SERIES | Do Our Policies and Positions Mean Empowerment for Our Youth?

"Student-centered schools" and "youth voice" seem to be big buzzwords. An interview with youth leaders in education policy across the state reveals whether we're living up to those terms.

by Oliver Miska, interviewing Luna Crone-Barn, Hiro Hirano-Holcomb, and Kaley Duong

With the City's decision to cut youth mental health spending — funds that were promised to students in 2023 — at the Aug. 7 City Council meeting, our system's accountability to "student voice" has come under serious question. Even though the Council will hear this amendment again on Tuesday, Aug. 13, it comes only after students were forced, once again, to use their voices simply to defend what they had already won.

"Student voice" and "youth leadership opportunities" are buzzwords we hear from district leadership, state lawmakers, and educators, but students are rarely asked about their experience in these important roles. These youth voices should be put in conversation with recently published "Teen Takes" in The Seattle Times, reflecting on the question of what meaningful youth civic engagement should look like, according to youth.

Youth from around the state hold new leadership positions in their schools (student unions and associated student bodies), at the school district (student school board representatives), and in the state Legislature (Legislative Youth Advisory Council), among myriad other task forces, advisory boards, and committees. Student leadership and engagement opportunities are also expanding in community-based organizations, from formal fellowship and internships with university students to high school students engaging in political advocacy. The ecosystem of opportunities mirrors our society's existing infrastructure and theories of change.

Yet, the impact of how we have incorporated youth voice and leadership has yet to be determined.

This summer, I attended the Washington State Legislative Scholar Program for educators in Olympia, focusing on civic education opportunities for our students. The staff did a great job introducing us to the materials, programs, and opportunities for youth in Olympia. However, in the back of my mind, I had to grapple with the countless student accounts that civic opportunities are often inaccessible, feel performative, or are simply irrelevant to the issues they care about or are impacted by. Education has a relevancy issue, and the problem is our schools are not smart enough to keep up with our students.

As an educator and community lobbyist working to empower youth in their advocacy efforts, I sat down with youth from across the state to learn more about their experiences and their ideas for a more robust youth engagement process in determining a vision for Washington's education system.

Luna Crone-Barn, Former Student School Board Representative (Seattle)

Oliver Miska: Tell me about your experience as a student representative on the Seattle Public Schools School Board, a position you held from 2022 to 2024, during your junior and senior years. Now that you have had some time to reflect, what was something you are proud of accomplishing during your tenure?

Luna Crone-Barn: What I am the most proud of is that I was the first cohort to be a part of this program in 2022. We had never done this before in Seattle. It was exciting, at times frustrating, and overall a thrilling experience starting something new. The thing I'm proud of today is seeing how much this program has grown. I am also just so proud of my fellow board members and thankful for them.

However, I also started seeing the ways in which our system is not meant to work for students, no matter how much we did as students or as a board.

That was the most frustrating thing. At the foundation, there are ways in which our education system is not built to center students, especially those furthest away from resources.

In what ways did you feel supported or unsupported, listened to or neglected, empowered or tokenized? What change would you do to make to the student representative program so that future students can feel more empowered in their role?

This question makes me think about what does "centering student voice" really mean?

Theoretically, the role of the student representative is to center student voice, but at the current moment, that is not what is happening.

While I felt appreciated and that board members and the superintendent have best intentions of centering the student voice, I do not feel like our system or policy is designed to center student voice.

We had little time outside of board meetings with board directors, and so our five-minute slot time for student voice was not centering student voice. It is one thing to be appreciated and listened to, it is another to "center" student voice. Instead of five minutes to discuss, we are advocating for a student advisory vote, a policy other districts have already implemented.

If it were true accountability, some decisions would not have been made. If the school board and district was able to authentically center student voice, decisions that will harm our community, such as school closures, wouldn't be on the table.

Lastly, I'd change the culture around student representatives being discouraged from talking to the media without advisory from district staff and approval.

On a positive note, the mentors of our program were hugely supportive and centered our needs, voices, and ideas throughout the process.

The system needs to recognize that authentic community engagement means harm reduction, starting with the most impacted community.

Hiro Hirano-Holcomb, Former Legislative Youth Advisory Council (Snohomish)

Oliver Miska: Tell me about your experience as a leader in Washington State's Legislative Youth Advisory Council, a role you served in from 2022 to 2024. Now that you are graduated, and have time to reflect, what was something you are proud of working on during your tenure?

Hiro Hirano-Holcomb: My connection to student advocacy started with my role as president of the LGBTQ+ Club at my high school in the Snohomish School District. I wanted to provide training for teachers to be LGBTQ allies, but after spending many, many months, I got burnt out trying to convince our principal. We finally set up a meeting to review the professional development we developed, and the principal shut down our entire plan. We wanted to focus on best practices of supporting trans students and navigating difficult family situations, but we were told it was too much. That's what drove me to join the Legislative Youth Advisory Council, hoping to make more influence on education policy at the state level, so I could inform districts and schools.

