I come with FEEST today. FEEST is an organization that is youth-led — we love youth! We help and train youth in making social change, so we can reach that hope, that dream, that we all must have about changing our schools, which is what we focus on. Right now we have a Mental Health Campaign, we are focusing on many schools, and it’s really important to [young people]. Today we’re going to talk about environmental justice, which lemme tell you, it definitely relates to one another. I believe that our mental health has to be good for us to do good for others. We wanna make a change in society because we see many issues but in order to make that change, we need to be okay first. That’s why we believe mental health is important!

This makes me think about how last year there were strikes happening right before school started within the Seattle Public School District. I’ve heard stories about Franklin, Cleveland, and Rainier Beach, and how they get different resources than we see in well-funded schools that are up north. Basically what happened last year, despite the fact that, after the strikes happened, there were talks about how they reached an agreement, but we’re still seeing the same problems. South End schools are still not getting adequate mental health resources and their schools or their classrooms are still not getting adequate heating. Things are still breaking down. Students don’t even have supplies. You still see the same problems and a lot of it points to the budget cuts that are being made that are still ongoing.

I gotta agree with you all on the funding issues, especially when it comes to the arts and schools, music, and all that. Especially for me, since I’m a musician, and I would like a lot more opportunities, like classes and all that, but because of budget constraints, there aren’t that many [opportunities]. So I got to make do with what I have.

Last year [my friend who used to attend Cleveland High School] moved up to Bellevue and goes to Northgate High School or something like that. There is a fencing club, rocket science club, etc. and I was jealous, like “That’s such a cool club!” my clubs here, they’re alright, so I just thought about clubs! I think if our schools had more funding like the schools in richer neighborhoods, it would help students explore their passions more! Like what if I like fencing? What if I wanna be an Olympic fencer?

This thing about cities being divided by race, wealth, language… I moved schools and started going to a school more up north. I see the communities [up north] are so much nicer, but when I go home, cities don’t really care for this area. It’s so sad. And of course, we relate that to our schools, because we’re students, and it also affects our schools. You can see the city doesn’t care about education in these areas, in the SAME city! This also drove me back to the idea that mental health is related to where you are. If you’re in an area where the system doesn’t support you, doesn’t help you, you’re not gonna do great. I mean, you’ll do fine if you’re resilient, love that. Resistance is important, it’s a vital part after everything that’s happened, but it shouldn’t have to be that way. This video really made me think about that.