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In
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of
Battling Giants
(2014), author Malcolm Gladwell illustrates how what are
sometimes perceived as negative experiences, including
trauma, often “create opportunities to make possible what
otherwise have seemed impossible.”
Sheena
Barnes, the Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate for the
Toledo School Board, has both survived and overcome several
“negative” experiences during her youth. She feels that her
personal trials have not only made her “stronger and wiser,”
but also provided her with a perspective that other, more
“privileged,” individuals cannot fully comprehend.
Does
Barnes’ adversity translate to a better understanding of the
needs and lived experiences of urban public-school students
and their parents, many of which also face an uphill climb
in life?
I spoke
with Barnes about how her exposure to trauma and other
struggles may have uniquely equipped her for public service.
Perryman:
Who is Sheena Barnes, for those who don’t know?
Barnes:
I am a community engagement specialist, which means I see
challenges that our community is facing and try to develop a
plan to organize folks to gather around to discuss those and
achieve change.
Perryman:
Okay, a change agent where you first see a problem and then
attempt to address it?
Barnes:
Yes. So one of the things we have very high in our
community is homelessness and especially teen homelessness
due to trafficking and things like that, so I partnered with
Equality Toledo to open up a barrier-free pantry, which
means anyone can come regardless of how they identify
sexually in orientation, housing status and their family
status.
Perryman:
What other issues are you addressing?
Barnes:
We’re of course addressing things that have to do with Black
Lives Matter, just because our young folks are not knowing
their rights and things like that. I work closely with LGBT
Relations. I work closely with Women’s Rights Relations. I
am an escort for Capital Care, which is our last abortion
clinic here, and that’s because I know the difficult
challenges when making a decision like that happen and I
want to make sure folks are having complete safe access to
that choice.
Perryman:
You do not choose easy issues to work on?
Barnes:
I do not. Unfortunately, some of those things are just
pretty much folks-related and if we just love people for who
they are and where they are, I think a lot of things will
actually remove barriers. So, I try to pick the tough
challenges that people don’t want to talk about or unite to
make those changes work. That’s the kind of person I am.
Perryman:
Please tell our readers a little bit about your background.
Barnes:
I was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. At that time, we
had the highest homicide rate in the country for cities
under 100,000 in population. My dad was a retiree from GM,
my mom was at the time a nurse, then she went back for
education for teaching, but yet I was still surrounded by
gang violence, gun violence and drugs. I’m a survivor of
rape and molestation, so I had my daughter at 15 years of
age and was determined to graduate, because a lot of people
said of course she couldn’t do it, but I did it. I moved
out on my own very much against my parents’ will, at 16.
I worked
in nursing. I got my patient care technician certification
and worked in nursing homes and hospitals until I was about
21-22. I had my second child, a son, and ended up here in
Toledo about 10 years ago.
Perryman:
Why Toledo?
Barnes:
Because I didn’t know anybody here. Where I’m from, you are
affiliated automatically because of your family. So even
though I did things in Flint that, what we call now survival
tactics, I wasn’t involved in gang life, that was a decision
I made to make sure I was around for my daughter. However,
because of my family’s affiliation with different gangs that
meant that I was affiliated and increased my risk of dying
by gun violence or being assaulted because of some
retaliation. So, I figured if I could go somewhere where I
didn’t know anybody, I could choose the best path for me and
my family.
Perryman:
Why not Cleveland, Detroit, Findlay, or any other city?
Barnes:
I moved in one week. So, I sat down, I meditated, I asked
my elders different advice. They said, well, education is
the key, so I started applying to all the colleges possible,
big and small, and Owens Community College was the first to
call me back. So, I started applying for jobs and I got a
call back like that Thursday from Otterbein Nursing and that
Saturday I was packed with several bags, a mattress for my
daughter, a crib for my son, and I moved down here. That’s
all I had. I didn’t even have a car.
Perryman:
And that was 10 years ago. What has happened since?
Barnes:
Being a survivor, I started volunteering at the YWCA Hope
Center for sexual assault outreach, and there I found my
calling as an advocate. I found my healing to start telling
my story, but also, I found healing in helping others that I
felt wouldn’t get that help if I wasn’t talking to them to
help them through the process of their rape and that
experience turned into a mission for me.
Perryman:
So how does that experience connect to your candidacy for
the school board?
Barnes:
Every position I’ve had, whether work-related or in
volunteerism, has involved youth that have had challenges
and felt like nobody was speaking up for them. And, also
seeing different things with my kids going to Toledo Public
Schools (TPS) and working with kids that were in TPS. I felt
the things that were getting addressed were great, but that
we also needed to look at mental and emotional health and
how that affects education and is missing the mark.
I
thought, with my experience as specialist with trauma, and
experience with actually going down to the level that some
kids need to get down to - where it’s really raw and
truthful, would help TPS hopefully come out of this report
card scare. But also, my experience as actually going
through tough challenges and making people’s voices be
heard, can bring an even higher perspective as a board
member.
So, I
will be taking those organization skills and the advocacy
skills to the state legislature and saying to them that ‘You
have to treat all high poverty areas, urban and rural
districts more fairly’ because you’re funding them at a
disadvantage right now. We’re not given money to address
those social and emotional needs.
Perryman:
What do you see as the District’s main challenges?
Barnes:
Well, one of the challenges that they have is with the
special needs program. My youngest son is autistic. We
have to go through a lot of battles to get an efficient
Individualized Education Plan (IEP). It’s more of a case of
the TPS system being overwhelmed so they don’t have the
money to actually have the workers to get to the children in
enough time, they don’t have placement efficiently, the kids
are always moved kind of periodically between schools that
can actually assist them. So, parents are getting frustrated
yet they need the TPS system.
I have
amazing teachers for my youngest son and the principals were
outstanding as well, along with the bus drivers, but we
should all unite and to figure out the best approach to
getting more financial stability for their programs and
increasing minority teachers in that field.
Perryman:
Are there other challenges for the District?
Barnes:
So, addressing poverty is a challenge that extends to trauma
and to the schools to prison pipeline and also affects our
graduation rate.
With our
district having the highest population of youth
homelessness, one of the things I want to work on is trying
to get more programs like the champion absentee program to
actually help those kids who are not making it because
they’re missing their bus or because they have moved several
times and now they’re away from their home school, but they
want to stay at that home school because it’s familiar. I
want to make sure they have that opportunity without getting
punished merely because they don’t have adequate
transportation.
Perryman:
How would Sheena Barnes’ presence enhance the board?
Barnes:
I can look at policies and procedures and see how they
affect the groundwork. I think we have amazing people on
the board with educational backgrounds; however, it’s one
thing to experience, not only the things that our youth are
experiencing, but also to see and work with them because you
are more able to get an in-depth understanding of where
those families are coming from. Not just reading about it,
but also working and knowing where to send them for the
assistance they need. Resources are really plentiful here,
but if you don’t know what exactly are the resources within
that family, you’re not really going to help that family.
So, I have the groundwork, I think you can say, to boost
those families that are lacking for whatever resources, and
I have the networking skills in the community to get those
things accomplished.
This is
more than a vote for me. I live in the community and my
kids live in the community. I work in the community and I go
everywhere in the community. So, it is very important to me
to make sure the folks that are voting for me know that I’m
not just going to come around only at election time or when
we win something, I’m going to be there when times are hard,
when they are mediocre, and when we have challenges as well.
Perryman:
Thank you.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
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