Over 100 students got suspended at Wilbur Cross High School in January for using iPods and cell phones, Dawn Washington noted to a group of her peers.
“Do you think this is too extreme?” she asked.
“We do,” she said, answering her own question. “We believe that suspensions should be consistent across all schools.”
Washington, a ninth-grader at Co-Op high school, made the remarks at a school-themed open mic session at the downtown public library on Elm Street Monday evening. She was speaking on behalf of a new student group called “Youth UnleashED: Students United For School Change,” which is affiliated with Your Place Youth Center in Newhallville.
The group is made up of students ages 13 to 19, from high schools across the city. They got together in October with the purpose of having student input in New Haven’s nascent school change campaign.
On Monday, dozens of teens and adults filed into a basement meeting room at the public library for the group’s second open mic session.
Students opened the floor to anyone to come forward and perform poetry, song and freestyle rap.
Nollysha Canteen, a sophomore at Hillhouse High, read a poem that touched on growing up with an absent father. Sabir Abdussabur rapped, in high-speed a capella, for over four minutes about his world views.
Between performances, the teen leaders ran public service announcements on their topic of top concern: How to improve the schools. Gloria Washington, a sophomore at Hillhouse, took the crowd through a slide show of unsanitary conditions in the schools. (Click on the play arrow at the top of this story to see all three in action.)
The slides showed dirt gathering in a hallway, a toilet that had been out of service for months, and a few slides of unappetizing food.
“This meat is most likely leftover,” she charged, as another slide flashed across the screen. “And so is this one.”
“Aww, c’mon, I eat those sandwiches,” protested one teen.
The group passed out a list of priorities for school change. They listed clean buildings and sanitary food as top concerns.
“School discipline should be consistent and fair,” the document also reads. “Out-of-school suspensions should be avoided!”
Students also suggested they be included in decisions about school change. “We should have a say in the hiring of high school principals and school reform efforts,” they wrote.
Interestingly, some of the concerns they articulated were shared by their own principals on a recent survey that offered feedback to the school district’s central office.
“Our building has suffered from the consistent cutback of custodial positions, and currently does not have enough staff to adequately clean and maintain the entire building on a daily basis” one anonymous principal wrote. “One entire floor of a 200,000 square-foot building has been designated as a ‘rotating overtime’ zone and in order to address this, the overall cleanliness and appearance of the building has deteriorated significantly.”
Principals also said they needed more guidance from central office in how to discipline kids. School officials responded that they’re still implementing a new code of conduct that will make discipline more consistent; click here to read a story about that.
Student organizer Milena Yamada Souto said the group has been meeting weekly and aims to have a voice in school reform. Most students don’t know what school reform is, but they have solutions for how to change their schools, her group argued.
“We want youth to be part of addressing the issues,” she said.
School district spokeswoman Michelle Wade said she’d welcome the students’ input.
“The reform effort is all about collaboration, transparency and inclusiveness,” she said. “So we’d love for the students to have a voice in this.”
Great job kids!
I'm glad to see you speaking up & being actively engaged. Don't let the administrators work any less hard than you and your teachers.
I have been told by Wilbur Cross students & teachers that there are NINE vice-principals, who mainly are concerned with discipline. They make excellent salaries, and if they can't stay for after-school detention once a week they need to be fired. End of story. It is simply unacceptable that their only discipline is to send kids him. Kids need to be IN school to benefit from the education reform.
Laziness and ineptitude should not be tolerated any more. Administrators, do not leave these kids alone. If a kid misbehaves, after-school detention should be first step. I received one after school detention in elementary school & made sure to never get another one.