• #FreeNeli

#FreeNeli

by Amy Sequenzia  Reginald "Neli" Latson was an 18 year-old Autistic high school student, a good student, a wrestler, when he was arrested while waiting for the library he often visited to open.     Neli was, as teen fashion dictates, wearing a hoodie. He is black, and as bigotry, discrimination and ignorance dictate, he was profiled and reported as a criminal, "possibly carrying a gun".   He did not "comply" with the officer who approached him, already with baseless suspicion, since there was no gun. An altercation sent Neli to jail, trial and prison. He served his time, and

On Disparity in Education: The Risks and Bravery of Being First

Being one of the first or the only students with any discernible divergence in any characteristic is dangerous, difficult, and involves tremendous courage. Over 50 years ago, at the beginning of a school year, the Little Rock Nine walked with angry white mobs behind them into their local high school to exercise their right to a public education with their white peers. Initially, the Arkansas national guard blocked their entrance by order of the Arkansas governor. Eventually, President Eisenhower ordered my stepfather's unit, the 101 airborne division, excluding my stepfather and all black soldiers, to escort the students to and

  • Photograph of woman with brown skin and dark brown shoulder length hair looking down smiling while holding her baby.

Ollibean Spotlight: Kerima Cevik Pay It Forward Activist

"Equal access, level playing field, dignity, respect for my son and all his community. No separate classrooms separate doors or isolation from others. See I’m a woman of color. When I began my education you could still see the Colored Only bathrooms in the Deep South. If you put my son in one room and say he is not good enough to be where the law says he should be, with his peers, then red flags of segregation fly up at me. Many parents of color feel the wrongness of it organically, but they have been convinced that their neurodiverse children are not good enough for their neighborhood school and that their children are a distraction or threat to typical children in some way. The different operating system in their child’s brain throws them off, particularly when maladaptive behaviors are in the mix. It leaves them feeling guilty, helpless, afraid their kids will come to harm, and they listen to anyone, even if their gut tells them the advice is unjust. I am and advocate of Universal Design for Learning. I think my son can be with his peers in age as well as ability and everyone can benefit." Kerima Cevik

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