At Large and In Charge: Tay Anderson

I met Tay at a small neighborhood coffee shop. He was just finishing up another interview ahead of me and was all business despite his casual attire, baseball cap, and big smile. Living in Denver and following him for the last couple of years, I was excited to meet this kid I had heard so much about. Well, he is a kid no more; here sits the man. With his synched up watch, phone buzzing away, laptop open, he was on top of everything around him and yet, kept his eyes on the prize: Kids in Denver Schools. We quickly got down to brass tacks. Here is what he plans to do in the coming year.I read, while researching you, that your grandmother was a teacher. Can you tell me more about that history?
I finished our 115th year of education experience in our family this December. I have been raised in a family of educators. Coming from those who are black women, who have had 50 years in the game of education; a lot of them were the first in their profession in Kansas City. That is where I am originally from. They broke a lot of barriers for me to be here today, so now I am running with the torch that they gave to me when they retired.

What is coming up as a focus in your 2020 town halls?
I try to do them before a vote so people know what I am going to vote on that week. We have had two town halls so far, one in November as soon as I was elected and one in December. We had one in January, talking around gun violence and making sure we are going to introduce a resolution around safe storage for guns. We are educating our families on how to properly store your firearm and giving free gun locks to our families so that they understand that we are trying to combat gun violence in a way that we can as a school board but also putting the pressure on the members of congress to pass the house resolution, HR8, and making sure we are talking about gun violence on a national level as well.

From your website you have some specific issues listed that I’d like to know more about. One of them being the Preschool to Prison Pipeline. What is happening with that within the position you have now?
When we talk about the Preschool to Prison Pipeline, we have settings where we have children walking in bubbles in silent lines down the hallways wearing uniforms. It’s a prison like mindset. It takes the fun out of education. Another thing is having cops in schools. I don’t believe that we need to have cops in schools. I believe we need to put that money towards investing in more mental health resources and more restorative justice, things that actually would help our students in Denver, not by having an armed guard stand at the door everyday. Those are small ways that we can start diminishing the pipeline, but we have to make sure we are doing this as an entire team and not just leading with one individual trying to make the change.

When you say restorative justice, what do you mean in this regard?
Restorative justice is really a program, being able to address the harm that was caused, take accountability, and make sure that we are having next steps without doing suspensions, expulsions, or arrests. It’s an alternative way of discipline. That is what I did at North High School for the last year, was work in restorative justice. I was making sure that we had policies and even when situations would happen, that we had people that were reflecting those demographics but also that we are making policy that is going to respect our students as who they are. We need get to the root of the problem.Another issue for you is gender neutral bathrooms. What is happening with that?
Some schools already have single stall restrooms in their building, but it is not a district mandate. In January, I will be introducing a resolution to mandate that all schools have this in their building. To make sure that students that are non-binary, gender non-conforming, trans, or part of the LGTBQIA+ community, that they are feeling respected in their spaces. Nobody should have to hold their bladder and pray that if they do go to the restroom, that they are not going to get bullied if they are going to go into the restroom that they self identify with. I want them to have a third option. Because at home, the restrooms are not gender neutral. I don’t know anybody, even in republican households, that have a sign that says men or women on their restrooms. We need to be okay with our schools taking a bold step to fight for our LGBTQ students.

As an ally, we have to make sure we are leading with courage and also leading to make sure that we understand that we are going to catch flack for this. Somebody said they are going to try and recall me if this passes. Well my challenge to them is, well, do it. If my legacy is this, if somebody was to successfully recall me;  we have already seen that those haven’t been successful, but if in some alternate reality they recalled me and this passed, I’m okay. Because I know that students are being able to utilize the restroom that they identify with or being able to have a safe space so they are not being forced to use a restroom that they don’t identify with. Knowing that they are not going to be able to overturn that with one new person on the Board of Education.

