After maybe a week of @dear.ovs the account has run dry. Now what? Is that all we get? There are still stories to be told. This community deserves more. This community deserves an account that stands firmly. An account that does not simply follow student interest but rather desires to aid the community in which it exists.
We need an account that offers actionable items for students, that offers a forum for students to discuss and engage with stories. A place for OVS students to learn from administrative decisions at other schools, from other @dear____ accounts, and, most importantly, from each other.
As a community we need more than just acknowledgement that we are being heard. We need to know that the administration is sorry that it has failed some of its students, and we need to know exactly what is being done, specifically, to combat these failings for students in the future.
We need the teachers that are legitimately called out to address their failings, and to actively work to eliminate their biases. We need public commitment to continuing the conversations that @dear.ovs has started past the point that they have gone so far. And we need to know that simply having a diversity and inclusion liaison is a first step and not a final step.
Look, I have talked to Mr. Floyd, Ms.Davis, Mrs.Colborn, and Mr. Alvarez about these issues. And I know we have an administrative team that is devoted to this school, and thus to making this school better for all students. We have an administration that wants to embrace the things we are asking for. So let’s stop just talking about it and ask for them.
We want tangible change. So, let’s ask for it. And if it doesn’t happen then we will complain about it until it does. In my mind, the ball is in our court.
OVS has real problems and they can’t be addressed by just a week of an Instagram account spouting stories at mach speeds. This community needs time to process the things that were posted but it also needs time to be excited and motivated; and that is what I have seen a lack of. As students we cannot be complacent with the things wrong with this community. We need to take action in any way we can. We need to be vocal to the administration and tell our stories to them.
We need to talk about this stuff amongst ourselves, and we need to turn that talk into action. We know that @dear.ovs cannot solve all of our problems, it has not changed the nature of this school and that is what needs to be done. This school has repeatedly failed its students of color, its LGBTQIA students, and its students with disabilities. These students, and the students like them who will come in the future are too important for us to neglect; let’s force a change–for them.