The SFUSD Board Recall Election is Set. We Revisit Student Voices

By Devin KatayamaHolly McDedeEricka Cruz GuevarraAlan MontecilloMary Franklin Harvin on Nov 3

“3 members of the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education will be facing a recall vote in February. The special election encompasses a whole host of polarizing issues in the district: in-person learning, the admissions policy at Lowell High School, the effort to rename schools, a series of 2016 tweets by Commissioner Alison Collins, and more.

Throughout these crises, student voices have often remained on the periphery. So today, we’re revisiting an episode from April where we hear SFUSD students sharing their views — and how they feel about the debate happening around them.

Guest: Holly J. McDede, KQED reporter and producer”

This episode originally aired on April 19, 2021.

Excerpts from the podcast

Student Delegate Shavonne Hines-Foster:

“[00:06:22] So the title is “A Balanced Analysis of Commissioner Collins tweets. What happened?” S.F. and Board of Education vice president made numerous tweets not long after the 2016 presidential election, which was before she was elected, where she expressed frustration about….

Many people who are leading the discussion against Collins are also pushing for the Board of Education. We call
resistance to school renaming and opposition to Lowell emissions changing to lottery giving the existed existing BOE sentiment and the rise in anti-Asian hate. The reactions of these tweets have been more explosive.”

…

Interviewer Holly McDede:

“And the other student, Madeline Cho, she thinks that the tweets are actually calling out racism and that she should stay on the board and that this is an important discussion that should be had.

Student Leader Madeline Cho:

[00:08:50] I think a lot of people were very hurt by that, especially given what’s happening right now with anti-Asian American hate. But I think a lot of people are either uninformed or not ready to have those discussions about internalized whites white supremacy and they don’t really know what that means.”

Learn more.

Listen here.

Read the episode transcript here.

Citation: Katayama, Devin, host. “Amid SFUSD Controversies, Where Are the Student Voices?” The Bay, KQED, April, 19 2021.KQED.org/podcasts.