Ending Period Poverty, what is that?
No student who menstruates should have to feel that they are going to have to pick between a menstrual hygiene product, or a bus pass or a school lunch or any other necessity. I want to make sure that in every Denver School we have free menstrual hygiene products to students who menstruate. And not just to young women who menstruate, it has to be gender non conforming if we talk about it. The language has to be all inclusive for non-binary students, trans students, etc. We are making sure that every school, no matter where you are at, you should not have to go to the nurse to ask. It should be as easily accessible as getting toilet paper.

Soon we will be introducing policy to make sure that change happens. We have a group of students working on it right now at George Washington High School. So, by allowing them to give us their findings and then figuring out what is next and what is needed because we want to get this passed before the new school year next fall.

The Choice System, why is there so much contention around this?
If you have the privilege to obtain choice, it works for you. If you don’t, then it doesn’t work for you. That is the system that we currently have and I believe that is a flawed system. In order to have real choice, we need to have real options in our neighborhoods. For the students at the Montbello Community, they have to get up at 5:30 a.m. to travel across the city to get a good education because we closed their comprehensive option. Most of them want to go to Montbello High School, but they don’t have that option anymore because we took it away from them. It is up to us as the new Board of Education to reinstate Montbello as a high school so those students in that community understand that they are not having to travel across the city to get a good education, but that a good education is afforded to them no matter what zip code they live in.

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How did that feel at the school board meeting to remain seated during the pledge? How were you treated?
It was fine. I don’t stand for the pledge at democratic meetings when they say the pledge. I don’t stand for the pledge in general. We have to look at the words in that pledge, and they say ‘liberty and justice for all.” It’s not liberty and justice for Elijah McClain who is now dead, but there is an officer in the Aurora police department who was drunk driving on the job and had to be forcibly removed from his car. There were no consequences and they are sill on the force. When we have Trayvon Martin who is dead, but we have George Zimmerman walking the streets suing Trayvon Martin’s family for defamation. That’s not liberty. When we are talking about the words of that pledge, it has to be, making sure, the only way that I can stand for something and salute to it by putting my hand over my heart and giving my allegiance to it, is to know that those words actually mean something for people that look like me. We don’t even say the pledge in schools anymore, so why are we saying it at the school board meetings?

I think there is a larger conversation to be had. Taking away the pledge is, okay, you took away the pledge, but we still have injustice going on and we need to be utilizing our positions of power in order to shed a light on those injustices.

People have criticized me. They are like, ‘you need to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance,’ ‘you are a traitor to America,’ ‘you need to resign,’ but they are proving my point. If we are supposed to be a nation that was founded on a set of principles that is our constitution, and talk about that freedom of expression and freedom of speech and a right to protest, then we need to be able to have those same people that are constitution thumpers understand that I have not violated a law. I have not broken a flag code. All I am doing is saying that I cannot stand for something that has not stood for me. James Baldwin said, “It comes as a great shock…to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance…has not pledged allegiance to you.”Who inspires you?
Congressman John Lewis. When I met him at D.C., he said to me, you are my legacy. That stuck with me because this is someone who was literally beat over the head so that I could have the right to vote. Someone who marched miles and miles with Dr. King so I can sit here today. I want to be remembered, ‘getting in good trouble’ sitting for the pledge. I got in ‘good trouble’ because of him, and so many others who look like me paved the way. We need Black people in leadership that are going to represent all communities, and that is what I have been trying to do here. Build Denver public schools that fights for all of our students no matter who they look like, who they love, or how they identify.

On a more relaxed note, what do you do for fun?
Helping others. I never went to the board to leave the hood. I went to go give back to the hood. So, that has been my biggest passion. Letting other Black and brown kids in my community know that there is somebody that looks like them and understands their story who is fighting for them. I did not leave them when I got elected.

It was clear to me, when I left, that his allegiance is to the kids who look like him, who are repressed because of gender, poverty, and color, and that they are all getting the best education in the best environment. We should all sit up a little straighter for people trying to change the world, and there really is no relaxing when you have your work cut out for you. I have a feeling we are going to see Anderson in many more capacities in the future than just fighting for Denver public school kids.

To stay up-to-date with Anderson, visit his website or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.