A new resolution centered around protections for undocumented students passed unanimously by the Evergreen Public Schools board last week. As first reported on by the Columbian, the vote was initially planned for early February, but with testimony from more than 20 students, parents and community members, the vote was postponed.
Students within the district provided input and helped shape the new resolution that eventually passed. Caiden Mizrahi-Boyarsky is a senior at Union High School and president for Students Advocating for Equity. Isabella Garcia and Sarah Barrios are both seniors at Mountainview High School and are senior representatives for the Latino Club. They join us to talk about their testimony and how they helped shape the new resolution.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. The day after President Trump was inaugurated for the second time, the Department of Homeland Security announced that the agency was reversing a long-standing policy. Now, federal immigration enforcement actions can happen in what are known as sensitive locations, including hospitals and schools.
A few weeks later, the Evergreen Public Schools Board in Vancouver met to consider and to vote on a resolution affirming the rights of undocumented students, but they didn’t approve the resolution. There was so much passionate and emotional feedback from students and the broader community that the board delayed the vote for a month, to give time for student concerns to be better reflected in the final draft. That’s what happened – a group of students suggested changes that ended up in a modified resolution the board unanimously approved last week.
I’m joined now by three of the students who took part in this. Caiden Mizrahi-Boyarsky is a senior at Union High School and the president of Students Advocating for Equity. Izzy Garcia and Sarah Barrios are seniors at Mountain View High School and representatives of the Latino Club. Welcome to all three of you.
All: Thank you.
Miller: Caiden, first – had you been to a school board meeting before that one in early February?
Caiden Mizrahi-Boyarsky: Yes, many.
Miller: Why?
Mizrahi-Boyarsky: So in the past, I’ve been a student advocate and activist within our district for about two years now. And a lot of times that includes going to those board meetings. Trying to think exactly why I was there … Oh, we went a couple times when I was part of the advocacy work with staff representation and retaining staff of color within our budget cuts. So we were there a lot, pushing for a MOU, protests, whatnot. So, yeah. And then also, before this, I had to go to all the previous board meetings to understand why we’re here and more about the resolution.
Miller: So you’re a veteran at this, at this point.
Mizrahi-Boyarsky: I guess I’d say so.
Miller: Had you been to a meeting quite like the one that happened on February 11?
Mizrahi-Boyarsky: I remember I was at one meeting, and I did see students from all schools and demographics speak up about different issues at hand. I thought it was amazing. One of them actually started their speech in Spanish, greeting them, and they actually said a lot of things in Spanish, and then said, “Who here understood me?” And I thought that was really powerful. And when we came here to do this at the board meeting this time, I was talking to one of the members there, Jose Angel, and he was the one who actually started in Spanish. Yeah, I’ve seen a couple of things like this before.
Miller: Let’s have a listen to part of your testimony at this meeting. It includes a poem that you read in Spanish and then it’s a little bit hard to hear – the audience wasn’t mic’d the way you were, but it seems like they’re translating into English. Let’s have a listen to part of what you said.
[Recording of testimony playing]
Mizrahi-Boyarsky [recording]: I’ve worked hard to be able to confidently say I am and have been a prolific student leader and role model within our district, making impacts on all communities possible. With that being said, I have still been profiled and undermined, or terribly mistreated by staff within our district, solely based on the color of my skin, the way I talk, the way I dress, the way my friends look and for what I stand for. I know myself and our community will never back down from this unfortunate fight. However, I’d like to share a short poem that sums up our toxic and amoral relationship with the district.
Written by Luis Valdez: “In Lak’ech” …
[Reading “In Lak’ech” by Luis Valdez in Spanish, with response from the audience in English]
Tú eres mi otro yo.
(You are my other me.)
Si te hago daño a ti,
(If I do harm to you,)
Me hago daño a mi mismo.
(I do harm to myself.)
Si te amo y respeto,
(If I love and respect you,)
Me amo y respeto yo.
(I love and respect myself.)
Like I said, this literature is a direct representation of our Latino community’s unjust relationship with our district, and that ends today.
[Recording ends]
Miller: Caiden, why’d you pick that poem?
Mizrahi-Boyarsky: I was actually in a meeting with Alondra. She actually showed me this poem and kind of gave me the …
Miller: Who’s Alondra?
Mizrahi-Boyarsky: Alondra is actually, if I’m not mistaken, Alondra Abrego-Viveros. So yeah, she’s actually the advisor for the Latino Student Union over at Mountain View, and on top of that, she is a part of the engagement team over at Southwest Equity Coalition – an extremely powerful and empowering person, and an amazing leader. She was one of the people who actually really, really was behind the scenes putting this on, helping students. She actually showed me this poem while I was writing my speech and gave me the idea of the translation piece.
I was thinking about how I could incorporate this and what it represented for our community. I thought it was really powerful, especially with the English and Spanish. It really did represent how our relationship should be: If I do harm to you, I do harm to myself. And that’s how our district should feel with our student body.
