In Their Own Words

I am Heloise Pechan, a long time Barrington resident.  I am a high school English teacher at Waukegan High School (Washington Campus), and my teaching has both led me to Indivisible Barrington - and pulled me away from some of the things I would like to accomplish with this organization. 

Because teaching 120 college-bound Seniors every year keeps me busy, I started to think about some other ways I could lend my support to our movement.  I figured that telling my story would be a good first step in figuring out how I can best support you, my peers, as we work to pull our country into more cohesion and normalcy. 

I first joined Indivisible Barrington around the time of its inception: Autumn 2025. Like many people, I felt dismayed and terrified at the rapid dismantling of the United States government before my very eyes.  The destructive nature of Donald Trump’s non- leadership, coupled with a complete unwillingness of the Republican party to name the fact that they supported and encouraged a madman who did not have the interest of the American people in his heart and mind, astonished me.  I could not fathom that my neighbors and I could not find a way to fight back.  I kept reading authors online 

(especially the work of Bernie Sanders, Robert Reich, and Heather Cox Richardson) who denounced Trump and his cabinet members for their moral outrages, and I wanted to channel my rage and feeling of moral obligation into something productive.  As the year unfolded, I discovered something about my situation and intent that distressed me incredibly. 

I started to make myself go silent. 

I’ll explain.  I work for a school district that is incredibly reliant on federal monies to fund the educational resources of our district.  The Illinois state average for Federal funding, per school district, is 11.9%; Waukegan District 60’s Federal funding in  the past year is at 19% -   almost a quarter of our yearly budget.  (data  taken from the 2025 Illinois Report Card) As Trump came into power after the 2024 election, he started making noises about cutting (or eliminating altogether) funding for low income school districts, especially those with significant populations of undocumented students (Waukegan’s demographic) - and their families.  Even though I wanted to march in the streets in support of freedom, justice, and to showcase the unfairness of what this regime was saying and doing, I went into caution mode.  The Internet, a very powerful and influential tool, is also a place of great exposure for writers.  I started thinking about my possible involvement in movements and my online likes, shares and  comments, and I started thinking about the repercussions that my political actions might have on my school district, and on the lives of my students and their families.  I started to become invisible, rather than indivisible, in the hopes of protecting my vulnerable students.   

One of my favorite students wrote about her mother’s deportation this past school year.  We were working on an essay whose focus was symbolism.  Her symbol?  The car keys, which her mother threw to her older sister as the ICE agents  came to lead her away from her three daughters.  How can we, as a wealthy, comfortable society, respond to such a scenario? 

In the past year, ICE has been in Waukegan.  Their officers lurked around our middle and elementary schools - they repeatedly drove around the perimeter of the red brick school building I have taught in for many years.  In early January, we knew our students were very frightened and ill at ease.  Our assistant principal asked staff who might be so inclined to come out to the buses after school, and stand in solidarity with our students.  We did this for a few weeks, so that we could show the ICE agents that the students matter to us.  I’m not sure if they did notice our presence; I do know that I felt a tiny bit better, helping the students to see our concern. 

I write to you today to say I walk a tightrope in this new society of ours.  I want to help - I feel a bit hamstrung in my efforts, fearful that my words could possibly be used to pull vital funding away from my school district, my professional home of the last nine years.  Tell me your stories, help me to find the smarts, the wisdom, the boldness, the strategy that we all need in order to fight the cancerous, obtrusive tyranny which has invaded our civic arena.