ABOUT PERI STONE-PALMQUIST:
Peri has led the Student Advocacy Center since 2012. An advocate for children and youth since 2005, Peri is a statewide expert in school discipline and the educational rights of homeless children and youth. Previously, she led Washtenaw County’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Education project, served as the Director of Public Policy and Advocacy at the Michigan Association for Children with Emotional Disorders and was a journalist for many years. She has been trained and certified as a trauma specialist, and she implemented Check & Connect, a nationwide, evidence-based education mentoring model. She holds a master’s degree in social work and public policy.
RESOURCES:
Student Advocacy Center of Michigan
Student Advocacy Center Contact Info
Student Advocacy Center of Michigan on Facebook
Student Advocacy Center of Michigan on Instagram
Student Advocacy Center of Michigan on YouTube
TRANSCRIPTION:
David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU, and this is Washtenaw United. I'm David Fair, and each week on this segment, we explore issues of equity and opportunity in our community. Today, we'll do that through the lens of our young students. There are too many young people who get suspended from school for one reason or another. The problem isn't the discipline. It's the system that often keeps the students in a cycle of punishment, harming access to education and a future. Our guest today works to serve these K-12 students before they fall through the cracks or are ushered to the curb. Peri Stone-Palmquist is Executive Director of the Ypsilanti-based Student Advocacy Center of Michigan, and thank you so much for the time today!
Peri Stone-Palmquist: Oh, thank you so much for having me!
David Fair: To get a sense of how big an issue this is, how many students does the Advocacy Center work with on a yearly basis?
Peri Stone-Palmquist: Yeah, thank you for asking! Last year, we had over 1,000 cases around the state, and we worked with, individually, 778 students.
David Fair: Typically, when kids are acting out, it's a way they call attention to issues they either don't want to or can't appropriately verbalize. In your work with these students, what are some of the predominant issues that lead to academic and behavioral issues?
Peri Stone-Palmquist: A lot of these students are students with disabilities. And so, it may be that they have a learning disability, and they have low reading levels or math skills. And they get frustrated and, frankly, embarrassed with showing that with their peers. We also work with a lot of students who have mental health and just regulation challenges, right? So, they're overstimulated in a school environment. I don't know if you can remember back. It's been a while for me, but it can be overwhelming sometimes to be in those spaces with all those kids. We also have a lot of students impacted by trauma, so they have had maybe experiences with violence in their home or in the community or other really stressful situations: house fires, homelessness, all sorts of things. And that can be really challenging if you're not given opportunities to move and to process those feelings, right? And so, that's another reason.
David Fair: I think school systems have become more aware of these issues and how they have impact on students, but the resources are stretched to the limit. Teachers, counselors--they're all vital in playing a role in getting a student through school and on into a future. Are the administrations of these school districts making enough staff and resource commitments to accommodate the need?
Peri Stone-Palmquist: Thank you so much for asking that, and I agree. I've been doing this work for over 15, 20 years in different settings. And I think I've seen such a huge increase in understanding about trauma and all those things. We still have a ways to go. And, especially the last few years, we are just seeing our teachers and our schools struggling to have the capacity to respond to these needs in their classrooms. So, they have teacher vacancies and things like that. And it's just they don't have enough resources. Michigan has, for instance, one of the lowest school counselor-to-student ratios in the country. We have one of that lower future pay rates in the country as well. And so, that affects the ability for schools to retain the people that we need to support our children in the classroom. So, they are really in a tricky situation for sure.
David Fair: Our Washtenaw United conversation with Peri Stone-Palmquist continues on 89.1 WEMU. She serves as Executive Director of the Student Advocacy Center of Michigan. Now, I don't have to imagine too much about what a troubled student feels like when caught in a cycle of school discipline. I was that kid. And in the immature mind, it's easy to mistake consequences as a lack of caring, and that absolutely no one in that school cares. In fact, it sometimes feel like they prefer you not be there. What do you see happen to the student's psyche when the Advocacy Center first gets involved?
Peri Stone-Palmquist: Thank you for asking that. It's something I did research myself before I even worked at the Student Advocacy Center, where I interviewed students in this theme have lived on as I've gotten to know more and more children. There's so much shame that the children and, frankly, the parents have. And sometimes, this has been going on for years and years. And so, none of us operate our best when we feel shame, right? We get defensive, we withdraw, things like that. So, it's actually pretty heart-wrenching to be that, and I just think our team does such a beautiful job of loving children unconditionally, sort of naming that shame and saying like, "No! We actually believe that you can really thrive!" And so, just having someone say that and say "I believe in you, and let's give you the skills and the support you need to thrive." And that makes a big difference for young people to have those caring adults who really break through that shame that they have.
David Fair: You know, people accommodate life challenges and trauma in all kinds of different ways. You mentioned a number of the issues that some of the students you're working with go through. How does your team go about identifying those individual needs instead of looking at it as kind of a broad-based issue and set a more positive path forward based on an individual student's needs?
