Jesus Ramirez recounts a victory story about one of his students while he was a teacher at Minnesota Transitions Charter Schools…
A student and gang member whose nick name is Lalo, was part of a group of students taken to Denver for a MEChA summit where he and other students were going to show that they had created a constitution for their student group which was 1st in the midwest to be part of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan0) at a high school level. The students while in Denver were asked to be part of a march to save Cesar Chavez elementary school. After arriving at the school and being motivated by hearing the speakers, Lalo decided to stand up and get over 500 college students riled up, and they began chanting, “si se puede.” I had never seen him apply himself to a positive effort before, nor shown that he cared a whole lot about anything, but he looked at me with the biggest smile and said, “Look Mr. Ramirez – this is amazing!” and proceeded to lead the march. I couldn’t believe it, a high school student and gang member who’s been kicked out of every district around him was now leading a march of over 500 college students to save a school.
