Thirteen-year-old, Jada Williams, who attended Rochester New York's School No. 13, didn't think she would have to change schools for expressing her opinion.
The honor roll student wrote a reaction essay after she read The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass as part of the school's optional Winter break reading program.
However, much to the chagrin of many of her teachers, she made a comparison between Douglass' slavemaster discouraging him from becoming educated and the challenges in her school district.
She wrote, "When I find myself sitting in a crowded classroom where no real instruction is taking place I can say history does repeat itself....I feel like not much has changed. Just a different era. The same old discrimination still resides in the hearts of the white man."
She also referenced 'white teachers,' saying that they needed to work harder to teach the so-called 'unteachable' in her school system. This reference has seemingly led to the most problems for Williams.
Despite the controversy, the Frederick Douglass Foundation of New York presented her with the Spirit of Freedom Award.
Williams and her mother claim that fall out from the essay included teachers giving her poor grades, when she had previously always earned high marks. Williams' mother said that teachers called her daughter 'angry' and tried to put her into in-school suspension without a valid reason. Superintendent Bolgen Vargas acknowledges that administrators could have responded better. Williams now attends another school.
In an interview with Glenn Beck, who was also offended by her use of the term 'white teachers,' when referencing those teachers who do not seek to teach Black students, Williams responded that she was likening the teachers to the terminology of the book. She expounded tearfully, “I feel misunderstood, because most grownups are making it a racial issue, when it’s a learning issue. I also feel hurt, because I’m not in school right now. They’re taking from me the one thing that I do love, and I feel confused because I thought I lived in a country of freedom of speech.”
Instead of villifying a bright 13-year-old, why not acknowledge that she has a valid point? Our education system is in dire need of help in many areas and students like Williams should not be casualties of a failing system.
Kudos to you, Miss Williams for continuing to speak the truth even when others do not care to listen. As a Supreme Court justice once said, "Eloquence may set fire to reason." You are off to a great start.
Watch her deliver her essay here.
Read more here.
Watch her deliver her essay here.
