They Keep Showing Up. So Should We.

To the editor: Trying to get Article 12 to the Town Meeting floor has been, quite simply, a marathon. There is no other way to say it. It has tested all of us. I have felt every emotion imaginable as we’ve moved mile by mile through this process.

Right now, I feel incredible disappointment in the behavior of the appointed Board of Health as it considers a moratorium on turf and track.

But I also feel something else. A sense of awe. And I reserve that emotion for the students.

I stand in total admiration of the Nantucket student body.

To the students, we see you. You’ve shown up. You’ve spoken out. You’ve pushed for something you believe in. You have pushed this far. Many of us will continue to stand alongside you and advocate with and for you.

What is most troubling is not just the potential moratorium itself, but how this process has unfolded. We’ve seen students dismissed. We’ve seen their actual lived experiences and injuries minimized. And now, we are watching the Board of Health take a step backward, putting the future of the Whaler athletic program at risk just as we near the finish.

This has been a long, frustrating, rewarding, inspiring, shocking, heart-wrenching and heartwarming journey. I was terrified, with a capital T, the first time I spoke at a School Committee meeting about the project. Afterward, a small group of us stayed behind to determine the next steps. As the room cleared, a School Committee member addressed me and three other women about turf in a way that was, in my view, completely unacceptable. During that exchange, I recall a statement suggesting that at the end of its life cycle, the turf would be thrown in the forest. At the same time, there was also a suggestion that an asphalt track would be an acceptable outcome for our students. Whether that was meant literally or not, it reflected a level of dismissiveness that was hard to ignore.

That moment was telling. While I may stand on the opposite side of this issue, it is deeply concerning when an appointed School Committee member speaks to constituents in that manner while supporting outcomes that many in this community view as outdated and unsafe for children.

It would have been easy at that moment to walk away. Honestly, if I had been alone, I might have. But I wasn’t. I stood with a group of strong parents who chose to keep going, stand together, speak up, and fight for our students, backed by science.

That moment reinforced something important: in difficult moments, like that, you have to use your voice. You have to stand up.

And that is exactly what our students are doing.

To the kids in this community: don’t let this moment with the BOH shut you down. Don’t let anyone make you feel like your voice doesn’t matter, because it does. Change does not happen all at once, and it does not always go the way we hope. But it does happen when people are willing to show up, speak up, and keep pushing forward.

Our town should be a place where young people feel heard, not dismissed. Where their lived experiences matter. Where the process is transparent and something you can look up to, not one that shuts you out.

We have watched student after student stand up and fight for better conditions, not just for themselves, but for every kid who comes after them.

We have not seen a single student say they want these fields to remain as they are.

That should matter.

And if it doesn’t, that says everything.

Graham Veysey