Jackie Shelson and Taryn Loughlin have accomplished a couple of cool firsts in the Grosse Pointe Education Association they lead. The pair became the first co-presidents of the GPEA in 2021, and they worked out a first-of-its-kind agreement with the district to include free professional development with the assistance of MEA UniServ Consultant Chad Williams […]
A public policy nerd since college, Lauren Jasinski always expected to expand her career beyond a high school classroom. But the devastating shooting at Oxford High School sped up her departure from teaching civics, world history, and AP Comparative Government. “I love working with high school students; I think I’m good at it. I’m incredibly […]
Jim Gibbons could talk for hours about all of the good things happening at Oxford High School, but one year after a horrific school shooting killed four students and injured eight other people, the local union president admits nothing has gotten easier. “Our students and our staff are resilient as all get-out,” he said. “We […]
At Thanksgiving dinner one year ago, MEA member Audrey Wright sat with a family member who witnessed the school shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018. Little did Wright know, within a few days her own daughter would become a survivor, too. A 26-year English teacher in nearby Troy, Wright has three children who all have […]
By Molly Darnell Last year I woke up on the morning of Nov. 30 as a wife, mother, educator, friend and colleague. By the time I would come home, three unrecognizable labels had been given to me: victim, wounded, and survivor. It would take me almost a full year to accept them as part of […]
One of the first people to call Dylan Morris for a check-in after he’d fled Oxford High School following a deadly shooting last year was U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin. Then a junior, Morris knew the congresswoman from his work as chairman of the Michigan High School Democrats. “She was asking me if I was OK, […]
Zoe Touray’s first solo trip away from home after she graduated from Oxford High School last spring took her to Washington, D.C. in June to speak at a Moms Demand Action rally before hundreds of people on a stage next to U.S. senators and congresspeople. There she met other young activists from the 2018 school […]
Back in May, when 19 fourth graders and two teachers were murdered by an 18-year-old gunman at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Oxford High School junior Megan Pavlock felt “overwhelming sadness” that gun violence somehow keeps happening in schools and no one stops it. Pavlock and her classmates in the International Baccalaureate programme had […]
While educators work hard amid big challenges to provide all students a great public education, some politicians and groups are stoking fear and division with extreme rhetoric and proposals to restrict classroom speech and learning. In this series, MEA Voice Editor Brenda Ortega shares five powerful individual stories that together reveal the detrimental effects of […]
Click to view online. In this issue: Letter to Members: Vote like your profession depends on it MEA and Wayne State University Welcome Our Next Gen Teachers CTE is a silent victim of the teacher shortage See Educators Run: Bringing educator voice to the Legislature Redistricting presents opportunity The Toll of Attacks on LGBTQ Rights: […]