My queerness really influenced my priorities when I got to Olympia. I set my intentions on working on legislation that would strengthen LGBTQ curriculum and teacher preparation. We started working on a bill with legislators soon after I entered LYAC, and at first, I was incredibly excited about the potential of this new policy.

In what ways did you feel supported or unsupported, listened to or neglected, empowered or tokenized? What change would you make to the LYAC program so that future students can feel more empowered in their role?

As time went on developing SB 5462, the LGBTQ curriculum bill that passed in the 2024 legislative session, I started to get disillusioned with the policy we were working on. The promises of legislators didn't feel like they were being kept. It felt like the experts, our lawmakers, were not really encouraging us to make meaningful change, but to pass a bill that just felt like a symbolic win. Celebrating the passage of SB 5462 was a performative win because it doesn't ensure we actually have LGBTQ curriculum in our schools taught by teachers who were qualified to do so.

Because we lacked support we needed in LYAC and legislators seemed to take advantage of our lack of experience, I sought mentorship and guidance from organizers outside of LYAC. Getting involved with Washington Ethnic Studies Now, I started to gain a deeper understanding of the legislative process and felt like I could advocate for meaningful policy changes. This session, for example, I am excited to be working on new legislation that will provide the infrastructure for the LYAC program so youth's power matches the fancy titles we are given in LYAC. This bill will challenge the tokenization of youth, so they are not used as political pawns by partisan members of our legislature.

Kaley Duong, NAACP Youth (Lynnwood)

Oliver Miska: Tell me about your experience as a youth organizer with the NAACP Youth Council (NYC), an organization you have worked with since 2020, and now function as a mentor. Now that you are graduated, and have time to reflect, what was something you are proud of working on during your tenure?

Kaley Duong: When I first joined NYC, it included students and educators fighting for ethnic studies across different schools.

We connected with principals and provided youth-led professional development about restorative justice and ethnic studies best practices. Talking about mental health and the intersections with mental health was incredibly healing for me. Seeing it in practice was even better.

With NYC, I am also incredibly proud that we fought for the student representative positions on the school board. After three years of advocacy, Seattle adopted student representatives, but it felt like the district took it and forgot about us. This was made worse by The Seattle Times coverage of Policy 1250, which completely left NYC out of the story. The stories of students up until 2 a.m. on FaceTime developing our advocacy strategy, for example, was completely left out. I'm still proud though.

I am also proud that we were part of the movement to get [school resource officers] out of our schools. I followed the lead from Seattle in my district, Edmonds. Now, however, they put cops back in schools, despite the fact that cops do not, time and time again, protect our communities from violence. There are rumors Seattle is trying to do it again; this would be a huge disappointment. We need to get rid of zero-tolerance policies and other carceral practices, so we can make our schools an actual community.

In what ways did you feel supported or unsupported, listened to or neglected, empowered or tokenized as a youth organizer? What changes would you make at the district or the school board to ensure they center student voice from community organizations like NAACP Youth Council?

What the media coverage and district did is the definition of tokenization and neglect. SPS staff rarely would meet with us and only did so when we made enough noise. We felt discredited after all that work.

There needs to be a consistent space where community organizations, like NAACP Youth Council, are included into the conversation happening at the district. Board meetings need to be accessible and need accountability. The format right now is transactional in testimony. We need discourse and we need follow-up. The district needs more pathways for meeting with student organizers directly, where students can take lead. We need guidance, not appropriation.

At the state level, when we advocated with [the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction], we felt shut out, like we were talking to a brick wall. We were there providing ideas, just to have them dismiss us. What the state has done for ethnic studies, so far, is the bare minimum. They say it is already "encouraged," but there isn't a clear plan for investing in developing community-led ethnic studies. We are still working to make these changes this coming legislative session.

The South Seattle Emerald is committed to holding space for a variety of viewpoints within our community, with the understanding that differing perspectives do not negate mutual respect amongst community members.

The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the contributors on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the Emerald or official policies of the Emerald.

Oliver Treanor Miska, 33, is a queer Seattleite, educator, community organizer, and lobbyist for educational justice policy in Washington State. Transitioning out of Seattle classrooms after six years, they recently founded Solidarity Policy and Public Affairs, a political consulting firm. As a community organizer, Oliver has held leadership roles within Seattle Democratic Socialist of America and Washington Ethnic Studies Now, where they co-lead a statewide legislative coalition. Oliver is organizing to advocate for progressive revenue and equitable distribution of education spending policy at the state Legislature. To contact them, email solidaritypolicywa@gmail.com

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