Lily Primeaux Interview Transcript

▢ Ella Garcia ▢ Camille Embree ▢ Lily Primeaux ▢ Clem Webre

This is Ella I'm a senior at Austin high I'm working on the capstone project we sent you
an email was it a couple weeks ago
a Facebook message
but yeah she knows
we like talked
we're just calling to touch base on that
okay so tell me a little bit more of what you're wanting to do exactly
so we were kind of calling to get some ideas about it
okay
Do you mind if we record the call to refer back to it later
oh yes that's totally
And then can we just ask you a few questions
for sure
Can you just go into detail about your Facebook post and what's been happening at Méndez
Yeah um so Mendez is largely under resourced both in terms of what they receive in funding for
the school but also the community um the community is really high need so recently um it's only
twice that I personally know of but kids have come to school just in socks they don't even have
shoes so I actually went ahead and collected a bunch of shoes from people that I knew the
Facebook post was really really helpful
Yea
And I brought them to the parent support specialist because she um runs the clothes closet so
she her needs I need they always need more shoes for one thing um the kids at Méndez also
they wear uniforms not like uniform uniforms but like they have to wear uh this color shirt these
kinds of pants and a lot of the kids like don't have those so they always need uniform stuff and
then I personally have a little project at Méndez um I'm creating a little bit of like a library for the
eighth graders but a library where they can like bring the books home and keep them if they
want because a lot of the kids at Méndez like I talk to them about books I'm an English assistant
I didn't tell you that part but a lot of them are like yeah I don't have any books at home um you
know just it's almost like it's more normal to not have books and not real like at all like even in
class like they don't some of the kids have a third grade reading level which is insane
yea
um I'm kind of all over the place but basically they need all the things daily clothes and shoes
toothbrushes deodorant and books so
okey
what is the so your capstone project what is the um like the topic what's the subject the thing
you're being asked to do
So we really got to choose for the most part and we were focused on addiction but it wasn't
going to well so another teacher brought up your Facebook post and showed it to us so we were
just gonna
was it ms Whipple
Yea
yeah
She was my US history teacher in eleventh grade
oh awesome
How long have you been teaching
um so technically I'm not a teacher um but I've been working in education for the past three
years um for a student nonprofit and now in a teaching assistant role almost done with the
teaching certification I've just gone back and forth on it's funny I've been working on it for four
years I stop I start and I stop and I start and I'm like I want to be a teacher what Im meant to do
and then I'm like just kidding never so but I love what I'm doing right now I love Mendez a lot of
people don't it's a hard school um but I think it's amazing the kids are amazing
Yea
Yeah
so a lot I'm Clementine sorry I'm another group member
Hi clementine
So I was doing some research about Méndez and it is primarily lesser economic people face
hardships er people face hardship er what am i trying to say
very economically disadvantaged
they are at an economic disadvantage
mmhm
do you think that what am i trying to ask um how does this relate to the problem in your eyes we
do need to research more
So the problem being because they're somebody problems which one are you trying to
specifically Focus on just like the lack of resources in terms of like with the kids have coming to
school from home
Yes
um okey ask the question one more time
Uhhhh sorry I'm a bit nervous
Oh no you're totally fine and don't be nervous I'm the most not yet adult I'm the most ridiculous
human being in the world so please do not feel nervous
So what I'm trying to ask is the problems stem from like economic disadvantages
Oh yeah poverty is yeah it is is in an area that has a lot of poverty and and it's really interesting
because I didn't realize to be perfectly honest with you how the whole Eastside Westside thing
currently obviously there's so much gentrification going on in East Austin it's hard to even say
East and west but you know the west is more privileged and east is less because people are
moving to the east and gentrifying like I said people with a lot of money when I was y’alls age
the gentrification issue was not nearly as bad people talk about how how terrible was in East
Austin blah blah blah and I always thought that was nonsense no way there's no way that that
all this… but it's so much worse in terms in that they acted like the people were bad and there
was so much crime people just say that because they are racist what I realize now is that it's
never a race issue it's the class is issue
Yea
When you are in poverty and you don't have the education and resources you don't have the
when you don't have resources you resort to what you you have to resort and a lot of that is
