Cali Overs is a normal 17-year-old girl. She goes to school, does her homework, and hangs out with her cats.
She also gets death threats. Along with op-ed’s criticizing her efforts.
Over the past year, Overs has been meeting with elected officials and urging them to stop the new $70 million ICE facility set to open up a mile from Dysart High School, where she served as the student body vice president, from opening.
Her activism has earned her insults, concerning comments, and even death threats her family had no choice but to report to the police, she said. The death threats became more prominent after her press conference alongside Attorney General Kris Mayes and the Washington Post article that spotlighted her activism.
“I don’t take it to heart, because it’s just people hiding behind a screen,” Overs said. “People should be listening more, rather than putting their personal and political beliefs in front of student opinions and concerns.”
Even local leaders have criticized her efforts online.
Overs has argued in favor of removing Surprise Mayor Kevin Sartor as the safety coordinator for the school district, stating Sartor hasn’t done enough to protect students from the ICE facility opening up in their backyard. It earned the gripe of Lisa Everett, who is running for the Dysart District Governing Board and even worked alongside Overs to stop the facility.
Everett said Sartor has done his job, calling out Overs by name in the Facebook comments, accusing her of “missing school every time a camera is around.”
“This high school student does not yet understand how the real world works,” Everett wrote. “She is attacking a man who serves his community and provides for his family. He does a great job at both.”
Overs usually avoids the hate, but this one felt personal, and important. On Facebook, Overs quickly called out the comment, arguing she only missed school to attend an important press conference alongside Mayes, who was introducing a lawsuit challenging the ICE facility — the very thing Overs has been fighting for all years. She even returned to school right after, she wrote in the comments.
“When adults publicly dismiss or attack students for expressing their views and exercising their first amendment, it raises serious questions about whether they can fairly represent all students of the Dysart district,” Overs said in a follow up message. “Students should not have to worry that speaking up will result in personal attacks or ridicule from individuals that have authority over them.”
Everett declined to comment.
It was nothing new for Overs. She’s grown accustomed to adults having thoughts on her and her political activism. Most of the time, the comments come from bots, but every once in a while, like this instance, it’s from members of her community, too.
“I just don’t pay much attention to it,” Overs said. “It’s just ironic to me that a 17 year old can go about this in a mature approach, rather than hiding behind a screen, hating on like a little kid when these people are grown adults. It’s pathetic to me.”
Despite the risks, the fight isn’t not complicated for Overs — her school body is made up of predominantly Latino students who’d be at increased risk if ICE showed up in their backyard.
Last year, Dysart had no choice but to trim its bus services due to financial constraints. That means more students are walking to class. With an ICE facility in their backyard, Overs is worried students walking to school would be at increased risk of racial profiling.
That’s why she keeps fighting, avoiding all the noise online, and staying focused on the fight.
“I was elected into this position for a reason. I’m not gonna let students down by not standing up to them, and they’re concerned,” Overs said. “There’s a lot of people who are scared, but I’m not scared to speak out on this, so I’m taking advantage of that and doing my best to fight for these students.”
Drowning out the noise
A lot of the hate Overs gets pertains to her age, she said, with commenters whom she calls “mostly bots,” writing that she shouldn’t have a say in what goes on in her community because she’s young.
It doesn’t phase her, though. The “belittling” comments about her being young or “just a student” reflect how out-of-touch some of the older people can be. At the crux of the issue is student safety–why wouldn’t a student sound the alarms to protect her community?
“Students are the future of this whole world. A lot of people dismiss them because of the fact they’re not allowed to vote yet, but they’re about to vote,” Overs said. “If they’re [students] required by the federal government to get an education, then the federal government should be required to make them feel safe within that educational environment.”
To Overs’ amusement, some of her family members respond to the hate comments, which she laughs off before instructing them “not to waste their time.”
But the hate comments are just hate comments. In contrast, her focused efforts have taken the initiative far. Over the course of five months, Overs has met with a number of elected officials’ staff including US Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Bullhead City).
Her tangible efforts matter more to her than the criticism.
Still, it’s affected her family. Her bus stop was only about a two minute walk from her house. Out of worry, her mom drove her to and back from the bus stop everyday as the spotlight continued to shine on her.
More often than not, Overs finds herself hyperaware of her surroundings, just to ensure her safety. It’s the price she’s willing to pay for speaking out.
Now that school’s out, Overs plans to enjoy her summer before heading off to Arizona State University where she plans on studying to become an environmental lawyer. She vowed to keep up the pressure and hopes to continue leading the fight against the ICE facility, and of course, to continue drowning out all the noise.
“You really just can’t pay attention to it. These people behind the screen, you don’t know if they’re bots, a lot of it is just trying to get a reaction out of you, especially with how polarized and the country is right now,” Overs said. “They’re really trying to make a lot of things into political matters, even though what I’m trying to do is just safety, so you can’t get worked up about it.”
