When Lived Experience Leads: Rethinking Schools Through a Disability Lens

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Hi, this is Aurora from the Educating All Learners Alliance,
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and today we're speaking with Stephanie Atenco-Torres for a deep dive podcast.
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We first connected with Stephanie after we read her piece in Tr!ll Magazine,
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What Being a Disabled Latina Taught Me About the Education System.
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This was a powerful piece that resonated with Ila's mission.
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Thank you so much for joining us today, Stephanie. It's great to have you.
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Thank you so much for having me here. I am very excited to be interviewed and to share my story.
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Love it. So let's kick it off. Stephanie, introduce yourself to our listeners.
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Tell us a little bit more about what experiences led you to write this article.
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I am currently a college student. I have an internship with Tr!ll Mag where
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I wrote my article for being a disabled Latina.
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Which inspired me to write
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the article was basically my experiences as a
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disabled Latina which was I guess
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just all the racism and all the ableism
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that I faced growing up within the school district that I went to which is kind
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of highlighted in my article really made me want to just speak out more and
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you know maybe I wasn't alone in this if I shared it and just be more outspoken
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about a topic that I don't think is really talked about a lot.
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I'm not sure if it's because it's taboo or simply just because,
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you know, not many people do go through that issue.
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But from what I've learned, a couple of people do go through that issue and
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I'm happy to be kind of like a spokesperson for it.
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In your article, and as you just mentioned, you talk about all these harmful
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stereotypes and the challenges that come from holding these multiple identities.
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You know, you're Latina, you have disabilities.
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And I know you're also now getting, you mentioned, a dual degree in early education and journalism.
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So blending all those experiences, you're a student, you're a teacher in training,
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and you're a journalist.
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What do you think it would take to dismantle some of these assumptions,
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some of these stereotypes in the classrooms? What are some things that we should
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be looking towards in the future?
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Well, I think really in any area, whether that be in the classroom or in hospitals
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or in the workplace, now that I'm a little bit older, I think that people should
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really just get to know people more often.
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I think in terms of classrooms, though, I do think that, you know,
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because there's children there and they're minors, I think that we should try to,
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well, teachers should try to establish a relationship with the families,
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the parents, you know, because sometimes people have behavioral issues.
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Kids especially and you know if we just take it as well you know they're horrible kids whatever.
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Then they're never going to get anywhere in life and sometimes kids don't have
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encouragement from their family and if we know that as teachers and as people
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with empathy then we can translate that into maybe I should be an encouragement
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for a child and I think that in workplace is the same thing.
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When you get a job as a disabled person, obviously, they're not going to talk
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to your parents anymore.
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But I think you as an adult, you should probably be more outspoken with the
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fact that you are disabled.
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And, you know, some people may look at your disability and think,
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okay, well, they're disabled, let's help them out.
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And some people are just rude about it. And you just got to navigate through
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that, that there's going to be some people who are going to be mean to you about
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it, are probably going to baby you about it.
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But at the end of the day, it's good to be just outspoken and try to get to know one another.
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Yeah. Something that you and I have talked about in previous conversations is
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the idea of in many schools and many districts, the teachers might not look
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like or have the same experiences or identities as their students.
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So sometimes there's a really big, big gap.
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And, you know, you talked about bringing empathy into the work and for a,
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For a teacher who, you know, we want to assume the best in this situation.
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Let's say somebody just, they don't know a lot about the disabled experience
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or the Latina experience or what it means to be both, that intersectional identity.
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What are some things or some pieces of advice that you would like to give to
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folks out there who really do want to understand it and have that,
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you know, a more empathetic and understanding lens?
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They're trying to dismantle some of their biases, but they don't quite,
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you know, maybe they're not even aware of it or they don't know where to begin.
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What are some places that somebody could start as an educator if they're really
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trying to improve their perspective?
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Well, I think, like I said before, just really try to get to know the families
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and the kid and whatnot, because I think that's what really lacked was,
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in my case, was the fact that I,
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you know, my family wasn't provided with the right information.
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Even if my mom talked to the translator
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she you know she's a translator she didn't really know
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so she would look for the person that
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she could first think of and then that person would just give her the
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same information all over again like I remember trying to reason with the ESL
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coordinators about you know getting out of ESL because I had a medical issue
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and the poor translator I do feel bad for her because it was just she would
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get the same answer over and over again. Like she needs to pass the test.
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And my mom would be like, okay, but she also has a medical condition.