Miller: Izzy, what did you most want members of the school board to hear or to understand?
Isabella Garcia: How I feel, what I wanted them to understand the most was the pain that we were all feeling and more that it’s hard that they’re all not Latino themselves. So these issues, it’s really hard for them to understand. But the message that we wanted to give out is that they can really comprehend everything, that it’s not only school, it’s like this also happens at home, with friends, with family and different things like that. I think the message that we wanted to give out is that this isn’t specifically just towards Latinos, it’s just all immigrant families and it applies to all of them, but we’re the ones speaking out. And I think it was really important that they could really get a grasp on that and really understand that what they’re putting into these policies has a big effect on us, whatever they decided to approve.
Miller: Sarah, what about you? I mean, I’m just curious what it was like. Did you have, for example, the same amount of experience that Caiden had at testifying or going to school board meetings?
Sarah Barrios: Absolutely not.
Miller: You hadn’t done that before?
Barrios: No, it was my first board meeting. It was actually one of the first times speaking up in public. I don’t do that. No, I don’t have the same experience as him. It was a very nerve-wracking feeling, but at the same time, it was like a satisfying feeling, just speaking up for those who can’t. I think that that’s what we were looking for the most and just making or making an impact, which is what we did. And then just looking for empathy and for them to understand our points of view, understand what we actually go through, the struggles that we face every day. It was like a very important thing.
Miller: When you say that you felt like you were speaking up for those who couldn’t, what do you mean in particular?
Barrios: I think I speak on behalf of a lot of families that are scared to come forward, younger kids. And being seniors and older, for our schools and our districts, I think that like being that role model for the little kids, it’s important.
Miller: I want to play part of what another one of your classmates had to say. This is part of the testimony from Elena Hernandez.
[Recording of testimony playing]
Elena Hernandez [recording]: I’m here to be the voice for those who have been silenced out of here. I stand before you with a heavy heart, deeply upset by the new deportation orders that have been passed and how you guys have responded. I worry for my community. And while I know you do not understand, I ask you for empathy, empathy for our families, for our children. We are witnessing families being torn apart. We are human beings, mothers, sisters, daughters, sons, students, doers, entrepreneurs and professionals. We come here for a better life. Our parents work day and night to make sure we get an education. And yet our community doesn’t feel welcomed. We feel like a target, waiting for our turn to be taken away from our homes and families.
[Recording ends]
Miller: Izzy, what was it like to hear from some of your classmates, friends or families about what they’re experiencing right now?
Garcia: It was really touching. At the same time, it was just heartbreaking to hear the pain that everyone was going through and that they were speaking up for their family members, for staff and for students that weren’t able to speak, and really hearing their testimonies, every single one of them. It was really touching for me to sit down and really comprehend everything, and really hoping that the same way that I felt was the same way that the school members felt as well. Hearing all of their stories, hearing, honestly, the pain in their voices and hearing that they want this change to happen, that whatever it takes, they want that to happen … so all of these bad effects don’t end up getting approved.
Miller: Caiden, what had you been expecting the board was going to do in that meeting on February 11?
Mizrahi-Boyarsky: Honestly, I didn’t really have an expectation. I think that was the most fearful part of it, as someone who is, like you said, been doing this for a long time. Even I had my legs shaking. My hands were cold. I had to lean on the podium because of how nervous I was. So I think we all went into this just hoping we could really, like Sarah said, speak up for those who don’t have a voice right now. And also, make sure that there’s no more harm done, or if we can, prevent as much harm to be done.
Miller: So what went through your mind when they said, we’re not going to vote on this resolution, we’re gonna give ourselves a month, and give you all and others, as students, some time to actually weigh in on the resolution and potentially change it?
Mizrahi-Boyarsky: Honestly, it was probably one of the best feelings I’ve ever had. It’s funny to say that, as a 17-year-old student, the school board not passing a resolution is one of the best feelings I’ve ever had. But it’s an unfortunate reality that our students felt like they had to be there, share traumatizing stories and whatnot just to get action taken to make sure that all communities are taken care of in an equitable manner.
Miller: So then after that, then the process of actually going through the resolution, that’s when you all sort of took a more active role in that. Sarah, first – I mean, what was that like? What were those conversations like?
Barrios: They were tough, they were very hard, difficult conversations that we had in between all of us. It was meeting after meeting after school, days we would gather up. There was families, parents, all of us just talking about what we want to see, what we don’t want to see, what can they do better. It was a hard time.
Miller: Izzy, was it a challenge to get folks to talk with you? I mean, I’m thinking in particular, all of you had mentioned talking on behalf of people who don’t feel comfortable coming forward. And I assume you’re talking about people who are undocumented, who feel like if they say that at a school board meeting, that’s now public and they have a very obvious target on their back. Was it hard then getting people to talk with you even just in private?
