Rather than giving in to the common case of “senioritis,” recent Spring Woods High School graduate Cristopher Melendez spent his senior year determined to make his fellow classmates’ voices heard by Spring Branch ISD leaders.
Melendez created a student organization called the American Latino Advocacy Society — abbreviated to ALAS, or “wings” in Spanish — where students worked together to resist controversial changes in the district, often by contacting trustees and attending board meetings. The club soared to roughly 60 members when district leaders eliminated all librarians and unveiled budget cuts that closed programs and schools on the district’s majority-Latino northside.
“I think it was at the perfect time because of everything that was happening just this past year,” Melendez said. “As news came out about the (budget) deficit, it kind of fueled the fire and motivated people to join. … It was crazy motivation.”
Many teenagers probably couldn’t fathom willingly spending an evening at a school board meeting. But for Melendez and an increasing number of students across the Greater Houston area, it’s becoming a routine — and a guaranteed way to make their voices heard.
As conservative school board trustees in several districts — including Conroe, Cy-Fair and Katy ISDs — have introduced policies that rankle the region’s more liberal youth, it has sparked a growing movement of students finding their voice by organizing to push back against their district’s leadership.
Generally, student opposition hasn’t done much to influence trustees’ decision-making. But students take pride in other wins, such as getting more young people involved in local governance and encouraging broader scrutiny of their districts.
Here’s what students across the Houston region told us about finding their voices this year, in their own words. Their responses were lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Read on to see what these kids (seven in all) had to say about their experiences. There are many others like them around the country, sadly forced into this kind of activism by the extremist bulldozing of civil rights and free speech in too many school districts. I salute them all, and I encourage everyone reading this to find a way to help them. The one missing piece in this story, which may have just been the way these conversations went, is that at some point the way forward will necessitate beating enough of these fanatics now serving on those school boards in elections. It may be possible to persuade some of them, on some matters, some of the time. But for the most part, the best (and likely only) solution is to replace them with better board members. That’s very much something that the rest of us can help with, and it’s something I want to see the HCDP and its associated groups put some effort into, once we get past this election.
I salute these brave, wonderful and civic minded students.