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And the ESL coordinator would just try to translate her like,
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well, no, she still needs to pass the test. So then that would go with my mom and me.
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And, you know, it's not, I feel like.
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I feel like what people should really try to do is just try to get more people
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in that who are disabled, who are people of color,
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just a more diverse environment with people who come from different backgrounds.
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And if they really do want to understand, because they're not a person from
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that background, but they want to understand that background,
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it's really just get to know them.
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Yeah because I feel like what a lot of people do like
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what the ESL translator I mean ESL coordinator did
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was just kind of just ignore the situation and that's not okay to ignore a situation
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when it's dealing with somebody with a disability so I think what they should
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do is just try to pay more attention to it I get it that they're busy with their
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own lives and other students but at the.
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You really need to understand where people are coming from and not just think,
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oh, they're crazy. Like, let's leave them alone.
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You really got to sit down and talk with the family more in depth and not make
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them feel bad for trying to understand, like, what's going on with their child's education.
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Because I feel like the school district that I went to, it was very much like,
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oh, parents don't care. Parents don't get involved.
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But when a parent does get involved, it's like a huge problem because now they're
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getting ignored. And now they're like, oh, my gosh, this parent.
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So it's like I, from my school district experience, it was very much like,
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well, what do you want? You want a parent to be involved or you don't want a parent to be involved?
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So I feel like there should be teachers that are more, they want to be involved
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and they want to get to know parents.
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So I think it's just really just involvement. You spoke to a lot of things that are,
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that really resonate with me and with EALA's mission, especially the importance
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of diversity in teacher training and teacher education, the importance of parent advocacy.
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Right. Parents having a voice, parents knowing how to speak for their their
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student and also, you know, the your own your own self-advocacy.
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So those are those are big things that really resonate with with the work that
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a lot of our EALA partners are doing.
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And it's it's it all kind of comes together in a way that hopefully,
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you know, can can support support students and in the future prevent some of
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the unfortunate like experiences that that you that you wrote about.
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You wrote about interviewing and speaking with other folks who had similar experiences,
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and we were just talking about.
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You know, the importance of getting to know the personal story,
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the person behind disability, the person behind the identity.
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So are there mentors or role models that you want to talk about who kind of
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helped shape your perspective and any learnings that really came from that?
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I think like my mom, probably. Yeah.
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Yeah. So you'd say your mom was a big influence. I guess that my mom was probably...
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My only advocate in the whole entire process of trying to get out of ESL,
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trying to make the school understand that like, hey, she has like issues because
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she takes this type of medication and it's going to make her react like this
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and test and stuff like that.
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And she was, and I think I mentioned this in my article, she was the only person
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that like took time off of work.
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Like I think she took two years off of work when I got really sick senior year of high school.
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And she was the only person that was like, you need to do her IEP again,
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because she's like, it's really sick again.
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I mean, she's always been sick. But like, now she's like, really sick.
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And you don't resign it, you don't, you know, do it again.
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So now she's just going to be left even worse than she was before.
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So I think it was just really my mom, she was the one coming to me in meetings,
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she was the one driving me to these meetings.
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She was probably the only one backing me up whenever I would,
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you know, state these facts about my medications and stuff like that.
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But I think, yeah, it's just my mom because I didn't really grow up with many
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other disabled Latinos or really anybody that understood what I was going through
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until I did find Conchita, who I interviewed.
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And I did really like talking to her because, you know, not only was she Latina
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like me, but she lived the same experience.
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And that's a very unique experience that I felt
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really alone with because I thought nobody
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gets what I'm going through like I've never met like all
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my years in that district I never had a friend who had the same exact problem
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as me I never met a teacher I never met anybody and then I found Conchita online
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and I was just like oh wait you know she gets it like yeah my mom gets it because
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she's my mom she saw me grow up she gets it in another point of view but like seeing it like,
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in the lengths of the same lenses that I went through, it was pretty cool to
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find somebody like Conchita who, like, went through the same problems as me.
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That visibility matters is something that we're always talking about, right?
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So being able to see yourself in other people, share that shared experience, that's really cool.
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And that's, you know, in your budding career as a journalist,
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and, you know, maybe one day you're going to be that Conchita to somebody else.
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You wrote about a lot of really personal things and you shared a lot about your life.
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How has writing this article and how is speaking about your experiences,
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how has that impacted you personally?
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Well, I think that, well, first of all, I think it definitely opened a lot of
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doors because I'm here right now with you guys. So again, for this opportunity.
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But I think that it was also kind of very like going to therapy because,
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you know, I had a therapist throughout this whole entire thing.
