Supporting Student Change-Makers: Encouraging educators to back student-led clubs
Today’s kids are today’s leaders. They’re able to understand and tackle messy, real-world problems and contribute to the betterment of their communities. When kids have teacher support to create self-led groups, they’re better poised to be lifelong change makers. One such group of kids exploring their autonomy and advocating for causes they’re passionate about is Washoe County School District (WCSD) Students for Change, an entirely student-led advocacy group of Nevada high schoolers.
In less than a year the WCSD Students for Change have positively impacted their community by attending district school board meetings to defend their case: acknowledging systemic inequalities in our education system and decolonizing the existing curriculum.
“We started this group to get student voices more involved in decision making processes around equity in our district. When we started I don’t think we necessarily had any idea of the challenges we would face along the way and I credit everyone who has been part of this for taking it in stride,” said Hannah Branch, high school senior | WCSD Students for Change co-founder & core leader.
Rallying their Supporters
In the midst of the first Coronavirus stay-at-home-order, during the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the reawakening of defending civil rights in response to police brutality among BIPOC across the country, these kids got to work.
“I was lying in bed on Instagram and saw Hannah post on her story asking if anyone wanted to be part of a group that pushed for antiracist teaching in school. I had nothing better to do and thought it would be fun. I have never met a group of more driven, likeminded, smart individuals who’ve helped push me out of my comfort zone. The fight for civil rights and against racial inequities in America has been happening for so long. What we’re doing as young advocates is continuing the fight but using modern tools – social media and text messages – to inspire people,” said Mia Albright, high school junior | WCSD Students for Change core member.
Making an Impact in Real-Time
The group researched and defended their position on redesigning the curriculum and focused their efforts on addressing District Policy 1310, “Political Speech in Schools,” which they saw as a roadblock that needed to be addressed first. The original policy included the Black Lives Matter and pride movements under the umbrella of political speech, which means it’s off-limits for educators to discuss or support in the classroom.
“What caught our attention over the summer was an article the Reno Gazette-Journal posted about the Washoe County School District banning teacher speech of the Black Lives Matter movement and pride expression. That was our immediate concern and we felt that we needed antiracist books in classrooms and teachers who are able to talk about Black Lives Matter or hang a rainbow flag in their office,” Albright said.
The students dug in to changing the status quo and ultimately gained traction with the board of trustees.
“It’s been an extremely encouraging process. One of the biggest moments for our group as a whole was at a school board meeting where we all showed up, masked and socially distanced, and we could tell when we walked in that we were probably the most students who showed up at a board meeting. There was just this feeling that something was going to happen that hadn’t happened before,” Branch said.
That meeting proved to the students how empowering young activism can be as they saw the impact of their work in real-time.
“We waited out a few agenda items, I was feeling pretty tense…I tapped the shoulder of the person in front of me, another member of our group and a friend and I scribbled on a piece of paper, ‘thank you for being here, it will matter.’ And when our time came around, we all went to the podium and spoke from a range of perspectives about how imperative equitable education is and how teachers can support their students. Members of our group were sharing statistics from The Trevor Project on decreasing self-harm and suicide with a fair and equitable, happy life. At the end of the meeting it was decided the policy would be sent back to the committee to be revised. They also specifically stated that they want to look to other school districts in the country who have successfully supported BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students and allowed teachers to express pride – that we want to look at those as a potential precedent. I saw how absolutely worth it all the hours are that we put in and that students have a lot more power in advocacy than we think,” Branch said.
Another testament to their diligence, WCSD Students for Change was honored with the Community Leadership award by local advocates, Silver State Equality, for writing legislation toward the 2021 session.
How Teachers can Support Student-Led Groups
“I think teachers can help. Teachers have a huge impact; even if they aren’t explicitly involved in the group, they motivate us. One thing I notice is when they look me in the eyes, I feel like they are really listening to me. They can be good listeners – maybe put out other opportunities to talk, share what other students have done, or just inspire students and teach them to the best of their abilities to be good advocates and leaders,” Albright said.
