A new chapter of Students Deserve launched here at Venice High last month.
Students Deserve is a student-led organization based in Los Angeles focusing on issues like school funding, quality of education, and the overall well-being of students.
So far, Venice’s Students Deserve club has been focusing on the implementation of Venice’s new phone policy which began March 4.
Juniors Pauline Lao, One Chan-Love, and Billy Quinn joined forces to launch the club here at Venice to create a platform for students to use their voice.
“We noticed there was a gap between students and administration that we wanted to fill,” said Lao. “We knew of Student Deserve programs around the city and thought it was the perfect solution to the issue we were presented with.”
Starting last Friday, the club began surveying students about how they felt about the policy. Around 90 people have completed the survey so far.
“The reviews were consistently negative,” Quinn said. “The majority say that they are not happy about it. ”
History teacher Isabel Cortes, the club’s sponsor, said that the goal of Students Deserve at Venice is “to make sure that students have a space to share their voices.”
“So even though the teachers have come together and they’ve made this plan of not allowing phone use, we still want to make sure the students can advocate for their needs,” she said.
Other goals of the organization is to focus on student voices and “activism that begins with the student,” Cortes added.
There have been chapters of Students Deserve at Venice before, but eventually dissolved due to a lack of issues to cover. There are also chapters at other LAUSD schools like Dorsey and Roosevelt.
Closely related to Students Deserve is the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (M.E.Ch.A).
Social Studies teacher Alejandro Arroyo is the head of M.E.Ch.A, which has been at Venice since the 1960s.
“It used to be just a Latino-centered group, but we’re trying to open it up,” said Arroyo. “M.E.Ch.A, like Students Deserve, is a place where students can celebrate their culture and fight for issues that are affecting students of color on campus and help them get their voice.”
Unlike M.E.Ch.A, Students Deserve is a broader organization across LAUSD that’s just recently made its way to Venice.
Despite this difference, M.E.Ch.A works very closely with Students Deserve and share similar missions. Students Deserve has been sending representatives to help M.E.Ch.A.
Arroyo feels strongly about the goals and purpose of the Students Deserve club.
“We see the students become organized and watching students use their voices to create change and bring awareness to issues,” said Arroyo. “We want to stand back, give students the space, and help them develop their voice.”