stuff that is not legal and I know that's kind going on a tangent that doesn't have to do with what
your project is on but even things as little as was having shoes so that you can go to school so
your not too embarrassed To not go to school so that you get an education so that you're more
likely to get out of the cycle property
yea
you know what i mean
So does that kind of answer the question
Yes
In need to
as well as I've been hearing that a lot of Schools in Austin are being late closed is your school at
risk of that
It's interesting they've been on the chopping block every single year when they've talked about it
but this year they are not I think that's because let's see not this last year but I guess two years
ago méndez like basically was going to be closed because the test scores have been so bad for
so long that either AISD was going to have to close the school that was option one option two
was they had to get an organization like an outside organization to kind of take over Méndez
and run it a little more like a charter school to see if I could improve or option three if they didn't
Close the school and didn't find an outside partner basically the status Texas could take all of
aISD's funding and allocated the way they's office so what ended up happening when they were
about have to close it because nobody came forward to help the very last second Community
and schools which is a nonprofit Organization and University of Texas at I think Tyler came and
decided to take over the school and they run it kind of like a charter school but it's still nasty
school so I think because of that it's not on the chopping block because they're still waiting to
see how that turns out in terms of improving the school also there's not really another middle
school in that area so I don't really know what happened to all of those kids it's a big school
okey
And as far as the service portion of our project what is yells like primary need I know shoes are
big thing but what would make the most impact in your eyes or like whats of the biggest concern
um definitely shoes but is it okay if I get back to you on that either later this afternoon or
tomorrow because I don't want to say the wrong thing so I want to get with the woman kind
handles all of the durations that they need and check with her to see what else but I definitely
know of that choose if anybody has any sort of like College shirt that's another thing ware
College shirts and sweatshirts and things like that for any College that's the thing I would think
would be relatively easy gather from people like hey do you have the old UT shirt that you don't
wear anymore that's another thing kids can wear outside of uniform
okay
So things like that I'll get back to you about other stuff because it's kind of overwhelming it's like
oh god they need so much stuff how can I like what's the one thing I don't really know
yeah yeah
but ill get back with you
The websites pretty good but what is the general climate of the Mendez middle school
Oh man I would say in years past was pretty crazy there will be fights every single passing
period I haven't seen a single one this year like the kids are very vibrant and vivacious hopeful
it's really interesting some of my kids have gone through stuff I can't even imagine most of them
they tell me stories and I'm like what what the F word how you should buy that and still manage
to be hopeful and come to school everyday and say you want to go to college
yeah
Um so honestly that's my experience of it if you were to ask other people they will probably say
something different but I feel a lot of kids for really determined despite circumstances
yeah
I'm a get what you're saying that they have the resources available and that would hopefully
promote a good learning environment
Yeah yeah definitely
I have another question about personally how do you feel about the lack of resources like the
issue at hand
Furious I get really mad about it that's why I i dunno I'm a super sensitive person and I care a lot
about all the things so when I hear about a kid that doesn't come to school or that comes to
school without shoes I'm like that's insane cool I'm going on Facebook right now and finding
people to help me get shoes for these kids I think it's extremely unfair you know I don't know I'm
trying to the communist so that's the idea if you go to other parts of Austin there's so much well
segregation in Austin both socially and geo economically it Is staggering it's a really really harsh
divide in the city and a lot of that is due to some really racist laws that were put into place 1920s
for example that one law this is just one of the top my head the city of Austin said that that if you
were black you have to live in a certain part of Austin you have to live north of 12th St. And east
of eeerh I can't remember if it was Pleasant Valley or honestly I don't know I can't I don't know
for sure what it was basically at this time it was very far east in Austin and like I said 12 st and if
you didn't live in that area and you were black the city would not provide you utilities water heat
anything