Look at district policies
Are there barriers in your community to having certain positive conversations in the classroom like the students in Washoe County encountered?
“In terms of teachers helping students be advocates, I do think policies like the one currently under revision bans teacher support and presents a huge barrier for the teachers in the Washoe County School District. Teachers shouldn’t have to choose between keeping their job or supporting BIPOC students,” Branch said.
Take advantage of resources
While teachers need to be given a curriculum that is structured around equity, additional resources may be available. Educators are extremely busy and working harder than ever to meet students’ needs both in the classroom and digitally. Those interested in other narratives can search their district resources for recommended lessons centered around equity that aren’t typically required to teach.
“I think our curriculum needs to recognize that all American history is black and LGBTQ+ history and get the teachers the experience and the time that they need to practice those discussions. I had a teacher tell me that the reason teachers aren’t more motivated to teach equity is because they don’t feel comfortable doing so…we need to make space for the conversations we haven’t had before,” Branch said.
Strive for equal representation
The stories in our textbooks are not the only ones that America and the world have to tell. Teachings need to be representative of the true stories from our country’s past and we need to tell them from an equity lens.
“We tend to think of antiracist activism and curriculum as being sort of a discussion around racism but it can also involve teaching about all subjects and focusing on representation. Or teaching the history of representation in education, reading works by LGBTQ+ individuals, finding stories from people from traditionally marginalized communities – they’re all good ways to approach antiracist and LGBTQ+ education where they might be lacking,” Branch said.
When teachers choose to discuss topics beyond what’s written in the very white-centric textbooks they’re currently operating with it empowers students.
“Oftentimes we don’t see ourselves. I’m a biracial student and I didn’t see Hispanic or indigenous or Latinx mathematicians or scientists [during my schooling]. Having teachers teach the narratives of specifically marginalized communities helps teach kids that they can be a scientist and helps break down racial stereotypes. I don’t want to add any more work on teachers because they carry so much weight and are seen so highly in the eyes of students, it’s just powerful having kids see themselves reflected in the curriculum,” Albright said.
Host the difficult conversations
To create an antiracist teaching atmosphere, we need to recognize historic institutional racism and its modern impacts and be able to discuss those themes. Student activism has a snowball effect and teachers need to ensure students exercise their voices effectively and often.
“When we say slavery ended in 1865 we fail to recognize all of the different effects of those institutions that still exist. The criminal justice and police system are based in structures created to oppress people of color. Housing and income equality, too, these are all topics I was never presented in a classroom. It can be really easy for a student to misunderstand the world of social justice as being already finalized if we don’t allow students to recognize there is still work to be done,” Branch said.
Moving Forward in the Fight for Equity
WCSD Students for Change is actively working to dismantle white supremacy in the current curriculum by writing legislation for the 2021 session.
“Our first goal was vague – an antiracist education – that is wonderful but broad. We still want that but we’ve added more, such as reforming hiring practices and continuing to create an inclusive education environment. We will be participating in the 2021 legislative session and we’re really excited about that,” Albright said.
It’s difficult to pinpoint just one piece of the equity puzzle in our country when there are so many areas for improvement, especially during the Coronavirus pandemic. One message Branch strives to put forth whenever possible is that in addition to recognizing BIPOC and LGBTQ+ individuals’ experience in the classroom, we need to also recognize the disproportionate impact of all kinds of economic issues including the cost of higher education and digital learning itself.
“If we add up how much some of our most successful students have paid outside of public education, we would be pretty shocked at how many doors that closes for disenfranchised students. We need to recognize and begin to dismantle some of these subtly oppressive systems like:
How much money a student has to spend on educational resources and that directly correlating to the education they’re provided.
And how much money a student spends taking standardized tests, tutoring, buying books for advanced programs, paying for advanced placement testing and prep work, international baccalaureate program payments and waivers, and more.”
The more opportunities we can create for students that don’t require difficult and expensive prerequisites, the more we close the inequality gap. And as we work to close the gap, teacher support is the number one key to student success.