Parkland shooting, and the 
sheer disbelief she felt when 
she heard gunshots inside of 
her own school.

“We 
live 
in 
a 
very 

privileged 
community,” 

Whitney said. “So I was 
in denial, I was in shock. 
I obviously ran back into 
the classroom, and in my 
head the entire time I was 
thinking, ‘This isn’t real. 
This would never happen to 
us. This is our school.’”

Whitney 
described 

the sadness felt by her 
community the day after the 
shooting, and she said she 
knew in that moment that 
something had to change.

“We woke up the next 

day and we went to a vigil,” 
Whitney said. “More people 
than I have literally ever 
seen, I think the entire city 
of Parkland was there, and 
that’s a lot of people. And 
it was just so sad. Like, I’ve 
never 
experienced 
such 

sadness, and it was just, 
there was so much of it, and 
we needed to do something.”

Following 
the 

introductions, 
the 
panel 

took questions from the 
audience, 
and 
audience 

members asked what they 

could do to help.

Panelists stressed the need 

for well-placed support from 
adults, and the challenges 
they face when adults don’t 
listen 
to 
them. 
Holmon 

expressed 
disappointment 

in the coverage she felt the 
B.R.A.V.E organization has 
received from the media.

“Being heard is a big 

challenge for us, because 
they don’t listen to a bunch 
of 
Black 
kids 
that 
are 

advocating for themselves,” 
Holmon 
said. 
“With 

Parkland, they’re passionate 
about their movement and 
what 
they’re 
doing. 
But 

media, they look at us and 
we’re just angry Black kids.”

Overall, 
the 
panelists 

pleaded with the audience to 
put pressure on their elected 
officials and use their voices 
to the best of their ability.

“Everyone is realizing that 

change-making doesn’t have 
an age limit,” Whitney said. 
“As long as you’re passionate 
about something, and as 
long as you truly believe that 
you’re doing the right thing, 
then quite literally anything 
is possible.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, November 15, 2018 — 3

THE BIG CHAIR

RUCHITA IYER/Daily

Former Los Angeles Dogers General Manager Ned Colletti Jr. discusses his book, “The Big Chair,” and current policy challenges in 
professional and collegiate athletics at Ford Wednesday afternoon. 

place like Ann Arbor where 
our 
days 
are 
really 
short 

during our long winters, which 
means sunlight will not help 
illuminate that crosswalk for as 
much of the day as we need.”

Patel has witnessed near 

collisions between pedestrians 
and drivers because of the 
crosswalk’s lack of indication.

“Just this weekend, I saw a 

pedestrian and a student on 
a skateboard almost get hit 
because one car coming from 
one 
direction 
stopped 
but 

another car from the other 
direction didn’t,” Patel said.

One 
of 
the 
anonymous 

complaints to the city came 
from a blind student, who noted 
their 
additional 
difficulty 

associated 
with 
using 
the 

crossing.

“The new crosswalk on the 

north side of the T-intersection 
where Madison meets State 
Street. has created unintended 
hazards. This is particularly 
concerning for me, as a blind 
individual, 
because 
I 
stop 

at the crosswalk, wait, and, 
hearing no cars, expect and 
begin to cross,” the complaint 
read. “A problem arises if I 

am crossing and there are no 
lights to indicate to cars that a 
crosswalk exists. I cannot see 
the cars because I am blind; 
but, the cars should see me.”

According to an Aug. 30 

report Councilmember Kathy 
Griswold, D-Ward 2, sent to The 
Daily, the city’s prioritization 
process 
for 
determining 

construction funding considers 
vehicle crash incidents within 
the past five years, public 
requests 
and 
proximity 
to 

heavily trafficked areas, such 
as schools and government 
offices.

The 
report 
ranks 
the 

crosswalk at E. Madison and 
State 
streets 
a 
“mid-level” 

priority.

Griswold says the crosswalk 

is not well marked compared 
to others on the same street, 
many crosswalks on campus 
include pedestrian signs and 
flashing lights on both sides of 
the street.

“I noticed on State Street 

that the other crosswalks were 
well marked,” Griswold said. 
“Drivers are expecting to see 
signage. Engineers from the 
city should also look at the 
traffic pattern because I saw 
many more students crossing 
on the south side of State Street 
where there isn’t a crosswalk.”

Griswold also thinks the 

width of the road is a safety 
concern.

“I was amazed at the number 

of students crossing and the 
volume,” Griswold said. “I got 
out of my car and I think there 
was maybe six inches between 
me and the vehicles because the 
road doesn’t seem really wide 
there.”

Griswold 
noted 
the 

University’s 
pedestrian-level 

streetlights, which are globe 
shaped, 
are 
more 
energy 

efficient but do not illuminate 
the crosswalk. She hopes to 
see the City Council highlight 
mobility concerns throughout 
the city once she begins her 
term later this month.

“I would like to get more 

emphasis on it (mobility issues) 
because things are changing so 
quickly and the technology is 
changing so quickly,” Griswold 
said. “In Ann Arbor, we’ve 
struggled 
with 
inconsistent 

marks on our crosswalks for 
years now.”