Peri Stone-Palmquist: We are really focused on relationship at Student Advocacy Center. So, we work with students for a while. Our mentors, actually, it's an evidence-based model from many, many years ago from University of Minnesota, but they work with student for two, three, four years. So, they're really deeply getting to know them. They're connecting with them every week. They're finding out what they're passionate about, what they are interested about. And so, those kids really start to trust them and share. But it doesn't happen overnight, because that wouldn't make any sense. They have to really earn their trust and show that they're a reliable adult that they can count on, and that takes some time.
David Fair: Trust can be hard to come by, and on the other side of that coin, as kids, we tend to just accept what many adult authorities say. What do you see in a student's eyes when, all of a sudden, they've worked with you and they start to truly understand their student rights and recognize where they may have been shortchanged?
Peri Stone-Palmquist: Oh, yeah! You just see that light. You see them start to stand up for themselves. Some of my favorite stories are our students who came to us and were really struggling and wouldn't go to school. Some of them have even told us stories like they found us really annoying and they didn't want anything to do with us.
David Fair: Right.
Peri Stone-Palmquist: And then, by the end, by the time graduation comes, they're so grateful. And we have lots of our students get up on stage and tell their story every spring at our storytelling event. And so, that's a beautiful thing to see someone who came to us maybe getting suspended all the time, not really believing in themselves and maybe finding us very annoying. But at the end, like, "Wow! This is someone who really cares for me, who stood by me through thick and thin, and helped me to see my own potential!"
David Fair: Again, this is 89.1 WEMU, and we're talking with Student Advocacy Center of Michigan Executive Director Peri Stone-Palmquist. This is Washtenaw United. You know, Peri, I started here at WEMU back in 1994, and the Student Advocacy Center had been up and running 20 years at that point. And on a number of occasions, I had the good fortune of talking with Founder and Executive Director Ruth Zweifler. Her vision remains the focus in the work the Center does, but she stepped away from her role over 20 years ago and sadly passed away earlier this year. How has the Center had to evolve its service since Ruth stepped out?
Peri Stone-Palmquist: Well, I miss Ruth so much. We lost her in January. And she was a mentor to mem and her fierce advocacy remains a north star for all of us. We just put a beautiful picture up of her in our conference room in Ypsilanti. So, I know all of the team feels that way.
David Fair: Right.
Peri Stone-Palmquist: I mean, I'm a social worker, and Ruth was not. So, I think I definitely brought that social work touch, and our other Co-Executive Director, Anell Eccleston, is also a social worker. And so, we added this mentoring program that I talked to you about and really follow that evidence-based program. But they're still so much of that grassroots, fierce advocacy that Ruth championed as a parent advocate, a community organizer, community advocate. Like, that still exists. But, yeah, I'd say we have a little bit of that social work touch. That's comprehensive, and I just think a lot of research has evolved over that time where we understand child development and trauma in ways we didn't understand even maybe 20 years ago, right?
David Fair: As we've mentioned, there has been a need for the Student Advocacy Center for all of the 50-plus years it's been around and then some. Is this a problem without solution and one will deal with in perpetuity?
Peri Stone-Palmquist: Absolutely not! I mean, I think kids are always going to have behaviors in school. They're little guys, and that can be an environment that can challenging for some folks. But I think we continue to learn new ways to support. I think what we're really involved in right now is how do we get more resources to our schools. And so, we're involved in a statewide school funding campaign where we're advocating for more funding with folks around the state, at our state, and then a ballot initiative, most recently, to try to raise more revenue for our schools, so that schools do have more resources to really support these young people.
David Fair: As we talk about the evolution of service and service needed, what is the next step in the journey beyond fundraising?
Peri Stone-Palmquist: Well, the statewide ballot initiative is a big, big project for us. It's something we've never done before, but it's beautiful to be in collaboration with folks around the state. It's called "Invest in MI Kids" and would raise over a billion dollars for public schools in Michigan. And beyond that, one of the other things that we're working on, just SAC with some other organizations like us, is really looking at virtual school placements, especially when schools and young people don't have a choice. So, we actually are seeing more kids in virtual school placements than were ever expelled. So, there's not a lot of data on that. So, we've been trying to really interview students and see if we can have a better sense of the scope of this. We're seeing it quite dramatically increase over the last several years, and kids are really getting trapped in these settings without the support that they need to thrive. So, that's one thing that we're concerned about and working on.
David Fair: Well, that points out that there will be need for you and I to have a conversation in the future. But for today, we have to bring it to a conclusion. Thank you so much for the time and the information! I appreciate it!
Peri Stone-Palmquist: Yeah, you're welcome! Thank you so much for having me!
David Fair: This is Peri Stone-Palmquist, Executive Director of the Ypsilanti-based Student Advocacy Center of Michigan. She's been our guest on Washtenaw United. And for more information on our discussion, stop by our website at WEMU.org. Washtenaw United is produced in partnership with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, and we bring it to you every Monday. I'm David Fair, and this is your community NPR Station, 89.1 WEMU-FM, Ypsilanti.
WEMU has partnered with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to explore the people, organizations, and institutions creating opportunity and equity in our area. And, as part of this ongoing series, you’ll also hear from the people benefiting and growing from the investments being made in the areas of our community where there are gaps in available services. It is a community voice. It is 'Washtenaw United.'
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