I agree that the big issue here is the school system and the failures in it. I also agree that she's a victim of it because authority figures weren't there for her when she needed them. It's obvious she was upset by this, and she has every right to be. However, she doesn't really call these out as an issue of the school system, she paints it out as particular individuals being irresponsible. Maybe they really are, seems like the work permit thing was left to incompetence in their part? But it's also easy to not take into account all the roles administrators and counselors have, and how they're spread thin, until you're at the staff side at a school. Again, I don't blame her, she's just a student so it'd be hard for her to see these things, so she's just at the receiving end of the bullshit. I don't really have issue with her calling out the office with the work permit if it's just a matter of paperwork, or the alcoholic teacher, but I think to call out the counselor is a bit misguided, because we don't know the reasons as to why the counselors were unavailable. They're responsible for handling students that are at crises which can happen at literally any moment. One of the counselors at my school had to deal with a student that was basically about to commit suicide at the school and cut a wound so deep in her leg that she was surrounded by a pool of blood. The counselor is definitely not going to have their scheduled appointment at that time. That's the only aspect of her speech that came across as a bit too vindictive to me, but that's only because I have the insight as a teacher.
Again, she has every right to be frustrated. The system failed her when she needed it. However, I think it's also important to empathize with people that do work at schools, because they're often dealt a shit hand and students/parents are quick to get confrontational with teachers when most of the time they're doing their job and don't realize that their kid is not the number one priority 100% of the time, when they have plenty of other shit they need to deal with at any given moment. It's really really easy for students to antagonize school staff when they don't know everything that goes on and that's what at least part of what her speech appears like to be doing. She has every right to say what she said, but I think it puts some people like the counselor in the spot light a bit unfairly.
I'm not defending the school staff if they were truly irresponsible nor am I dismissing her claims. The school is definitely in fault for a lot of it. It's just easy for everyone to lose sight of the fact that the resources aren't there for schools. Would she really blame the school counselor when she found out that the counselor had to deal with the students who had to go on hospital homebound because they got diagnosed with cancer or anorexia? It's not like suddenly the school can bring in new counselors to help out, bring in social workers, hire new teachers, etc. My school is ranked as the best school in my county and we still have to scrap the bottom of the barrel for any resources whatsoever. I have to teach more classes than I'm supposed to because we still can't find a third teacher to fill my department. So many schools are over populated and understaffed, some don't even get the people they're supposed to be guaranteed to have by law. It's cool that she spoke out and shared her story, but for her to blame some people that weren't there for her neglects what the real issue is, because for all we know it probably might not have been their fault? Maybe it was, we don't know. For all we know, the alcoholic teacher could have been the only person they were able to hire for the position. Some schools can't even choose who they hire, the district places them in there. There are some districts that need teachers so bad they don't even hire teachers that are certified to teach. It's fucked. At the very least I'm glad that the speech could bring the conversation to light. It sucks that she's also a victim. I think there's no winning this, both the students and staff are screwed and the solution is far from immediate.
