Retire School Segregation - Voice of the Youth
Integrate NYC is a youth-led organization that stands for integration and equity in New York City schools. Our Trellis Crew continues to participate in their gatherings as we work to inspire and equip our students for the change they want to see in their communities.
Recently we got to hear from Dekaila Wilson, the director of decriminalization from the organization as part of a rally at City Hall as part of the #buildcommunities plan to ensure that communities receive the appropriate and necessary resources and funding as Rikers Island closes and a number of organizations hold the city accountable to its plan for building a better justice system.
“In 2019 the NYPD assigned 5,511 personnel to the School Safety Division (SSD), including 190 armed officers and 4,692 School Safety Agents (SSA). In comparison, there were only 2800 full-time guidance counselors and 1,252 full-time social workers to support the city’s 1.1 million students. As a NYC high school alumni, I can attest to my experience that more policing and less support does nothing but traumatize and create fear. According to DOE data 92% of arrests were of Black or Latinx while the student population is only 67% Black and Latinx. We as students demand that NYC public schools must provide divest in policing and invest in more mandated restorative practices, Counselors, Social workers and us students instead. We as students will combine our efforts and continue to fight to dismantle the school to prison pipeline that put us at a disadvantage. NYC public schools currently isolate many students of color, rely on racist and classist admissions policies, and have perpetuated school segregation and heavy policing. I urge you to take the first steps in people instead of the criminals we are made out to be.”
Some of our students also attended the most recent Integrate NYC gather and shared their thoughts…
“ It was initially alarming to me how everyone was connecting and just so open to conversation and approaching one another, but soon after, one of the leaders from the program sat with me and explained an activity about their tree and asked me on one post it to write, “who an ancestor is that motivates you?” “who’s the future that inspires you? Who are you doing this for?”
I wrote Angela Davis being that she was at a point of time a advocate for the oppressed and I’m in college as a social work major to help black and brown youth like myself as well who were never given a fair chance to begin with. And as the future I wrote my two younger cousins who a still babies but are very much the next generation to come.Then I was asked to fill out a survey about my school and if it either felt like a place that represented my heritage or a place that just saw me as a number and criminalized me. And when it got to that point I realized that I had to look back at my time in high school and actually reflect. It was challenging I must say being that I went to a predominantly white high school where I felt like they had resources galore. But I didn’t feel reflected in the coursework and curriculum and I especially didn’t feel reflected in the staff.Moreover, as I filled that out one thing that dawned on me as well as throughout the presentation of ideas for Integration and proper representation was that I have a job as a Youth Ally (as they like to call us 18+ that attended the council ). And that job is to indeed use the tools from my ancestors like Angela Davis to take advantage of the resources that are at my finger tips when I’m in these spaces to learn and then educate others and create a seat at the table for those like my younger cousins to follow behind me.I realized in the end something important, that meeting was bigger than my comfortability. It’s about creating and tasing the standard and quality of education for black and brown students in this city. I don’t want my family or anyone for that matter to go to school and not see girls with names like theirs in the lessons. Or only learn a single story of the American history. I want them to learn everything. And to have access to everything. And that starts with me and it starts now. It definitely starts with groups like Integrate NYC and the spaces they allow for ideas to be shared and for people like me to be fired up to make this a better environment for future learners to come.”
“The youth council meeting talked about how education in New York City is not fairly disputed upon the schools and how the finances and racial grouping is unfair. It talked more about how the state does not train their teachers to relate to their students personally like racially and doesn’t give then enough knowledge on the historical background on other cultures. Instead the knowledge in history that they are teaching us is extremely biased. The teachers do not know how to relate with the students on a racial level due to the lack of knowledge of their race. Most teachers would agree and say that they want to teach more about their students race but are not allowed or trained to. The majority of students in New York City are Black, Hispanic or Asian but less than half a 50% of teachers in this city are either one in fact in the US over 85% of teachers are white and about 65% percent of those students are non-white.”
