Student Oriented and Student Led Programs in CASD are not what they seem

At the school board meeting on Tuesday night, two students, Nakiya Norman and D'asia James spoke to the board about concerns regarding students not having a necessary role in student groups in the 9/10 Center. Nakiya revised her speech to include more detail and submitted it to share her voice.

Hello everyone. My name is Nakiya Norman, and I am in my Sophomore year here at Coatesville Intermediate High School. I'm going to cut to the chase. Our school is broken and the students walking around in it are broken in more ways than possible. Those with higher power above us try to appear to the public eye as being well put together and having a place where students feel welcomed. We have so many issues and problems to be discussed but not enough students with motivation or ability to be outspoken want to step up. Not only are some not motivated, but they are afraid; they fear the repercussions that our administrators will try to give them.

Certain members of this school make the public believe our programs are student-oriented and student-led. If that were true I believe our school would be a lot better. The three main programs are S.P.I.R.I.T. (Student Problem Identification and Resolutions of Issues Together), Homeroom Representatives, and Student Council.  All programs are said to be led by the students, however, both S.P.I.R.I.T. and Homeroom Representatives are led by the administration. We are actors playing a role in this big show. We have questions and no answers. I wonder what S.P.I.R.I.T. talks about and when they do. I've talked to some students who have informed me that the presentations and ideas that come out of S.P.I.R.I.T. are created by administrators and pushed out as "student formed" ideas. I've had students on the S.P.I.R.I.T. committee tell me they believed they were only picked because they seemed to be students who won't speak out about their feelings. These students have asked to remain anonymous for fear of being punished for speaking out. The Homeroom Representatives are all big contributors to this big facade. They are handed a piece of paper. With each word written they give away their voice. They bring these to class and tell the students any information put out by our administrators. When discussing motivation, student council have a foundation to be heard and use their voice. The only problem is it's restricted. Again, another authoritarian takes their platform and shapes it into his own. When asked about "stall talks," the members didn't agree with the idea. They still had to put them up in the bathrooms before the S.P.I.R.I.T. Summit.

We encourage other students to share experiences from the Coatesville Schools so that you can have a voice and be a part of a solution to any of your concerns.