YDEV Event #2
My second YDEV event was much heavier than my first. At
central high school, where my internship is, there was an issue that broke out
one day at lunch. An administrator told a student to get back in line and the
student started to fight with the administrator. I am not 100% on the details
but what ultimately happened was the administrator put their hands on the student
and put him on the ground in an aggressive manor. This caused a lot of upset in
the school and in the community. What was done next was many community partners
came together and held a session after school to discuss what had happened and
how students felt. I was able to sit in on one group with New Urban arts where
they discussed how they wanted school to feel more like a community and less
like a chore. They wanted to be in classes where they were taken seriously as
learners and wanted to find a sense of pride in going to Central. After this
and many other discussions all the community partners came together to talk to other
administration and the super intendant on what they heard and what the students
feel needs to be done. I was fortunate enough to sit in on that meeting and
here what other groups of students had to say and how they felt. It was a
really unique experience on how to facilitate specific controversy and then to
see how the facilitators then discuss what can be done.
These conversations really related to some of our anchors, care and community specifically. The school was able to pull from community partners knowledge of leading with youth and creating in depth conversations to allow youth a safe space to vent and discuss the issues that had occur in their school. Students felt that taking the time to do so showed that it wasn't something the school just wanted to forget about. That the school cared how students felt and wanted to hear how they could change the environment.
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