SERIES | Do Our Policies and Positions Mean Empowerment for Our Youth? Part 2

My time with ESAC was really intense, I was low-key stressed out because it was the beginning of COVID. I was doing my entire sophomore year online, so trying to figure out school and this role, all at the same time, was a lot at first. 

I got involved with ESAC because of my teacher Ms. Tran. I was proud to be working with Tracy Castro Gill and Vero in ESAC. Growing up as a Liberian American, I didn’t know anything about ethnic studies. I grew up learning white savior history. Ethnic studies is for everyone, and I am so proud of being part of the work to change what we teach in our schools. I am really proud of the fact that I also got civics credit for my work with ESAC, but these opportunities are not accessible for most students, especially other students of color. I am blessed that I got this opportunity because I want to become an attorney, but I am disappointed with how students were not consistently communicated with during the process.

I am just going to call it out. Jerry Price (previous social studies director at OSPI) made all the students feel incredibly neglected. We felt like checkboxes for him. We were not focusing on the purpose or implementation of ethnic studies. When we shared what we felt about the plan created in ESAC, our concerns were dismissed. We had to schedule special meetings separate from OSPI staff “supporting” our work because we didn’t feel like we could actually get anything done in meetings with OSPI. We had to fight to even get our names put on the framework we were asked to create. 

If the government wants to include students on youth advisory boards, then they need to learn how to communicate and collaborate with youth. The Ethnic Studies Framework is designed to have a positive impact on students, it’s a way for us to include our histories without whitewashing it. We need to integrate ethnic studies as a requirement within our state because we all need to learn about the different perspectives and communities. 

For example, in a civics class I took through Native perspectives, I got to see the different sides of political issues. Looking at Indigenous perspectives opened my mind, and I hope that students across the state can also experience this type of curriculum.

I first got involved with SWEA when I attended the Labor Notes’ Troublemakers School in 2023, hoping to connect with the labor movement and rank-and-file organizing. 

WEA leaders suggested I get involved in SWEA because I was also building my career as an educator. I was encouraged to run for leadership and was elected president of SWEA for this upcoming school year. Each undergraduate university has a chapter on paper, but many are inactive. At University of Washington Bothell, we are one of the more active chapters in the state. 

SWEA is designed to build leadership for aspiring educators, as it is part of the National Education Association’s (NEA) Aspiring Educators Program. We work towards getting improved working conditions for aspiring educators and connecting aspiring educators to leadership opportunities within WEA and NEA. As president, I support the work of our chapter leaders and work with the WEA board on building those connections between students and union locals.

I ran on making sure we can pay our student teachers in Washington. We are joining student teachers nationwide, who are calling for fair pay now. 

Last year’s president, Angela Caron, introduced a motion at the WEA Representative Assembly that would support advocacy for paid student teaching. We are developing our campaign with WEA lobbyists in conversation with other aspiring educators to figure out how to make careers in education more accessible for those who cannot afford to do unpaid labor. 

The way student teaching is handled in this state is that it is an unpaid internship. Actually, it’s at best an unpaid internship, while in fact, many students are paying to work for free. 

This makes the career inaccessible, especially for working people, those with a family, or other responsibilities. There are institutional quick fixes, but we need a statewide solution. This is an equity issue. Teaching is a predominantly white profession; if we want to change that, we need to remove institutional barriers to teaching, so that we can have a teacher workforce that reflects our student population. 

We need a universal jobs program for aspiring educators. This isn’t unrealistic — Michigan recently created the Future Educator Stipend, paying student teachers $9,600 a semester. It’s not a huge expense for the state of Washington, but life-changing for educators. If Michigan can do it, there’s no excuse for our state government to not do the same.

Student organizing has been on the cutting edge of transformative change since before the Civil Rights Movement. From anti-war, housing, economic, and racial justice, to climate change and workers’ rights, youth have led the way, holding a mirror up to the status quo. 

In the mirror, youth show us a future that is possible where we are all healthier, happier, and liberated from the multiple crises we are going through. If you are holding up the mirror to power, it highlights the discrepancy between what we want for our youth and what we are willing to spend on them. 

What I hear most from students organizing is the mental health challenges that come with this work. The pressure, expectations, and complexity of political bureaucracy make students face their own demons, their preconceptions of change-making, and the tension of building an effective collective. Doing this work alone is impossible, and students need support from elders and leaders, who can provide institutional knowledge without limiting the bold imagination that students have for the future. 

At Seattle Student Union, we believe organizing helps us cross the bridge from despair, alienation, and frustration to agency, empowerment, and self-worth. Before I started organizing, I didn’t have the vocabulary to interrogate situations where I had been denied my own agency. My pain and powerlessness was private, and the practice of organizing taught me to transform that private pain into public power. 

After students fought and won $20 million for mental health counselors in 2023, the pain of organizing was felt when the mayor proposed only spending $10 million for 2024. Only after students and community showed up at city hall to testify this summer did the city compromise to spend $12.25 million, all the while celebrating the generosity of the lawmakers’ plan. This is just one example of a long tradition of lawmakers erasing students from the narrative.

Lawmakers are continuously surprised when students show up to hold them accountable, resulting in a political dynamic where they must pretend, be condescending, or say they already have a task force or commission for that. Seattle Student Union is intervening on these old political dynamics and divide-and-conquer strategies taken by the council to deny us power.

Students are currently fighting to preserve the $20 million promised to youth mental health services in our schools. Students believe that mental health counselors are the best response to equipping students to cope with ongoing trauma and play a key role in violence prevention. 

The mayor thought that we wouldn’t notice or complain at the $19.25 million his budget includes for a variety of “mental health” services. There is a lack of transparency where this money is actually going and youth are being left out of the conversation. Organizations that the city contracts with don’t always represent the community they claim. 

We believe those closest to the crises in our schools know best on how to direct our budget. 

That is why we are calling on the City Council and the mayor to meaningfully include students in this process by partnering with a citywide council of ASB representatives from high schools across the city. This means going beyond symbolic task forces and commissions to create a student city council. 

Seattle Student Union is hosting a postcard campaign in our schools, along with public testimony at the Oct. 30 and Nov. 13 City Council meetings. Follow us on Instagram for campaign updates @seattlestudentunion. 

Students’ demands for Seattle schools go beyond City Council and include meaningful change at the state Legislature this coming session in January. Students have repeatedly called for taxing the rich to fully and equitably funded K–12 education, alongside investments in ethnic studies and restorative justice practices.

To get involved in Seattle Student Union, please contact Katherine@SeattleStudentUnion.org.