School Closures & Racist Legacies: Community Mobilization against AISD's decision to close Metz
In 2019, AISD announced its plans to close Metz elementary, move the students to Sanchez elementary, and demolish the Metz building. This plan was immediately met with backlash, the nature of which shows that AISD's past remains at the forefront of people's minds and has created a relationship of distrust. In November, Metz and East Austin community members responded to the decision with protests reminiscent of those in 1989, documented by the Austin American-Statesman in the photos below.
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Speaking about the decision, community members reference AISD's long history of neglect and racism. From an Austin American Statesman article:
“AISD has never been loyal to its students... If AISD would fix what has been wrong for decades these schools would be up and functioning.”
“The Austin Independent School District, they’ve been sending the same message since Segregation, since the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and now the 2000s...they don’t care."
AISD's chief equity officer, Stephanie Hawley, admitted that the plan was unjust and a continuation of the district's racist history:
“The map that you have of the closures is a map of what 21st-century racism looks like... We did not deliberately do that, but we didn’t disrupt history. Our process for selecting schools was flawed, it was inequitable.
Save Austin Schools, a local organization formed in response to the school closures, released a letter, "Make Austin Anti Racist," criticizing AISD's school closures and situating them within its long history of racism. The letter states:
"Our closures are canaries in the coalmine, from the slow steamrolling of Metz and Sims to the sudden wrecking ball dropped on Brooke and Pease. Our communities were merely an obstacle to be brushed aside by a simple raising of hands. Our schools are AISD management’s test cases in how to suppress public fallout when they race to close schools... AISD does not deserve your benefit of the doubt or trust."
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For some Metz community members, the dominant feelings in response to AISD's decision are sadness and confusion. In our meeting with them, Monica Clark and Sandi Heimsath said that they were shocked that Sanchez was chosen over Metz to remain open, due to their perception that Metz would require less maintenance than Sanchez because it is a newer school. Lupe Ramos expressed sadness that parts of Metz with emotional significance would be destroyed, such as Raúl Valdez's mural "Para Nuestros Padres," or the tiles that students, teachers, and community members created for the new school:
"The best memories were coming back to Metz and preparing these tiles...We made some tiles that we decorated beautifully...we were so proud of coming back and having this beautiful school built for us, that when we put those tiles, we all made a big thing about it. We felt so good and proud. And yet, now, it's like the soul of this school getting torn off...I don't know, it's just kind of sad to think that we worked so hard to put up those tiles... it's going to be sad because we all had a little piece to give to Metz, now it's being torn off or taken away from us"