Reaching People Where They Are: A Conversation With Tay Anderson
By Giles Clasen
Tay Anderson is in his first term as a Denver Public School Board member, serving as its at-large director. He was elected at 21 years-old beating two older – some might say – more experienced candidates. He started participating in social activism at a young age and has experienced time in foster care and as a homeless teenager. Anderson has been vocal on social media about what he perceives as injustices, and in what direction the Denver Public Schools should go to address the needs of minority students. Just one month after being elected to his position on the DPS School Board, Anderson received the Rising Star Award at the Colorado Democrat’s 3rd Annual Obama Dinner – which no doubt is the first of many awards he will receive for his thoughtful leadership.
Here are excerpts from a recent conversation with Anderson, edited for length and clarity.
Getting Started
“My senior year of high school I was a homeless student trying to figure out what my place in society was. And it became apparent that we didn’t have representation. I was reflecting on a conversation that I had with then-schoolboard member Happy Haynes around a decision that was made to co-locate my current high school with a middle school. And I asked her, ‘Why wasn’t our decision – our voices – why weren’t our voices included in your decision, and what do we need to do to have our voices heard?’”
And she responded, “Well, you need to run for School Board and win like the rest of us.”
“So, I ran for School Board in 2017 as an 18 year-old high school senior, and I lost. I came third place, got 6,200 votes, and lost to Vice President Jennifer Bacon. I then went to work for DPS, where I started off as an executive assistant to my former principal. Then I went in to [work with a first-grade class] and did some para-professional work. From there, I went into campus safety and did some work in Aurora Public Schools. Finally, I moved over to Denver Public Schools and started my career in restorative justice programming.
“Throughout my time at North [High School], I decided, ‘I’m going to run for School Board again.’ But this time, for the whole city. And a lot of people doubted [my] ability to run for school board at a citywide level if I just lost a district level. So, I said, ‘I believe we can get this done. I just need you to believe in me.’ And there were people that told me there was no way Denver would elect a 21 year-old Black male to a citywide seat. That’s just not possible. I said, ‘All right, cool.’”
When he ran for the School Board, Anderson faced a Republican opponent and a Democratic opponent. A registered Democrat in an unaffiliated race, Anderson was outspent.
“One of my opponents raised millions of dollars, and they had millions of dollars supporting them on the soft side, and I won. It was a shocker. We came out with 51 percent of the vote in a three-way race. 67,213 votes. We led with an 18,000-vote margin. And we won 82 percent of Denver precincts. And that was all through community activism, grassroots, and meeting people where they were at.”
Staying in the Fight
Those who have observed Anderson over the past few years have seen him emerge as the community leader he was destined to become. They also have seen that Anderson is not one to give up easily.”
“You often see politicians lose a race, and then they disappear,” said Anderson, “but I decided to stay in the fight. It’s not like I went and did something else and then tried to run again. I did exactly what I loved. I wanted to make sure people were able to see themselves reflected in the classroom. So, I stayed in education. I did the fight, did the work, and came out on top because I led with bold ideas that had real solutions.”
Since winning his seat on the school board, Anderson has seen almost every one of the issues on which he ran come to fruition. “We’ve ended [having police officers present] in schools. We’ve provided gender-neutral restrooms. We’re now a safe storage district. We updated our policies to educate our kids and families on how to properly store their firearms. We endorsed a measure for students to be able to vote in school board elections. There’s so much more work to do, but the majority of the things I ran on have already been accomplished in under 200 days.
“I worked in a school that had two SROs (school resource officers) on site. Some days, they weren’t there, some days they were. I’ve dealt with fights. I’ve dealt with drugs. I’ve dealt with weapons. [We were able to work with officers] by having good communication with my team and with the school administration about when to properly get involved, the cops involved. The cops in Aurora were actually kind of a hands-off approach most of the time. They sent a lot of stuff back to the school. But there were non-negotiables.
“I can’t take a weapon and then not expect the [school resource officer] not to do anything about it, right? So, there are non-negotiables, and then there are things where we can have a little bit more leverage in saying, ‘Is this something that they can just be given a detention or suspension for, versus them getting a ticket that impacts them their entire life?’”
Drawing from Personal Experience
Anderson recognizes the importance of establishing relationships through open communication, but his own experience is what sets him apart from most community leaders.
“I think it really came down to understanding the background of the students,” said Anderson. “Not all students have the same background, nor do they share the same story. And so, listening to those kids and their stories also impacted the way that I did my job. Nobody wants to see kids get in trouble. There are times where you must be able to step in and say, ‘How can I help?’ versus, ‘You’re doing this wrong.’
“When I was homeless, I had a family near northeast Denver that took me in and allowed me to stay with them [until] six months after I graduated high school, and then I decided to save up my money and get my own place and move out. And that’s how that happened.
“The first week [I was homeless], I was on the street, and then I went to living with my family. [Denver Public Schools] gave support because they have a program for homeless students. [I became homeless] just because of disagreements in the home and just…just situations that led to us departing or going our separate ways. Me and my mother have a really good relationship now. I’ve never met my father.
Standing with His Community
“I got involved with Black Lives Matter in the summer of 2016, when Philando Castile was killed. I don’t know if it impacted my campaigns because that was years before I ran. But I was in the community doing activism before I was elected. It was definitely a plus.
“I’ve been showing up for my community since, so it’s nothing new to have me out there helping lead. I was on the front lines of the gun control movement here in Colorado and other different movements…I’ve been out doing this work, so it was no surprise that I would be there. I think all elected officials should be helping with their communities.
“I was there when the [protests] started the first Friday night [in May 2019], when the riots began. But I got out when they started tear gassing the crowd.
“I’m a Black male, so it directly impacts me. I’ve been pulled over; I’ve had negative interactions with law enforcement. I understand, and I live this every day. So, it’s no surprise that I would be out during these times trying to make sure that we’re consistently saying, “Black lives matter.” Because I could have been in one of those who have been killed by police.
“[Students] want to use their voices, and so I want to make sure that I’m helping them use their platform. That’s been something that I want to make sure that we’re able to continue to do. They’re my students, so I want to make sure that they’re supported.
“I believe that we need to divest certain funds from the police department and put them toward community-based resources.
Using the Right Resources to Address the Issues
“If you’re having a mental health crisis, instead of having a law officer show up to your home, you would have somebody that specializes in mental health showing up to your home. There are several different ways that you can, that we can, help our communities versus calling law enforcement that may not have the same specialty like others do.
“I want people to remember to stay involved, continue to support people that are running for office at the local level, state level, and the national level that are going to do a good job for their community, and to make sure that we’re always putting our future generations first.
“Now we got to start talking about destroying systems that continue to uphold oppression and white supremacy because they’re everywhere.”
Anderson understands there is no simple solution to erase the long history of racism, but that will not hold him back. “It’s going to be a complex process, bringing everybody together to make sure we can bring those changes that we want to see, but we must continue to keep the pressure on and make sure that we’re changing our systems. It’s going to be through elections. It’s going to be supporting those in office that are currently trying to make a change. We need to make sure that people understand there are leaders fighting for them that actually have the power to change policy and to change the laws.” ■