“My biggest dream is that one day we have future generations that can’t even connect to the realities that we are living in today.”

Ohun Ashe

Welcome to Navigate STL Schools, a podcast.  

Today’s guest is Ohun Ashe, activist and founder of For the Culture STL, an organization that helps connect people with black-owned businesses and events in St. Louis. In this episode, Ohun sits down with Staci to discuss how St. Louis has changed since 2014, the biggest challenges facing students in St. Louis public schools, and her hope for the continued positive evolution of the city.

They discuss:

• Ohun’s personal K-12 experience
  • She’s a self-described “public school baby”
  • She went to school in North County, at Jennings
  • Mom was a teacher
• How Ohun was inspired to get involved in activism
  • Her passion is organizing and advocacy for social justice
  • Empowering black communities “to receive more”
• In her day job, she works as a multimedia developer 
  • (She creates training videos)
• Following the killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson, how St. Louis and its educational system has changed
  • The incident changed people’s focus
  • Inspired people to speak up when they see something wrong
  • Students are advocating more for themselves to get the educational opportunities they deserve
  • Ohun grew up in a town right next door to Ferguson
  • For the first time she saw protesting, looting and rioting on HER streets
    • At first, she was upset with the community for the destruction
    • But once she went out there, she saw the police response and realized what it was all about
    • She herself was arrested at a protest, and the experience made her feel sub-human
    • Then she saw the main problem was police brutality and criminalization 
      • There are other problems, too, like with housing, healthcare, poverty, education that deserve protesting and organizing around
• Over-policing, police advocacy
• The biggest challenges facing students in St. Louis
  • Poverty – so many students are born into poverty and stay there throughout school years
  • Lack of resources in schools
• It costs about $190,000 to fund one police officer in St. Louis, which is about four to five times the salary cost of one teacher
  • It seems that policing is more important than education
  • This is setting our kids up for failure
  • We’re more into criminalizing them than giving them the resources they need to be successful
  • We know better and should be doing better
  • St. Louis is reducing qualification requirements for police candidates because not enough people are applying to become police officers
• The system didn’t just happen
  • People benefit from the way things are
  • These are usually the people in charge
  • People in power want to keep things the way they are
  • You have to change people, systems, laws, policy, culture
• What gives her hope for the future?
  • The wins we’ve had so far
  • Lawmakers in St. Louis today look like her
  • People-focused leaders
  • Where we are today vs. where we were in 2014
• One small change that would make the biggest difference for St. Louis families
  • Access to technology and wifi
  • For work, for education
  • Many don’t have access to technological tools and resources
• What parents should consider when choosing a school for their child
  • Consider the child, their skills, interests, talents
  • What school best aligns with the child?
• We have true resources in St. Louis
  • Things like Navigate STL Schools
  • Ohun’s website
  • Even if they’re not getting everything they need IN school, there is help available if you seek it