“That story’s still being written”, is the answer Mr. Wayne Ledbetter gave the attendees at yesterday’s opening of the “Rooted In Race” Exhibit.
As I posted on Facebook, Michai and I benefitted from school choice. I chose to attend Mount Tabor because they had 7 period days and I knew I wouldn’t last in North’s hour and a half classes. I chose Michai’s schools based on staff representation. That plan didn’t always work which is why I had to stay involved.
Michai started public school in 5th grade after I learned the effect charter schools had on the public school system. I chose the school because it had a Black woman principal. She shaded me so badly when I introduced myself and told her we had mutual friends, that I knew if Michai ever got sent to the office, he was going to be strongly disciplined. What she and I didn’t know was that I would later participate in an organization where she and I would sit on a committee and her conversation CONFIRMED my thoughts about HER thoughts about Black kids 😒.
I sent Michai to Wiley because he was to have an ‘other’ male principal, but the principal was sent to another school over the summer. The white woman principal did her best for her first year, but we couldn’t wait for her to learn and I had to do too much advocating on Michai’s behalf so we went to Clemmons Middle for 7th and 8th grades. I chose that school for its diverse staff. Michai had his BEST year in the 7th grade with Black English and Social Studies teachers. He NEVER missed that early school bus because he was excited to go to school; a sentiment that left me when I was in the 3rd grade 🤷🏾.
That year was also rippled with discrimination by his native Spanish teacher who couldn’t let Michai’s inappropriate mocking of her go. It was the difference in conversation with his dad versus with me that let me know she didn’t see Michai as a 12-year-old child, but as a threat, and prompted me to ask for a new teacher. What I didn’t know was that we should have gone to a new school because of the aggression and racism he experienced in 8th grade. That was the first year he seriously asked me to stop showing up and volunteering because teachers were taking out on him what they wanted to take out on me. I shared my thoughts with the superintendent, Bev. DeVos, I mean Emory, who brushed me off. I thought I would have a play with her admin since she was a fellow Leadership Winston-Salem participant, but she brushed me off, too.
After all that, Michai was upset to learn he was going to Mount Tabor because he wanted to follow his friends to West. I said to myself, AND TOLD HIM, if you don’t want me at this school, you’re going to BEG for me to be at school with you at West 💁🏾. He had become more expressive and had witnessed/experienced racism and discrimination, so he was bound to end up in somebody’s office.
Y’all have heard me say we ended up at Tabor because of relationships. The staff was also diverse and fair. Michai did have to go to the office but it was related to him no longer going to Chemistry class because he didn’t learn much in the virtual setting. Staff was understanding and fair. The fairness came based on the student and not because the student was white, or came from an affluent family.
While it’s sad my choices were centered around discipline, I was not ignorant of the fact I was raising a Black male in an unjust society, so I needed to do the best with what I had. As Carol Montague-Davis stated at the exhibit, “buses aren’t offered to high school students who attend schools out of district”, so that came with sacrifices. Car repairs eventually led to needing a new car. I didn’t seek job promotions because I needed to be flexible to attend band concerts, football games, and show up at school unannounced. In the same way Michai witnessed aggressions, he was able to witness restoration and fairness, and that is all I wanted for my child. His Kijiji would, and still does, get him through the rest…🙌🏾
GO SEE THE EXHIBIT!!!