By any standard, the Knox County Board of Education’s April 6 meeting was unusual.
Board member Susan Horn (District 5) was absent and board member Mike McMillan (District 8) missed parts of the meeting, leading to multiple tied votes on whether the district should approve Knoxville Preparatory School’s application to open the county’s second public charter school.
The board ended the night both unable to approve the application and unable agree on a reason for denying it. Members are now planning to revisit the application a second time at Thursday afternoon’s meeting.
Perhaps most surprising of all though, may be that one board member used her time during the discussion about Knox Prep to make insensitive and unsubstantiated comments about a student from an affiliated school.
Katherine Bike (District 4) accused Chattanooga Prep Sophomore Theo Pedro Orozco of being a pawn for Knox Prep supporters when he referred to his mother as “illiterate” during a hearing earlier in the week. Orozco was among the group of Chattanooga Prep students who made the drive to Knoxville to speak in support of Knox Prep.
“I was really disappointed to hear a young boy call his mother illiterate because I think in certain communities that would not happen and that’s really disappointing. Regardless of whether your mother can speak English, or read and write English, or whatever language, to get up in front of these people, I don’t feel that that was a self-chosen word,” said Bike.
Orozco learned about Bike’s comments following the meeting. He says they were hurtful and claims no one told him to call his mother illiterate.
“I was upset. I was just trying to share that information on my background. I was trying to set me as an example on how the school has helped me,” said Orozco. “It was really hurtful for me for her to say something like that. It felt like an attack towards me.”
Orozco’s parents immigrated to the United States from Guatemala before he was born and English is not the family’s first language. He says his mother approves of him referring to her as illiterate because her life illustrates the importance of education.
“It was sort of like a economic problem. She never learned how to read or write Spanish and English. She can understand Spanish, like she can talk to my dad, me, and understand Spanish but she can’t read or write. The only thing she knows how to write is her name,” said Orozco.
The Chattanooga teen says he chose to talk about his mother’s struggles with literacy because it provides important information on his own challenges with English and the role Chattanooga Prep played in helping him overcome them.
Orozco says he was bullied in elementary school for not being able to speak or write correctly in English. That changed after a family friend referred him to attend middle school at Chattanooga Prep.
The sophomore says teachers helped him improve his English proficiency to the point that he’s now looking forward to attending college when he graduates and was even recently accepted to a Brown University Pre-College Program.
“I’ve grown a lot,” said Orozco. “Chatt Prep’s role was to assist me in that, because they saw my disadvantages in what I have right now, and they sort of assisted in those points. For example I wasn’t a great English speaker or writer, but the school decided to help me on that and it has brought me to a good point where I’m at.”
Orozco says the life changing opportunity Chattanooga Prep offered him is why he agreed to stay up past midnight on a school night during the round-trip to Knoxville and put himself in the uncomfortable position of public speaking to show his support for Knox Prep.
The proposed all-boys 6-12 grade Knoxville school would be run by the same organization that oversees Chattagooga Prep and the two schools would offer a similar model. Chattooga Prep students achieved a Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) Level 5 score last year, the highest of the state’s academic growth measure.
Orozco believes a similar school in Knoxville could be equally life changing for students there, especially those with backgrounds like his that are struggling in their traditionally zoned public school.
“I want to support the school Knox Prep because it could help a student similar to me out,” said Orozco. “I want them to open the school for these students who have disadvantages.”
