{"id":695304,"date":"2022-08-22T14:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T18:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/?post_type=article&p=695304"},"modified":"2023-01-06T14:43:06","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T19:43:06","slug":"why-i-had-to-leave-the-community-i-loved-to-find-the-school-that-served-my-needs","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/article\/why-i-had-to-leave-the-community-i-loved-to-find-the-school-that-served-my-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Had To Leave The Community I Loved To Find the School That Served My Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After finishing my freshman year of high school, I\u2019ve taken time to reflect on my experiences. It was an unusual year where I attended two schools: the first semester was at a Los Angeles area high school near my former home in Playa Del Rey and the second semester was at South High School in South Torrance, where I live now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming out of COVID-19 isolation, I looked forward to making up for many missed social opportunities with friends. I joined the track team at my new school and did well in my events. I made good friends with some of my teammates and other students on campus, which can be challenging for me as a person with autism. When my mom was looking for a church for us to attend, my track coach shared information about his church, and we began attending on Sundays; I also went to a Wednesday church youth group when my study schedule allowed it. Thanks to social media, I could keep in contact with friends from my former school, and I even have a girlfriend who attended my old school.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Devin Walton after a track meet. (Krystal Walton)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

But despite it being a terrific year for me overall, I feel profound disappointment in the circumstances that led me to South Torrance. Several racially charged events occurred during my middle school years, such as the George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery murders and trials. As a result, there were many discussions about race and safety in white communities. In the climate at that time, I expected to be safest with the same people who protested, saying, “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop Killing Our Sons.” I thought the people who said my life matters would believe that my education also matters. Unfortunately, I didn\u2019t find the community, accountability, collaboration and support that was talked about at those 8th grade recruitment meetings during my first semester in a school attended mostly by students of color and run mostly by educators of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found myself in a situation where some teachers were not motivated to teach and help their students succeed, some were bullied by their own students and didn\u2019t know how to discipline the class and some repeated the same lessons and shared the answers before they gave tests and quizzes (and some kids still failed!). When my mom, herself an administrator who has been in education for over 20 years, tried to intervene, it was difficult to impossible to get some teachers to respond or administrators or other top education officials to address the problem. Eventually, she started looking for a new home in a different school district and we moved in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n