Category: Uncategorized
Key MEA Legislative Priorities for 2023
From school safety and student mental health to curriculum flexibility and overhauling how public education is paid for in Michigan, there is a long list of pro-education policies that the Legislature and Gov. Whitmer need to address over the long term. MEA’s legislative agenda for the coming years is set by the MEA Legislation Commission, […]
First-ever co-presidents in Grosse Pointe deliver new benefit to members
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 […]
Lauren Jasinski: ‘It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done’
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: ‘It’s harder this year than last year’
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 […]
Audrey Wright: ‘We don’t have to live like this’
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 […]
Teacher injured in Oxford school shooting shares story of trauma, change
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 […]
Dylan Morris: ‘We’re making connections and meeting with people’
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: ‘They don’t have to go through it alone’
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 […]