The Story of a Girl on Permit

By Arin Haas

My mom always says that the goal is for her kids to achieve greater than she has. Not to say she is not an accomplished woman, because she is, but more so to wish that each generation is better than the last. For her and many others, this starts with education. I went to Redondo Union High School, which was not in my local school district, meaning I was a permit student. There, I found my passion for social justice, not because the schools were champions of change or the most progressive, but because of the racism I experienced there. 

My first encounter was in my freshman Spanish class, where a student asked me if I needed a green card to be here. My last encounter was two kids wearing Trump hats and taunting POC students with the American flag. When sharing my experiences here, I have been told that this is what the real world is like so I might as well find a way to live in it. I told myself this for a very long time. Though it may be true that this is the world we live in, it is not a world we have to accept. 

I should not have to leave my community for quality education. All schools should be well-funded. I should not be discriminated against, harassed, and made to feel less than in a place that is supposed to protect me. And I should not be told that I need to find a way to live in their world, when it’s they who need to find a way to live in mine. Because the world that I create is not one where opportunities are disproportionately dispersed, or where certain schools are seen as a privilege, or where racism and discrimination are tolerated and swept under the rug. It is a world where equity and equality are not the same thing, where we disassemble the status quo, and write a new narrative on the POC experience.