Getting Used to the Failure
Jennifer Nava, Stephanie Carrasco, Maria Martinez, and Francisco Flores have been enrolled in public schools in the South Side of Chicago their entire lives. Attending Nathan Davis Elementary School, Curie Metropolitan High School, Hancock High School, and Kelly High School respectively, all four students are members of the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC), a grassroots organization in the predominantly Latinx Brighton Park district. The teens have spent much of their young lives organizing, protesting, and speaking, with BPNC’s help, on behalf of the neighborhood schools they attend. And as a new administration proposes radical changes to the public school landscape, all four are keenly aware of what is at stake for their schools in the coming years.