“Have you ever thought of what it’s like living in one of the most diverse cities of the world? The main fact that should be spread around the world is that segregation is still part of communities whose populations are diverse. New York City is one of the most diverse cities in the world; over 52% of the population are Black and Hipanic. As a result all schools should be equally spreaded, meaning that a school should have mixed races in the building. The Youth Council’s main goal is to spread equality and equity around all schools in New York City. It is clear that schools in NYC are segregated, meaning all schools are separated or their highest percentage of the population is of one race only. Schools where the white race is the priority have greater equipment such as higher quality technology and a better education. The youth council stands for vision of the future, truth, boldness, unapologetic love, and being unprecedented. The racial integration in NYC has the most messed up school system, the ability of learning it’s not spread around equally, but yet it’s provided where the priority obtains all the better. Students are not being provided the ability and virtue they could have with their learning. The main reason schools are segregated is because of special tests, which is a test that determines if you are eligible to be in that specific school. In fact, students are being chosen in a school instead of students choosing where they want to attend. The resources that are being claimed are over 1 million dollars to setup schools with higher technology or any other needs. Equity checks are being demanded in order to provide equality through NYC schools. More teachers should build a relationship with students in the way that a student would feel safe and represented in their school. Most teachers in NYC schools are unprepared to talk about culture. All schools should feel the need to not have ICE included in their building. Criminalization of police brutality should be restored. No student should feel like a criminal in school because that is where students spend most of their time and where they are obtaining an education. Latinx and black students are twice as likely to walk through metal detectors. In NYC schools buildings there are more security guards then there are guidance councils. Schools should have diverse staff to ensure that students can feel identified. In NYC schools the percentage are, 58% are white teachers, but only 15% of students identify with them. 83% of students are Balck, Asian, and Hispanic, but only 39% feel reflected with staff at their schools. The reality is that there are some schools that do not have black or Latinx teachers. They are all white. While in the meeting I felt welcome, privileged, and knowledgeable. The reason being, I learned a lot of facts that were eye opening, such as schools being segregated. When we think of segregation we immediately think of the past, but it is unclear for many people that segregation still makes part of our school community. The space was diverse because different people with different cultures, skin color, and beliefs were interchanging ideas to make our schools better and problems that affect all students. But most importantly it was a space where the people were all advocating to make change in our schools. Since I got to hear the facts and different opinions about our schools I felt privileged because I got to hear information that are slowly changing the schools systems.”
“I began to notice that there is a mix crowd, ages 10-30 “ more younger people than older people”. I Also notice that in this crowd there are more people of color than white people, which comforted me. The young lady stated “young people of color are more likely to face consequences in school than white people even though they are committing the same act.” I find this quite interesting because I start to notice that what there saying is actually happening at my current school and previous schools. One thing I don’t like or understand is why the presenters use such big words when its a crowd full of young people where 9/10 are not quite understanding the information giving to them. I didn’t understand why the presenters read off cards, and not off feeling which for me was not really convincing. It’s more like they was just told what to say. They did make some good points on race and culture, but also in a way that made me feel like maybe they were shaming the white culture. ”
“No other meeting has ever felt this powerful with so much hands on participation from the youth of today. I felt so comfortable in this space because once you walk in you have the same music that you listen to everyday on the train playing on the loud speaker. As soon as I walked into the room full of empty seats, two volunteers immediately approached me and my peer reporter and asked us about who we are and got to know us in a brief moment. I also noticed how intergrateNYC gets everyone involved with multiple hands on activities. The first speaker started speaking on the social issues that students faced daily, such as metal detectors, and being patted down in the hallways. They hope to break the barrier of holding other students back from general ed students. I’ve been personally working on a project at my school to unify the different schools that share the same building. Hearing about a seeing the disability justice practices being implemented or in hopes to be implemented personally warms my soul, and helps me know I’m not alone on this journey for a more welcoming community. Thank you IntergrateNYC.”