Carrying signs reading “We Want Lights!” and chanting similar slogans with a feverish fervor, more than 150 students marched last Thursday to support the installation of stadium lights at Oak Park and River Forest High School.
At around 3 p.m., the mass of students gathered inside the student center near the building’s front entrance to hit the streets. This was the first major student participation in the stadium lights issue.
The school board will vote on the controversial proposal to install lights at the stadium at a special meeting Thursday.
The plan has drawn criticism from neighbors living near the stadium, complaining that installing lights would result in such things as light spilling into their homes, higher traffic congestion and increased trash.
“I know the neighbors are concerned and we’re concerned about the neighbors,” said OPRF senior Jenny Donley, co-president of the Huskie Athletic Council. “I do think overall for the whole community that it will really benefit more people if we do have lights.”
Donley said she wanted to show that students have a voice in this issue.
“We’ve heard that the parents are basically fighting over this and the neighbors have made the case, ‘Well, you say that this would be so great for the students, then show us,'” she said. “That was really my biggest initiative in organizing this was to show that a large group of students did want these lights and I think we did show that today.”
The students marched around the high school building north on Scoville Avenue, traversing Erie Street, Linden Avenue and Lake Street. Chanting, “We Want Lights” and “Give us Lights,” the march attracted other students just leaving school. People driving by honked their car horns.
Members of the school’s various teams, including track, lacrosse and varsity football, were let out of practice to participate.
OPRF sophomore Zach Howard, who plays on the varsity football team and runs track, said installing lights would also increase support and attendance at the stadium. Some players said installing lights would result in additional practice time.
Howard said the neighbors’ concerns are understandable.
“They have their say,” he said. “There are things they can do to compromise and there are things we can do to compromise. When you think about all the schools in our conference, all those teams have lights except for two.”
The OPRF Boosters has pushed for lights and agreed to fund the project.
OPRF Assistant Superintendent for Operations Jack Lanenga said the board has three options Thursday: voting yes or no to lights, or conduct a traffic study that could postpone a decision by November. The study would begin later in the semester if the board goes that route, Lanenga said.
He added that the school would not lease stadium access to outside groups if lights go up, another concern voiced by neighbors.
“We’re not letting other schools, other facilities or other groups use the field. We’re going to ask that that be written into the ordinance,” he said. “People think that once we find that this is some great revenue generator, that we’ll rent to other groups. We don’t want to rent to other groups.”
CONTACT: tdean@wjinc.com