Ann 
Arbor 
Mayor 

Christopher Taylor said the 
city is committed to pedestrian 
safety, but did not say whether 
there were plans to address the 
problems at the crosswalk at 
State and E. Madison.

“It’s important to the city 

that 
pedestrians 
be 
safe,” 

Taylor said.

CROSSWALK
From Page 1

conversation by expressing how 
the current government is using 
the separation of families and 
fear as a policy strategy.

“President 
Donald 
Trump 

… 
made 
it 
clear 
that 
the 

separation 
of 
families 
was 

in fact a negotiating tool to 
get Democrats to cave on his 
immigration demands,” she said.

Kossoudji 
continued 
to 

illuminate the conditions of the 
children in detention. She said 
despite adults and children in 
detention having defined rights, 
the reports about the detention 
conditions reflect neglect, abuse 
and widespread indifference to 
the well-being of the children, 
families and adults.

Children 
were 
kept 
in 

customs, border control and 
detention for longer than the 
allowed 72 hours, and they 
“often had no oversight, they 
often had little in the way of 
reasonable food, blankets, toys, 
books, anything you might think 
of as something reasonable.”

Kossoudji further described 

the conditions in which the 
children were held.

“The 
eyewitness 
accounts 

were that hundreds of immigrant 
children wait in series of cages 
created by metal fencing … One 
cage had 20 children inside,” she 
said. “Scattered about are bottles 

of water, bags of chips and large 
foil sheets intended to serve as 
blankets.”

Kossoudji described how the 

staff is not allowed to touch 
the children and neither are 
children allowed to touch each 
other, resulting in a lack of 
human contact when a child 
is crying or frightened. The 
detainment for the children, 
according to Kossoudji, can 
result in social and emotional 
distress, mental and physical 
health 
consequences, 
poor 

education outcomes, short and 
long term family disruption, and 
mistrust in law enforcement.

Lin continued the discussion, 

focusing on how the “zero-
tolerance” policy came to be, 
and questioning whether the 
U.S. is actually in a crisis that 
warrants this policy. She pointed 
to a long term decline in border 
apprehensions.

Furthermore, 
Lin 
pointed 

to 
the 
murder 
rate 
and 

governmental 
issues 
in 
the 

Northern 
Triangle, 
an 
area 

in 
Central 
America 
that 

encompasses 
Guatemala, 

Honduras and El Salvador and 
is known for its heightened rate 
of violence, as the motivation for 
refugees coming to the U.S.

“People are living in a stage 

of crisis,” she said. “So it is 
not 
surprising 
under 
those 

conditions, as we see across the 
world, if people are living in a 
state of crisis, they will try to 
leave.”

Lin said the effect of the 

“zero-tolerance” policy is that 
refugees are charged with the 
crime of crossing the border, 
which means, unless they can 
provide bail, they are placed in 
detention until they can come 
before a judge, after which they 
usually receive a longer ban for 
returning to the U.S.

Moreover, Lin said, since 

children are not allowed to be 
detained in adult jails, they are 
separated from the adults.

Hathaway also weighed on the 

legal implications of the policy, 
criticizing how the new policy 
and conditions for refugees do 
not act in accordance with the 
law.

“The mess that we are seeing 

reflects a failure by the United 
States, not just by the Trump 
administration but long standing 
by both democratic and republic 
administration,” he said.

He stated that despite signing 

a treaty that states no one shall 
be subjected to arbitrary arrest 
or detention, the U.S. routinely 
detains asylum seekers, and 
that the U.S. are not honoring 
the legal system nor the treaty 
the U.S. helped draft and design 
itself.

He further said refugees are 

entitled to arrive wherever to 
seek protection, as long as they 
claim 
protection. 
Refugees 

are not doing anything illegal, 
Hathaway explained, yet they 
are still penalized.

Hathaway said even if refugees 

meet all of the requirements 
set by the U.S. domestically, the 
government is still not required 
to give them refuge, despite this 
going against the international 
laws under which the U.S. is 
bound.

LSA senior Arooshe Giroti 

said she and fellow LSA senior 
Josh Greenberg attended the 
event to learn more about the 
legality of the refugee situation.

“We 
are 
both 
interested 

in the rights of refugees and 
international law, specifically 
how it relates to what’s going 
on at the southern border, so we 
just wanted to learn more about 
legally what’s happening and 
not just get a more superficial 
understanding of it through 
news outlets or social media.”

Sociology professor Kiyoteru 

Tsutsui, director of the Donia 
Human 
Rights 
Center 
and 

Center for Japanese Studies, 
also remarked the issue of 
the 
detainment 
of 
refugee 

children, despite its importance, 
has somewhat faded in the 
background in the debate.

“The main purpose is to 

inform 
the 
public 
and 
the 

university constituents about 
this 
particular 
topic 
that 

attracted a lot of attention but 
kind of subsided, but I bet the 
issue will come back,” Tsutsui 
said.

REFUGEE
From Page 1
WALLENBERG
From Page 1

you have to find your niches.”

