2007 Youth Scholar — Dinorah Flores-Pérez, The Center School, Seattle, Wash.

Dinorah Flores-Pérez

“With her strong leadership skills, her articulate stances on the issues, and her unwillingness to back down, we are confident that Dino will continue to be a powerful voice for civil liberties.”
—Shana Graham, Events and Outreach Manger,
ACLU of Washington

> Read Dinorah’s editorial, “Testing and Terror,” in the weekly Seattle publication Real Change (PDF)
> See a screen grab of Dinorah’s slide presentation of the Haunted High project

Learn about the other 2007 Youth Activist Scholarship winners > >

The daughter of Salvadoran and Mexican parents, Dinorah initially found it hard to connect to the curriculum, language, and student body at The Center School, which is fairly racially homogeneous. She channeled her discomfort into advocacy, becoming a leader of a student group dedicated to ensuring that her school supports all students, regardless of race. Through that group, she initiated an ongoing dialogue between faculty, staff and students on the experience of being a student of color. Her efforts paid off in the creation of a new committee dedicated to ending the achievement gap and in great school-wide sensitivity to issues of race. Dinorah also mentored students of color and led a successful effort to enact a healthy reduced-price lunch program at school.

Dinorah has also been an organizer in the Education Justice Campaign to challenge the discriminatory effects of Washington State’s standardized testing system, including pushing for legislation to decouple performance on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test (WASL) from high school graduation (the test is scheduled to become a state graduation requirement in 2008).

As part of the campaign, Dinorah produced and distributed postcards to students across the state to be sent to the governor, formed a petition, wrote an editorial, spoke before the Seattle school board, and stood her ground when she felt like she was not taken seriously. For Halloween 2006, she masterminded, with other student advocates, a “Haunted High” that educated over 100 visitors on problems of the WASL.

Dinorah plans to continue organizing for social justice.

Dinorah’s Personal Essay:

“My Voice Through Action”

My Mexican voice was not heard when a student at The Center School (TCS) made a derogatory comment: “We should threaten the Mexicans with the A- Bomb; that way they will go running back to where they belong.” I heard students laugh at his offensive phrase, but the teacher smiled and kept quiet. Being the only Mexican in the room, I walked out of the class. As a Latina living in south Seattle I chose to attend TCS, a predominantly white school in north Seattle. I decided that my presence at TCS would be more than natural black hair, and a bronze skin tone. It would also be my voice.

Being Mexican is something I cannot change. I learned that I should not be forced to change a quality that gives me language, character, and is valuable to me. I should not turn my back on my Mexican culture because someone doesn’t understand it. After realizing this, The Center School became a place to teach students about cultural differences. Instead of letting those derogatory jokes continue, I decided it was my turn to speak. I took leadership in Students Inspiring Political Activism (SIPA) and spoke about my culture to the students and teachers by organizing conferences at my school. SIPA also made demands to improve the low and reduced price lunch program. Instead of having unhealthy, greasy fast foods for low income students, we proposed a program to allow students to choose from salads and sandwiches for lunch. After a school year of demands, proposals and conferences I am glad to say TCS is a school more aware of cultural difference. Low income students and/or students of color are eating healthy foods and have a voice that is heard in many ways. I feel that I have lei? the sound of my voice at TCS, and I am content with my part as a leader to help myself and others in making TCS a welcoming place for all students.

I could go off on rants about how unfair this world is to many people. Through everyone’s eyes they are always the victim. But instead of going off on rants and getting into arguments I choose to put my hands, thoughts and skills where my mouth is. It is clear to me that I am headed toward social justice organizing when I am older. This idea is strengthened by the work I do at Seattle Young People’s Project (SYPP).

I have been involved with SYPP for most of my high school years and my organizing skills and tactics were introduced to me at SYPP. The work I am doing at SYPP is bigger geographically compared to SIPA. Currently I am part of the Education Justice Campaign at SYPP. This campaign was put on because many of us in SYPP are interested in social justice work and are students with very good grades, but we did not pass the Washington Assessment for Student Learning (WASL). According to Christine Gregoire, the governor of Washington State, this test should be a graduation requirement even though a high percentage of students didn’t pass it.

We have done a lot of research for this campaign and found that the WASL situation gets even worse. The test is not translated for students who don’t speak English fluently and they are still expected to pass. We also found that many students of color and low income students are failing this test. With these injustices affecting us we decided that our first tactic would be to organize a haunted high school to make students aware of what was happening, I wrote an opinion piece to a local small newspaper and we contacted news stations and high school journalists to get the word out about the WASL. Our haunted high school consisted of incarcerated youth who had failed the WASL, the large companies benefiting, a fortune teller that predicted what would happen if the WASL continued to be a graduation requirement, and a SYPP hero who helped the students escape from the unjust WASL. Our efforts paid off with over one hundred people showing up and signing our petition, including a Seattle School Board member, which showed a lot because the Seattle School district is the biggest in Washington State. If the biggest district eliminates the WASL as a graduation requirement we believe this could influence the remaining districts in Washington.

After reflecting on my involvement with social justice organizing, I am more eager to see and live the rest of my social justice inspired life. My work has not ended with SIPA or SYPP. Both of those projects and organizations still have goals to achieve and I plan on continuing to work to reach our goals. I feel that many people are underrepresented and have lost their voice. I think I am needed in order to make a difference and to be a voice. We all have the right to live comfortably without someone pushing down on us. I will continue to organize for social justice because it is necessary and hopefully inspire others to do the same.