STAND UNITED, PREVENT SCHOOL CLOSURES
By Giavanni Hurtado
In 2022, my neighborhood elementary school, O.B. Whaley, was said to be closing, but thanks to one retired teacher, Mrs. Kimble, who discovered the school was heading toward closure, she quickly made flyers and personally distributed them to everyone in the neighborhood. That’s how we found out, as the school failed to inform anyone.
We gathered, protested, attended meetings to voice our concerns and get informed, and prayed a lot! We also increased pressure for the cause. My mom and I called a Univision 14 news reporter, who came right away to cover the story. This attracted a lot of other news media as well. The district even refused to meet with the news reporter and ignored all her calls. To me, that spoke volumes. After a significant struggle, the school announced it would close down regardless. I know that in today’s society, many don’t acknowledge God’s existence, but I sincerely tell you that this would not have been possible without Jesus Christ. As I mentioned, we prayed a lot and put in the effort when a big miracle happened. O.B. Whaley was saved and is no longer closing down. With Whaley being saved, its many resources were saved as well. For example, food distribution, ESL classes for non-English speakers, staff jobs, and preventing students from being sent to other schools far away from their homes.
I share this story because these school closures are not okay, and I want to encourage people with this testimony to stand united and help prevent more schools from closing down. Just like it’s happening now, it will only continue. The remaining schools will be overcrowded, leading to overworked teachers, insufficient one-on-one attention for those in need, larger student counts in classrooms, and two grades combined in one classroom, creating chaos for teaching and learning. This will also require guardians and parents to travel farther to drop off and pick up their kids since “school district home addresses categorizations” aren’t friendly in accepting any student into schools, even if those students do not live far from local schools.