Garcia: I would say yes, it is hard. I think it’s just so much fear, more than anything, not because they don’t want to, not because they don’t feel passionate about the subject and about the policies, on how it’s affecting their kids and future generations to come. It’s just purely out of fear. And it’s very understandable, which is why we all felt a lot more pressure after all of these meetings that we are having about really going through all the little details that we could go through, to make sure that this policy is perfect, and this policy covers everything that we want and everything that we need. So when we graduate, we can make sure that all the generations after us won’t have to worry about things like this anymore.
Miller: Caiden, what do you see as the most meaningful changes from the original resolution that the board had in front of them on February 11 and the one that they unanimously passed a month later?
Mizrahi-Boyarsky: Directly to the resolution, I think there was a piece we talked about at the workshop, and with the board and our own workshop that we were able to facilitate, that was actually added, to make sure that if teachers or staff were to defend a student … With the situation in mind, (if) an ICE agent entered a school to come retrieve a student. If they were to defend them, tell them to run or not let the ICE agent in, they were not going to be punished by the school. And I thought that was really powerful to see that the district was willing to not only protect the students, but protect the ones who are trying to protect the students.
Miller: I noticed that one of the other changes … a lot of them have to do with just saying, pursuant to this existing policy, we affirm this. So it’s not like those were new policies necessarily, but it’s much clearer in the new version. It just reiterates, this is our district’s policy and we’re saying it once again. But there was one thing that I didn’t see in the first one at all. It has this line: “The board has been made aware that instances of harassment, intimidation and bullying of students on the basis of national origin has increased.” That was not in the original resolution. It is in the one that was unanimously passed.
Sarah, what does it mean to you to have that unanimously passed by the board?
Barrios: I think we all, as a group, talk about how difficult it is to get targeted, just because you’re a Person of Color, every day. And a lot of us talk about it and just brought that up to the eyes of them. Then [we] told them that there’s so many times, so many of these just happened and never one thing has been done for it.
Miller: Even after harassment, bullying or targeting is brought to the attention of staff or teachers?
Barrios: Yeah. So it was more like a thing that we needed to make a point of and it had to be there. A lot of us, I think Caiden, myself and Izzy spoke about it, and a lot of other kids did too. It’s a refreshing feeling. It’s like a weight lifted off your shoulders when you get to see something that speaks … that it’s something that’s going to change.
Miller: Izzy, how often do you feel like your voice is taken seriously by adults, by people in charge?
Garcia: I would say, unfortunately, not often. Of course, as a student, I would want to say that like staff, my teachers and everyone that holds that place will listen to me over serious topics. But unfortunately that’s not true, especially when it comes to bullying, and even more specifically when it’s bullying about something that I can’t control, which is the color of my skin. And when we spoke about that topic about bullying, because we’re all kids of color, and when we spoke about that just in our meetings, it was something that we unfortunately bonded over, something we all have numerous experiences of since we were little. That’s not something that we should be bonding over at all.
On top of that, it’s teachers not listening, teachers maybe giving a warning, maybe speaking to the student one-on-one, if that, and that’s the most you get. For the most part, it’s things, just to an A-B conversation, and the jokes pile up and it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating that you’re seen as just a high school student, so you’re unfortunately not taken seriously, just that in itself. And then when it comes to bullying, because of the color of your skin, I feel like personally that’s something that should be taken seriously. So seeing that on the policy, there’s that acknowledgement, means a lot because it’s an issue that’s been happening for so long.
Miller: Caiden, what’s next for you? And when I say you, I mean, broadly, the groups you’re a part of and the political action that seems like it’s a really significant part of your life?
Mizrahi-Boyarsky: Yeah, right now, I’m actually working with the executive director of Diversity and Student and Family Engagement. I believe that’s what her exact role is, but I’m working with her to include student voice within trainings. Unfortunately, within the past few months I’ve dealt with a lot of teachers saying slurs in class that are absolutely not OK to say, or making fun of a student’s accent who doesn’t speak English.
Miller: Teachers saying racial slurs and making fun of student accents?
Mizrahi-Boyarsky: Yes, sir. So I’ve gotten to the point where I’m kind of fed up and I’m trying to make sure that student voice is included in all of these rooms where we are affected, like equity training specifically. Because, unfortunately, these teachers have actually come up to me and talked to me about the equity trainings, and told me how much they like them and how much they love the work I do. And then proceed to use the “N” word in a conversation with me or mock a student’s accent. So that’s just tiring.
Miller: Caiden Mizrahi-Boyarsky, Izzy Garcia and Sarah Barrios, thanks very much.
Garcia: Of course.
Mizrahi-Boyarsky: Thank you.
Barrios: Thank you.
Miller: Caiden Mizrahi-Boyarsky is a senior at Union High School and the president of Students Advocating for Equity. Izzy Garcia and Sarah Barrios are seniors at Mountain View High School and representatives of the Latino Club.
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