
