As you may or may not know, Nashville recently elected a new mayor – Mayor Karl Dean. Last night, September 24th, he held the Mayor’s Town Hall Meeting on Education at Pearl-Cohn. The Oasis Center’s own Darius Teasley decided he wanted the microphone to share some very important opinions with the group.
Darius steps to the mic and introduces himself as an Stratford High School sophomore and says that he is speaking on behalf of all of the students in comprehensive high schools. Darius tells the Mayor (with most of the school board present and about 100 parents and community members) that students at comprehensive high schools want and deserve the same things, the same opportunities as the students at the magnet schools.
Darius received the first applause by the audience for any question to that point.
Darius’ courage to talk about equity inspired 3 or 4 subsequent questions by audience members that addressed equity in the schools. One woman told the Mayor that he needed to have one of these Town Hall meetings with the students!
Tayo Atanda, another member of the Oasis Community Impact group, stepped up and asked that four year plans include accountable development of the futures of students. He finished by telling the Mayor that he would be glad to help coordinate the Student Town Hall Meeting.
At the end of the evening, Mayor Dean said he needed to get a gathering with the students together. Oasis Community Impact will be following up on this and are looking forward to developing a student only town hall meeting with Mayor Dean.
This goes to show the power each of us possess. Darius’ comments were the catalyst that changed the face of the dialogue and put equity and student involvement at the front of the discussion. Congratulations, Darius!
Filed under: Nashville, education, human rights, leadership
