I am not an angelic person. I am not perfect. Sometimes my head isn’t high. I have no expectations for Ryan. He did what he does- meets people and generates images. 

At no point do I blame Mr. Pfluger for doing his job. It’s clear he was interested in doing the photo shoot- I have a problem with the language and intention behind his words. It’s not his responsibility to be socially and culturally sensitive. It is, however, my responsibility to look after my culture, my neighborhood, and our developing young citizens. I cannot begin to explain to anyone what Alliance does for my city, and of course words and images fall short. 

At no point do I attack Ryan or his work directly. At the same time I am not ashamed to stand up for members of my community, and students in my life. For a stranger to speculate on what is helping or not helping these kids with little or no information about them is ignorant. Students at Alliance need the same thing all students need- strong teachers, a conducive learning environment, love, and structure. 

As a young, energetic teacher I feel offended that you ask me to lift my head higher. I can barely afford to shop at Aldi and Goodwill. I work 70 hour weeks and spend my weekends planning for the next important week of instruction. In Wisconsin, Scott Walker eliminated collective unions- this makes teaching even more depressing. You ask me to hold my head high? I am telling you, Anonymous, I do it every fucking day in my classroom because that’s what the students need and I love them. You ask me to hold my head high when I get home and log onto Tumblr? Fine. But if you ask me to ignore or even to non-irately address someone who challenges the very system (Alliance) that keeps our high-risk, LGBTQA, Minority, “Normal,” Poor, S.E., ESL, ELL, Different, and EBD students off the streets? I say hell to the no. If I don’t stand up for them, who else will? If I cannot develop a dialog advocating for these students, who will? Will you, Anonymous? 90% of these students would be gone- dead, prostituting, drug using/selling- if they didn’t have alternative forms of high school and GED programs like Alliance.

I could throw facts around all day, but in the end my point is that my scathing post earlier today just fueled my passion for teaching. I’m very proud of my ideas and my words- they have inspired you. I don’t think I’ve ever said an unkind word to anyone ever online - but when you challenge and attack people and ideas you’re ignorant about, you are just asking me to jump down your throat. 

Ryan has a wonderful, giant group of fans that love his work. He’s very successful at what he does- photography. I’m not saying he meant to discredit or hurt anyone, but I was hurt and my work at Alliance felt discredited. 

It’s an environment and school that’s founded on respect, honesty, and social justice. As an artist, activist, as well as a teacher of visual art and language arts, it’s my role to have students actively engage and question the authority and mainstream around them. What kind of an educator and activist would I be if I didn’t call out ignorance and misinformation in my own life?