Anti-racist organizers recognized with Black Education Matters Student Activist Awards

Yes­ter­day, the 2021 Seat­tle Black Edu­ca­tion Mat­ters Stu­dent Activist Award win­ners were announced in an online ceremony.

The award ini­tia­tive was start­ed with funds Seat­tle teacher Jesse Hagopi­an received in a set­tle­ment after suing the Seat­tle Police Depart­ment and the City of Seat­tle when he was wrong­ful­ly assault­ed with pep­per spray by an SPD officer.

The Black Edu­ca­tion Mat­ters Stu­dent Activist Award (BEMSAA) offers a $1,000 pack­age, pub­lic recog­ni­tion, and entrance into a com­mu­ni­ty of social jus­tice orga­niz­ers to deserv­ing Seat­tle pub­lic school stu­dents who demon­strate excep­tion­al lead­er­ship in strug­gles for social jus­tice, and against insti­tu­tion­al racism.

– Jesse Hagopi­an, founder of BEMSAA

Past award win­ners have been among the most impact­ful stu­dent lead­ers in Seat­tle, includ­ing help­ing to get police removed from the Seat­tle Pub­lic Schools, lead­ing mass walk­outs against Don­ald Trump’s inau­gu­ra­tion, lead­ing the suc­cess­ful move­ment for ORCA trans­porta­tion cards for Seat­tle stu­dents, lead­ing whole teams to take a knee dur­ing the nation­al anthem, launch­ing the NAACP Youth Coali­tion, lead­ing move­ments for food jus­tice, and more.

Jesse Hagopi­an began the cer­e­mo­ny by intro­duc­ing the nature of the BEMSAA award. The three stu­dents receiv­ing the award will join a com­mu­ni­ty of sev­en­teen oth­er stu­dents who have won the award since 2016.

Next, Ayva Thomas described the impor­tance of stu­dent activism.

She stat­ed that Black activism is essen­tial in shift­ing the pow­er struc­ture in schools and dis­tricts in order to dri­ve the mis­sion of these institutions.

Cen­ter­ing the voic­es and human­i­ty of the Black youth com­mu­ni­ty will enable stu­dents to work towards dis­abling a white suprema­cist edu­ca­tion system.

After Thomas spoke, the three award win­ners were introduced.

Each awardee was nom­i­nat­ed by a Seat­tle educator.

Alekzan­dr Wray, an eth­nic stud­ies pro­gram man­ag­er and a human­i­ties teacher at Garfield High School, pre­sent­ed the award to KyRi Miller, one of his students.

Wray nom­i­nat­ed KyRi because of his lead­er­ship roles and his work with com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers. Wray explained: “KyRi has the rare skill of being able to blend hard and uncom­fort­able truths with an unwa­ver­ing sense of urgency and love.”

“His words are pow­er­ful and demand atten­tion, as I most recent­ly expe­ri­enced when he helped serve as a leader and orga­niz­er for our Black Lives Mat­ter at School Week assem­bly and mur­al painting.”

Most notably, KyRi worked with com­mu­ni­ty artists to devel­op a mur­al at Garfield High School that depicts black past, present, and future.

Wray notes KyRi’s excep­tion­al aca­d­e­m­ic record and his vision and con­sis­ten­cy in his work with the stu­dent com­mu­ni­ty. Upon accept­ing his award, KyRi elab­o­rat­ed on his future plans, in which he hopes to some­day become an actor and/or direc­tor. He wants to change the way Black peo­ple and peo­ple of col­or are depict­ed in dif­fer­ent media and enter­tain­ment businesses.

Ulti­mate­ly, KyRi aspires to show that stereo­types do not accu­rate­ly rep­re­sent Black peo­ple and peo­ple of color.

Rita Green, the NAACP Wash­ing­ton edu­ca­tion chair, nom­i­nat­ed and intro­duced Aneesa Roidad. Aneesa has been and activist and orga­niz­er with the NAACP Youth Coun­cil for five years. Seat­tle Edu­ca­tor Sooz Stahl said of her: “I was daz­zled by her abil­i­ty to gal­va­nize her peers’ col­lec­tive ener­gy toward solu­tions to these [social] issues.”

Since join­ing the NAACP her fresh­man year of high school, Aneesa has achieved many things, includ­ing get­ting the school board to sign onto Black Lives Mat­ter. Aneesa attrib­ut­es her lead­er­ship skills to the NAACP Youth Coun­cil, say­ing that every­one who has been brought into the com­mu­ni­ty has excelled.

Aneesa will be attend­ing Har­vard this fall and hopes to con­tin­ue her work with stu­dent activism on campus.

Next, Jon Green­berg nom­i­nat­ed Mia Dab­ney, an activist and orga­niz­er with the NAACP Youth Coun­cil. Michael Ben­nett assist­ed Green­berg in in pre­sent­ing the award, doing so in the name of his moth­er (the Pen­ny Ben­nett award).

Seat­tle edu­ca­tor Jon Green­berg said: “Mia has emerged as one of the pri­ma­ry lead­ers of the WA NAACP Youth Coun­cil (N‑YC), one of the most influ­en­tial youth-led groups in the Puget Sound area. One tan­gi­ble win that Mia led is the cre­ation of Seat­tle Pub­lic Schools Board Pol­i­cy 1250, which puts youth on the Seat­tle School Board. [It] was passed unan­i­mous­ly in the spring.”

Addi­tion­al­ly, Mia has worked to advo­cate for men­tal health well­ness, espe­cial­ly among Black youth, Indige­nous youth, and oth­er youth of color.

Her work around men­tal health issues has had a pro­found dif­fer­ence in Seat­tle schools. In the future, Mia aspires to go into med­i­cine or the sci­ences in hopes of alle­vi­at­ing race and gen­der dis­par­i­ties in these fields.

Her goal is to ensure that young peo­ple of col­or feel safe and healthy.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to KyRi, Aneesa, and Mia: the three 2021 Black Edu­ca­tion Mat­ters Stu­dent Activist Award winners!