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And yeah, I would talk to them about it. but I think just kind
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of just writing about it like if it was a diary and in
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the back of my mind just thinking like okay maybe you
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know I'm gonna be another disabled Latina added to the list who's going to help
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somebody out is what really inspired me to just keep on writing this and publish
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this and you know just hope that I mean I didn't really like attend it to you
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know get famous something like that.
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I just wanted to like, I guess, just maybe bring some inspiration or some just
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even awareness in general.
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Because again, I've said this before. I don't know if this is a tabby topic.
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I don't know if this is like a topic that not many people go through.
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But I just don't see as a Latina, I don't see any other Latinos talking about
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really this kind of topic. Or I feel like in this community,
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the Latino community, we're very like shunned.
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We're very like, you know, like we're just keeping our feelings to ourselves
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and we don't really like to speak out about our issues because we're kind of
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afraid of what will happen.
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And I get that, you know, but I'm not afraid because it's just these racist
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stereotypes really do have to stop against Latinos, especially with this whole ICE thing going on.
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And you know I'm not afraid of,
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of just speaking out, because I think it's time. I think it's time that we see
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more Latinos talking about being disabled,
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you know, being just anything, anything, any issue that they have,
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you should be more spoken about it and not allow people or, you know,
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political issues to come our way. And this is a political problem.
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Being disabled in an education system where everybody is mostly white,
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but almost all the kids are poor and brown and black is an issue.
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So I feel like, I don't know, I feel like I'm not saying I should be the face
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for this, but I also feel like,
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I hope to just make somebody and make people aware of a problem that is probably
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happening to a Latino as we speak right now.
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Like, yeah, like elevating a problem, kind of giving a platform,
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from giving a voice to a problem that's probably unspoken, right?
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You mentioned, like, it doesn't feel taboo, and in certain, especially in the
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Latino community, it feels like it's something that doesn't feel,
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you don't feel encouraged to speak out about it.
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So you're hoping to, and I agree, and this is exactly why we're talking today
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and why we're amplifying this, is that, you know, just like you saw in Conchita,
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like, the more that we address and talk about, rather than sweep things under the rug,
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That's the only way we can even try to make progress.
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Another point that you made about this being a political issue,
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I mean, education is in and of itself, it is inherently a political issue.
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Being disabled, being Latina, being a person of color, you know,
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when people say I don't do politics, you know, well, tough luck because education is political.
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Identity, intersectional identity is formed, you know, there's politics all
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around that. So there's no sense in trying to shy away or avoid it,
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but that's why it's so important to...
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When you have a platform, use it for good. So speaking of that,
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we're actually almost out of time and almost out of our questions.
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So to wrap this up or to kind of a last thought, what would you hope that educators,
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people who make policy, our listeners, what do you want them to take away from
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listening to your experience?
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I think just, well, first of all, if there's any Latinos listening to this,
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I think, like I said before, we should really just stop shying away from topics
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because we're afraid of, you know, what people may think of us.
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I think that as Latinos, we should speak out more and be more outspoken about our issues.
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Any issue doesn't have to be related to mine.
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And because who knows, you can encourage somebody. And that's also what I want
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to do. I just want to encourage people to be more outspoken.
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And if you're a disabled Latina or Latina like me, you should be more outspoken
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about it because maybe you'll.
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Be the change for somebody. Maybe somebody who is a part of the educational
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system will hear you and be like, okay, then I guess this is a problem we do
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need to address and we do need to be better at as educators or whatever.
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And I think for educators and for people around the world, because this is coming
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from somebody who lives with an invisible disability, I think,
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here's the thing for anybody who doesn't know about disabilities.
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Disabilities come in all forms you
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can be any age and have any condition
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you can you know like personally speaking i can't walk too far but i don't use
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a wheelchair i don't use crutches so people might look at that and you know
00:16:46.985 --> 00:16:51.905
hear me say that and think but you look fine like you know that's what i'm trying
00:16:51.905 --> 00:16:55.745
to look fine on the outside that's such that can be so harmful right Yeah.
00:16:56.785 --> 00:16:58.525
But that's the thing.
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It's like, don't stereotype Latinos.
00:17:01.905 --> 00:17:07.125
Don't stereotype disabled people. And I understand that as disabled people,
00:17:07.125 --> 00:17:10.845
it's hard to find a job. It's hard to find friends.
00:17:11.205 --> 00:17:15.325
It's hard to even be in romantic relationships because you don't know.
