In 2021, I spoke at a school board meeting hoping to persuade them to consider important DEI efforts. I was cleaning out my office today and came across the “speech” I wrote that I read to them that day and thought I’d share it with all of you.
Hello. My name is Tessa Watkins and I am a resident of Mt. Lebanon. I understand a lot of criticism in regards to implementing DEI In our schools is suggesting that we should do nothing. That we should stop forcing diversity and that we should allow it to happen naturally. The problem is… it won’t happen naturally.
May 17th, 1954, almost exactly 67 years ago, the Supreme Court declared segregated schools as unconstitutional. We have grandparents living in Mt. Lebanon that attended segregated schools in their youth. That’s what they know. Mt. Lebanon is still over 90% white. It’s been almost 70 years and Mt. Lebanon still didn’t desegregate. It’s not happening naturally. The problem isn’t going to solve itself until we remove the systemic issues that upholds white supremacy in our town.
Those that are against DEI have also asked why DEI is needed? Why is this even a problem that needs to be solved? And why, in our schools, of all places?
I am autistic. I didn’t know I was autistic until I was an adult and a parent. However, I did know that I was different from an early age. When I was 7 years old, I was labeled a “problem child” by the school I attended. Friends have called me weird and awkward. Adults have called me shy. Co-workers have called me robotic. There has been a pattern to my life that not even professionals could see until I had lived it long enough—until I struggled long enough.
I love my mom, but she made a choice to not have me evaluated as a child. She did what she thought was best, and she thought putting a label on me would make kids bully me. And when you grow up in a world where nobody acknowledges that this difference exists, it can wreak havoc on a child’s mental health. Some days, it looks like denial. You don’t even bother asking for help because you don’t even believe you need it. People minimize your struggles, saying to suck it up because we’re all struggling just as bad. On other days, you know but you hide it, and you still don’t ask for help because you’re not convinced anyone would help you or that you’ll be treated badly for asking. You become the person that over-apologizes because you feel like a burden on other people for just existing.
I’m saying all of this because parents often wish their autistic children could communicate to them. Some of us take months or years learning how to speak while others use alternative methods. Now that I’m an autistic adult that can speak, I can express what it felt like. Some people think that because I can express it, that I shouldn’t speak for autistic children. They can’t see the link between who I am and who I was. If you want to learn how to climb a mountain, you ask someone who climbed a mountain. If you want to learn how to build a house, you ask someone who’s built a house. If you want to learn how to have a diverse, equitable, inclusive school and community, you ask the people who’s been marginalized.
We shouldn’t be an afterthought. We shouldn’t only be a response team. We are here to help you help the future.
