The parking lot of the Cardozo Education Campus is a popular spot to watch Fourth of July fireworks — the campus sits on top of a hill and provides a view of the Washington Monument. 

But Principal Arthur Mola had a request for the community this year: stay away. 

In a post on the neighborhood app Nextdoor, Mola asked revelers to skip the fireworks celebration on Independence Day and, “instead use it as a moment to reflect on how we can be better Americans.”

He continued: “All around us we are being reminded that not everyone has been a benefactor of this independence.”

Mola, who is nearing the end of his first year as principal of the school in Columbia Heights, said in an interview that he leads a school that educates mostly Hispanic and Black students from low-income families. 

He said some of his students’ family members have fallen ill with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, or have parents who lost jobs. Each day, Mola said, his staff members are helping students who need food and financial help.

Signs of the continued struggle for social justice abound, he said — in the way Black and Hispanic communities have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus, in the “inhumane” ways immigrants have been held in detention centers.

“This is a time, more than ever, to really reflect on what this country’s independence means for marginalized people,” he said.