A few days before the Martin Luther King Seminar day, the conservative news outlet, Breitbart, attacked the day, causing a parade of controversy to ensue.

The first article published on Breitbart’s website was authored by Joel B. Pollak and titled “High School Forces Kids To Attend ‘Racial Identity’ Classes on MLK Jr. Day.” The article quickly blew up and had 1,401 comments as of Jan. 21. Comments on the article enthusiastically agreed with Pollak, but some New Trier students commented on the post in support of the day.

Two freshman identified only as “The Hawk” and “jessie” commented in support of the day, “THIS DAY IS LITERALLY TEACHING US HOW NOT TO BE RACIST!” The Hawk said. “In today’s day and age you see a few outward racists and more who are quietly racist. This day is trying to help eliminate any racism at all at New Trier,” jessie said.

Another student, identified by the username, “The Truth,” commented, “I also go to New Trier and I think this is a huge waste of time…The entire point of this day is a power move. It’s black lives matter coming to a wealthy white area and making it a mandatory day of school.”

In response to this initial article, junior Celia Buckman took it upon herself to write a public response. She wrote a rebuttal to the article and published it to The Huffington Post education blog.

Buckman felt she needed to write the article because she wanted to start a discussion within the community about it: “As more and more people started reading it and mentioning it, and some people were in support of it, I decided that someone needed to argue against it, in order to have a discussion about it,” Buckman said.

Buckman cited three reasons why Breitbart was wrong and why white people should talk about race. Her post received positive feedback from New Trier students, but not from the news source she directed her article at.

Breitbart furiously responded with an article titled: “Check Your Privilege, Rich White Leftist Girl.” Pollak attacked Buckman’s ideas and repeatedly told her to “check your privilege.”

Commenters on the post were also quick to attack Buckman calling her brainwashed and other names.

Buckman didn’t think much of the comments. “I realized that these people are idiots and that their comments didn’t make sense. They said, ‘Check your privilege, rich white leftist girl.’ The whole point of the day is to check privilege,” Buckman said.

Senior Sarah Africk thought Breitbart’s article was distasteful. “I thought that was really inappropriate,” Africk said. “They [Breitbart] were being super immature about trying to force their opinions on somebody who was just trying to defend a good idea.”

Instead of the seminar day, Pollak suggested New Trier do something more beneficial. “I have a suggestion for next year: partner with a school in inner-city Chicago and do some kind of public service together. That would do more to build new relationships and address inequality than the elitist, racist farce New Trier is staging this year,” Pollak wrote.

New Trier has already been partnering with a city school through a non-profit called Embarc. Last year, sophomores partnered with students from Uplift Community High School and built relationships through different outings.

Buckman does not regret her article, but mentioned her intentions were never to start a fight: “I didn’t think that my initial intent was to engage in anything with Breitbart because Breitbart is not worth my time, but as a way for the community to have a discussion about it.”