Marpole Students for Modular Housing

       I made a twitter account last night and, as of this morning, I have nine followers.
A step back: the City of Vancouver is planning to develop modular housing units on 59th and Heather, within a two block radius of three schools, one of which is an elementary school. The project is a part of a plan to develop 600 units across the province in efforts to get people off the street. Parents are concerned that their children are at risk, quoting the following:
I get it. If I were a parent grappling with the image of my child getting hurt by a dirty needle, I would be too. But that's not what the picture looks like.

       When I see Facebook posts and tweets that use words like "devil" and "chicken" to describe people, that capitalize every single word, that have rendered exlamation marks hackneyed, and that make generalizations about students and the most vulnerable population in our city, I find it hard to see an effort to engage in dialogue. I have had conversations with parents who have asked for ways to address their concerns. They've been great. And while I do wholeheartedly believe that the parents' concerns are genuine and should be addressed, it's irresponsible to ignore the swastikas, the "junkies out" signs, and the protester who held a sign saying "We want homeless people to freeze to death". The "Right Idea - Wrong Location" page argued that the man holding the sign was a fake protestor, except he was there breathing and protesting. He was a real protestor. No matter who bears those signs or who draws the swastikas that have vandalized the block that three schools share, the hate exists, and that's the biggest threat to this neighbourhood. If parents feel as though they have been painted as villains by the media or by people on social media, I apologize. That shouldn't be the case. But when people wish death upon students by hoping that they are "the next opioid target [so that they] don't have to hear this nonsense," and when particular students get threatened by comments saying strangers know their addresses, it's difficult to separate concern from hein. Nothing on the students' side has been voiced in an aggressive manner, and I urge the people with concerns to do the same. If we want to move forward, the conversation needs to consist of efforts to address the concerns that exist instead of repeating them in aggressive ways. Afraid of discarded needles? Needle disposal boxes. The new neighbours won't fully integrate? Community mentorship programs where community members volunteer to help with resume writing. Students aren't ready to see homeless people? They probably already do given that there's a high chance students at their school don't have stable living conditions, and the point of education is to introduce young people to our world—one in which homelessness is endemic—and the problems in it.

       Yesterday, a filmmaker took to twitter to spread misinformation, stating that the student movement was incentivized by teachers at the school, the principal, and the city who presented at Socials Studies classes. None of that is true: the principal has made it explicitly clear that the school is neutral (a position that we all respect and appreciate), no teachers at the school have imposed their beliefs in support of the project on their students, and there were no city-mandated presentations at the school. When asked to provide evidence to support her accusations, the filmmaker said she didn't want to and that she wouldn't even though she had evidence (which means nothing), and then provided her only piece of evidence: a photo of the Churchill principal beside City Councillor Karry Jang at the rally. The principal was present alongside the school constable to ensure the students' safety and the councillor came out surprising even the students organizing the rally without any prior organization. If that's what evidence is now, I am so excited for the future, because I know that my generation will hold facts to greater scrutiny. When I clarified the misinformation, sparking comments from other people that criticized the filmmaker, she tackled back, lecturing me for "[telling] off an adult" and beginning adulthood negatively (I'm a year and ten days away from adulthood), and threatened to report me to my principal and superintendent for "defaming" her. Pointing out weak argument is not defaming anyone; the only thing defaming her was her lack of reason and reflection. I really do hope people that have accused students of being brainwashed think about what they're saying: you're telling me I can't speak for myself and that my opinions are fake because I have adults that are in positions of power over me. The students I know at my school are stronger and smarter than that. We make our own decisions and form our own opinions based on truths that we hone out through reasoned approaches and arguments. We don't threaten to have people punished for critiquing our positions.

Until the next time I want time to jump 20 years into the future,
Ishmam