POC’s POV’s second article is starting off with an interview! I have had the pleasure to interview a Latin student attending Lincoln who wishes to stay anonymous. When I talked to them to arrange the meeting, they said they wanted to talk about their experience here at Lincoln. I prepared six questions for the interview. 

I first asked them, “What advice do you want to give to the people who haven’t experienced what you have experienced?” and they just asked for people to think before they talked. They said that questions revolving around aspects of different cultures like food, clothing, and/or language are the really tricky-to-ask questions, because sometimes you can come off as unaware of how you say it, and even if you don’t mean any harm by it, it can definitely cause harm. 

The next question I asked was, “What is your ideal environment here at Lincoln?” They responded by saying that they hope all cultures are appreciated and not just celebrated, and they wish for all the minorities to have a closer union – or closer bond. 

We then talked about the advice they would give to other people experiencing the same concerns or feelings as they are, and they told me that they would go to other trusted POC teachers and/or trusted POC friends. “I would not go to admin, I feel like they don’t take us too seriously.” When they expressed this to me, I couldn’t help but agree. Mr. Arias or Mr. Flavors were two teachers they said they would go to. 

The next question dove into how they felt about the whole situation, and what they wanted people to know about how they’re coming off. They said they often felt mocked or like people were making fun of them for simply existing. They’ve caught students and teachers giving them looks when they speak Spanish. They said it felt discouraging.

I finally dropped the big question, “What is your experience here at Lincoln?” They told me that overall, it hasn’t been too horrible but it definitely feels like the school doesn’t support POC students well. We talked about how we notice that new students who don’t speak/understand English well aren’t being helped at all by teachers or staff. “I’ve had to help translate for other Spanish speaking students just so they can have an idea of what they’re supposed to be doing for class. The teachers don’t really try to help them, they just pair them up with other students that are able to help,” they told me.

My last question followed up my previous one, asking them, “What did you do about it?” They responded with, “I have helped the students the best I could. It’s not their fault that the school is setting them up for failure. It’s not my job, I’m simply a student, sometimes I don’t even know what’s going on in class, yet I’m still expected to help. If I don’t then the students would really be lost. A girl in my class has a teacher that’s supposed to help her, that doesn’t even speak the language she speaks. That doesn’t even make sense.”  I too have noticed that in all my classes with students who don’t understand English well and speak another language, only one teacher went out of their way to translate everything to the student’s language on Onenote, so they could know what to do (shout out Mrs. Campbell, the bare minimum seems to be a lot these days).

I agree with everything the interviewee told me, I had a similar experience. Overall, I deem this interview a success and I’m really glad they had the courage to speak out, that really takes a lot of guts. If you, or someone you know, would like their voice to be heard, please don’t be afraid to schedule an interview with me on my microsoft forms (microsoft form) or email my school email ([email protected])! Thank you for supporting this article, and let us POC students speak out, we can and will be heard.