Challenging the audience 

further, 
Ortiz 
reminded 

everyone though there has 
been 
much 
progress, 
it’s 

crucial to acknowledge the 
trans activists of the past — 
many of them being trans 
women of color — such as 
Sylvia Rivera. The work of 
these women in the 1960s and 
’70s, she highlighted, set the 
foundation for all work being 
done today.

“Pay 
homage 
to 
the 

queens,” Ortiz said. “To think 
about being trans-identified 
women of color in the ’60s and 
the ’70s, it just blows my mind 
the level of survival these 
women had to go through. So 
when you think about gender 
fluidity in 2018 and how open 
everyone is, it’s wonderful, 
it is progress, but sometimes 
we do have to pay homage 
to the queens. They laid the 
foundation for gender fluidity 
in this country.”

This idea resonated with 

Kari Nilsen, a Social Work 
and Public Health student 
who 
came 
to 
the 
event 

because of their non-binary 

trans-masculine identity and 
because of their desire to 
work in Ortiz’s field. Nilsen 
talked of the significance 
of recognizing the different 
racial identities within the 
trans community and repeated 
Ortiz’s message of paying 
homage to the “queens.”

“It’s 
really 
important 

that we make sure to have 
an intersectional lens and 
recognize that the people that 
have done the work are trans 
women of color,” Nilsen said.

Nilsen further emphasized 

another 
of 
Ortiz’s 
points, 

which was to always ask about 
someone’s gender identity and 
never assume.

“One thing you all can 

do to be an ally is in every 
single introduction ask what 
someone’s 
pronouns 
are,” 

Nilsen said. “Because it’s just 
like your name, it’s just how 
you’re referred to. It’s the 
exact same thing and there’s 
no way you can know without 
asking.”

Social Work student Erica 

Watson said she came to 
learn about the challenges of 
the trans community face — 
something 
especially 
close 

to home because of her queer 
identity and her partner’s 
trans identity.

“I came because I identify 

as queer and my partner is 
trans, and I’m always trying 
to learn as much as I can about 
the community and really 
engage with the community 
and I think the best way to do 
that is to really listen to the 
people who are experiencing 
these things,” Watson said.

Watson 
expressed 
her 

appreciation 
of 
Ortiz’s 

discussion of the positives 
happening 
in 
the 
trans 

community and in trans social 
work. This type of discussion 
is especially imperative in a 
time full of negative news and 
policies.

“I get lost often in the idea 

that everything seems bad and 
it’s only getting worse, and 
it feels overwhelming, like 
there’s nothing you can do and 
I think it’s really good to take 
time and look at the work that 
people have been doing and 
will continue to do,” Watson 
said.

Ortiz left the audience with 

words empowering the trans 
community.

“This 
society 
needs 
to 

understand that trans people 
are here, we have been here 
and we will always be here,” 
Ortiz said.

AWARENESS
From Page 1

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

as you’d like, and I feel like 
people aren’t open about it and 
there’s a lot of shame.”

LSA junior Sumrah Jilani 

agreed 
sexual 
education 

in both South Asia and the 
United States is a difficult 
topic for educators. She said it 
is important to eliminate the 
stigma against sex education 
in these places so people will 
be able to have comfortable 
conversations about the issue.

“I think one of the biggest 

things we highlighted was a lot 
of the misconceptions that are 
out there,” Jilani said. “There’s 
such a big stigma associated 
with anything related to sex, 
and getting rid of that stigma 
and making it so that it’s not 
a super taboo topic, so that 
people are able to talk about it 
and learn about it in a healthy 
way and know what all of the 
risks are and consider all of the 
factors. I feel like that’s really 
important.”

LSA junior Liliana Pfeifer, 

co-president of WORTH, an 
organization 
that 
promotes 

activism for women’s health 
rights, said inclusivity should 
be emphasized when learning 
about sexual health. This would 
produce a more well-rounded 
sexual education.

“I learned the importance of a 

comprehensive sex education,” 
Pfeifer 
said. 
“Including 

genders, races, cultures and 
the LGBTQ community is very 
important, and making sure the 
people who are doing the sex 
educating are trained in that 
intersectional perspective.”

Participants 
also 
shared 

their own personal experiences 
with sex education in these 
countries. Talluru said she 
wishes her sexual education 
was more comprehensive.

“I had a very biology-focused 

sex ed. My own parents never 
really talked to me about sex 
ed,” Talluru said. “Definitely 
not comprehensive. Definitely 
would have liked to learn more 
growing up.”

Jilani said the multitude of 

perspectives present made the 
discussion more valuable.

“I 
think 
this 
discussion 

was really interesting because 
we got to kind of hear a lot of 
different perspectives,” Jilani 
said. “While a lot of people here 
were South Asian, they all grew 
up in different backgrounds 
and a lot of people had different 
experiences … There were also 
a few people here who weren’t 
South Asian but still were 
able to relate to a lot of the 
experiences or shed light on 
their own experiences as well.”

CURRICULUM
From Page 1

