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: […]
In 2018, Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendment to empower an independent commission of citizens to draw legislative and congressional district lines for the 2022 election and beyond with the goal of eliminating gerrymandering and creating more equitable representation. The independent citizens’ commission is comprised of thirteen private citizens of differing political ideologies, selected by […]
State Senate: Erika Geiss (District 1) Darrin Camilleri (District 4) Dayna Polehanki (District 5) Bert Van Dyke (District 25) Kim Nagy (District 31) State House: Regina Weiss (District 6) Lori Stone (District 13) Matt Koleszar (District 22) Jason Morgan (District 23) Dylan Wegela (District 26) Jaime Churches (District 27) Nate Shannon (District 58) Anthony Feig […]
By Zach Crim, MEA Public Affairs Theresann Pyrett has taught at West Ottawa Middle School for 11 years. She has seen educators demonized, public schools attacked, and the values that led her to become an educator dismissed by elected officials who have never taught a class. They have never driven a bus. They have never […]
