second semester of sixth grade my dad
was incarcerated and for two years I
went through the process of missing
school to go to trial
trying to understand my feelings so I
would write them out to interpret what I
was going through and missing my father
I remember the visits to in particular
one was when we go for an hour and a
half just to get there in a hot Sun and
almost God denied because our birth
certificates were damaged because of
going so often Saturday and Sunday to
see him and they were damaged so that
was like oh we’re waiting in line for a
hour and a half and possibly can’t see
him
the other would be playing the 50-50
chance of seeing him waiting in line and
possibly not being able to see him
because of so many visitors trying to
see their loved ones in prison and tenth
grade I went to a summer workshop on
writing and I was able to meet a
professor who was writing a novel at the
time that was identical to my life story
of having someone I loved incarcerated
and he told me about two programs
he said project would and it’s an
Oakland so it’s like can’t go to Oakland
so and he told me about pops pane of the
prison system which is a high school
program that gives students the
opportunity to express themselves
through art by taking pictures rapping
on songs and writing writing their
experiences of someone who they have
incarcerated any type of abuse they’ve
felt during their whole life so ninth
through twelfth graders after that I
launched it at my school in November
and you think government with the YMCA
was just starting and I was very
passionate about having a voice for
students who have incarcerated family
members or who suffered from abuse so I
told my delegation I was like we should
write a bill to provide social-emotional
counseling for high school students
dealing with any kind of issues and we
had a vote we had two other bills one
was pets for vets which would provide
veterans the opportunity to own a pet to
decrease their stress and another one
which was really good for the
environment would be recycling to have
grocery stores a place to donate
recyclables and my bill one so we did
research and we were able to find out
that if you are children who have a
loved one incarcerated you have Bill of
Rights you have the right to be informed
whether your parent is incarcerated you
have the right to have counseling and
someone to talk to while you’re going
through your dad or your mother’s
incarceration so we were able to do
research for about three months and when
the time was coming for us to go to
Sacramento and sit in the chambers of
the assembly in the Senate I was the
bill sponsor so I got up in front of the
crowd and I told them my story and I
said we need this we need
social-emotional counseling for high
school students not only for
incarceration because in committee we
said oh that’s a little like too narrow
so we opened it up because in the book
it’s immigration it’s abuse it’s trauma
and all these other things that students
in high school face and they don’t
express themselves because of the stigma
and the shame that they have so we
wanted to give them the opportunity to
express themselves through writing
through anything so it got passed in my
own
my house and they went to so we got past
and go to simply and they want to go
it’s in it and luckily I met this guy on
the elevator and I was excused and goes
sitting I was trying to find somebody
for like the whole three days I couldn’t
find anyone so I’m on the elevator and
I’m like you’re in gold salmon because
we wear badges and he’s like yes I’m
like would you sponsor my bill
he said sure what is it so I gave him an
and luckily when he went to his next
committee it was the first bill and he
got it passed so it was great and then
after that because you think government
it’s a high school program that gives
high school students the opportunity to
play roles of our officials so we have a
lieutenant governor which he makes a
budget for the whole delegation so he
has up he’s like education everything
transportation would all we need to
focus our money on and he said I was
talking I was like could you sign my
bill he said what is it and I was like
telling him everything so I was he was
like yeah when it when it comes to my
desk I will sign it and I was like did
you sign it yet and then he said yes he
came by and he signed my bill and he
said that he would on all the bills that
were signed in the whole using
government for 2015-2016 it would go to
attend all the real Governor Jerry Brown
so that was pretty amazing I’m still
waiting to hear back about that also a
couple of months ago because it’s
election season my dad he’s incarcerated
so and he was telling us to like watch
out for the props and make sure that
we’re making the right decisions so I’m
the like I said I’m a youth activist so
I make sure my friends they’ll go out
and vote
and sometimes I prep them on like the
the props and I was just telling them
like you guys got a vote and make sure
you guys read the props and yeah so that
was really great and oh this is a
picture of me my sister Lacey she’s
seven and my middle sister Paris and
she’s 12 and in this picture me and my
sister Paris we haven’t seen our dad in
a whole year because he moved all the
way up north which was probably like
that eight hour drive so we were able to
get with get on the bus which gives
students and families the opportunity to
see their parents on mother’s days and
fathers days to spend the whole day and
do arts and crafts and not have a screen
and a telephone to talk to you you’re
able to touch your dad hug your dad and
my sister Paris because it’s been a long
time for her not to see your dad she
broke down in tears and crying she was
crying like so life so hard that it made
me cry even though I didn’t want to but
she have to express yourself that’s
something I learned in pops too so I was
just crying and it was very good thing
because we don’t talk about it a lot we
talk about it
but I usually just write my feelings and
send him a letter of how I’m feeling and
it was really great for her to express
herself because sometimes she doesn’t
write him but we try our best so yes and
I want you guys to know that you guys
have the ability to do the same thing
that I’ve been doing which is the
process of writing a bill if you guys
don’t like anything in your community or
in your neighborhood or anything that
you would like to change if you guys are
still at school I don’t know you have
the opportunity to do that the change is
in your hands if you see something all
you have to do is write it out you guys
can probably get in the group of four or
five friends that you have and start an
interest group which is a group of
people who have the same like like want
to change something and you guys can
research it see what educational
which code you would like to change and
how would you like to see it change and
I would walk you guys through the
process of writing a bill the first step
is coming up with an idea so my idea was
to have social-emotional counseling
available for high school students the
second step was research so me and my
group we spent three months researching
all educational codes and they have
educational codes for epidemics which is
counselors that make sure that you’re on
track in school vocational which make
sure you go to college and are on track
but they don’t have social-emotional
counseling for students to deal with
their feelings so we thought that was
something that was lacking in the
educational code it was an act because
it was very new it wasn’t a resolution
which would be something that like you
just made up off of anything so it was
an act to amend an educational code and
first step was to be the title of a bill
and to title the bill you won’t give it
any other name you’ll just put it as an
act to and then finish the sentence
Step five preamble it would just be the
body or not the body it’ll be like the
clause whereas and amending it
um step six is enacting or resolving a
clause will be enacting which means you
would like to like when would you like
to see it put it in place so we said
immediately and we found out that it
would only cost the taxpayers twenty one
cent to implement the program to provide
social-emotional counseling and step
seven would be the body and the bill is
broken down into one and then you can
indent it and keep going what you would
like to say so it’s very simple and step
eight is to get sponsors so you guys
have the opportunity to connect with
your council members or just anyone that
you know is in the public arena and have
them have a luncheon with them and
why are you passionate about it and how
do you see this being taken in place and
that’s it [Applause]