Skyline Youth Together students this spring tightened the school community by organizing a fun, eventful, and informative Unity Week. The week was composed of a Youth and War Day, a Cultural Unity-tribute to hip-hop Day, a Student Rights Day, and a History of Youth Movements Day. Every day there was a rally with cultural performances and speakers. On Youth and War Day, they held teach-ins informing the school community about the disproportionate amount of funding that goes to the military instead of to education. On Cultural Unity Day they held teach-ins about how an Ethnic Studies course at their school could help bridge the gaps of cross-cultural misunderstandings and reduce violence at their school. On Student Rights Day, they passed out pamphlets listing and explaining the rights students have both on and off school grounds so that they can recognize when they are being unlawfully treated by school security and other authorities and so that they know what recourse is available to them.
In collaboration with other student groups on campus, Youth Together students organized and spoke at rallies this spring protesting the Exit Exam, a test that tenth graders must pass in order to graduate high school, for its manifold injustices.
Sagnithe Salazar
"I was born in Guadalajara, but the economic situation there was really bad. The only thing that was getting my father some money required him to travel a lot so that he would only be home for one week a month. So he had to quit that job. When I was three, we followed my brother who had earlier moved to Oakland, California."
"I first got involved with Youth Together when I was in eighth grade. Even though I was still in junior high, I had some high school students as friends. They were in Youth Together and they got my older sister to join. Because my mother has always liked me to be around my older sister, I would go with her to the Youth Together meetings. The site organizer there was very nice to me. She actually got me to do presentations about Youth Together at the junior high and got me to speak at the city council meeting about the potential benefits of a Youth Center at Skyline. The summer before ninth grade, because of my experience with YT, I was a mentee/mentor at the Summer Program for entering ninth grade students."
"Now entering my third year with YT, I've learned about myself and much that I didn't know about my ancestors. I've learned a lot about the history of other peoples, which has really inspired me to want to learn more about my own ancestors. YT encourages open-mindedness. At school, I'm a member of the ACLU Youth Club, and President of the Gay/Straight Alliance. My experience with YT helps me organize events for these organizations."
"I want to help uplift our communities, our people. I want to become an activist or an Ethnic Studies Teacher one day. I've always been a good student; I've always gotten 3.0's and above, but I knew I could do better. And being in YT I've learned that it's not only about doing what you can but about doing your best so that you can make something of yourself."