00:17:15.665 --> 00:17:18.845
If you are in a wheelchair, you don't know who's going to make fun of you for it.
00:17:18.965 --> 00:17:20.985
And if you're not, but you have problems
00:17:20.985 --> 00:17:24.625
kind of related to wheelchair accessibilities, you just don't have one.
00:17:25.085 --> 00:17:29.925
It's also hard because then you don't know, okay, does this person make fun of me?
00:17:30.085 --> 00:17:33.425
Does this person talk to me like a baby because I'm disabled?
00:17:33.705 --> 00:17:37.165
So I think we should just treat everybody as equal. You know,
00:17:37.585 --> 00:17:42.805
you should just be friends, be in a romantic relationship with whoever you want,
00:17:43.305 --> 00:17:47.545
because they like you for who you are, and because they don't stereotype.
00:17:47.725 --> 00:17:51.865
But unfortunately, that is an issue within the disability community.
00:17:52.185 --> 00:17:57.505
And I think with educators, that is an issue. also with the disabled community
00:17:57.505 --> 00:18:01.065
was, you know, what I went through, which is like stereotyping me for being
00:18:01.065 --> 00:18:03.825
Latina more than just for being, and also for being disabled,
00:18:03.845 --> 00:18:05.045
because I didn't look disabled.
00:18:05.305 --> 00:18:08.865
I didn't get a consistent IEP. I didn't get any of that.
00:18:09.520 --> 00:18:14.700
But I also have a disability. So where was my, you know, where was that advocate for me?
00:18:14.840 --> 00:18:18.500
Because I didn't look disabled all of us, or I didn't act disabled.
00:18:18.800 --> 00:18:21.940
You know, all of a sudden now I don't have any rights to that.
00:18:22.180 --> 00:18:25.960
So I think we should just stop stereotyping disabled people.
00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:27.940
We should start treating everybody as equal.
00:18:29.040 --> 00:18:35.040
And we should just start, yeah, just, yeah, everybody deserves equality in this world.
00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:39.620
And again for Latinos we should just stand up
00:18:39.620 --> 00:18:42.700
for our rights more yeah especially nowadays
00:18:42.700 --> 00:18:45.560
with what we're going through we are well I do I will say you
00:18:45.560 --> 00:18:48.860
know we are standing up for the
00:18:48.860 --> 00:18:51.640
protests and stuff like that I do see it a little bit more with this
00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:55.380
whole ICE thing but there's still other issues that we need to talk about that
00:18:55.380 --> 00:19:00.480
you know have been shunned out so I think that we should I don't know I think
00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:03.300
we should be more outspoken and I think that we should stop stereotyping people
00:19:03.300 --> 00:19:09.220
and that everybody should be treated as equal and hopefully one day that will
00:19:09.220 --> 00:19:10.620
happen and america could be.
00:19:11.807 --> 00:19:15.587
Everybody's utopia so yeah i
00:19:15.587 --> 00:19:18.727
like that idea too about like seeing past the
00:19:18.727 --> 00:19:22.107
label you know seeing like a
00:19:22.107 --> 00:19:26.367
teacher friends partners you
00:19:26.367 --> 00:19:31.687
know your your your work your writing your advocating for you know seeing seeing
00:19:31.687 --> 00:19:38.267
me for who i am and not just the labels that you put on me and to understand
00:19:38.267 --> 00:19:42.407
that not every part of my identity is visible.
00:19:42.667 --> 00:19:47.547
I really like how you brought to light there's a lot of nuance or detail around
00:19:47.547 --> 00:19:49.647
being a person with an invisible disability.
00:19:49.927 --> 00:19:51.827
I'm really glad that you brought that up.
00:19:52.267 --> 00:19:56.087
Before we go, how can folks continue to stay informed about your work?
00:19:56.247 --> 00:19:58.847
How can folks, can we find you online somewhere?
00:19:59.447 --> 00:20:04.747
How can folks stay involved and keep up to date with you? I have a LinkedIn account.
00:20:04.947 --> 00:20:07.527
Great. It's just my name, Stephanie Attenco Torres.
00:20:08.267 --> 00:20:12.107
I believe I have like a sub stack where I post a couple of my own written articles
00:20:12.107 --> 00:20:16.247
and then like the articles that I'm writing for Thrill, which is also,
00:20:16.407 --> 00:20:18.407
I think, just my name, Stephanie Tinko-Torres.
00:20:18.887 --> 00:20:22.307
And Thrill is also just Stephanie Tinko-Torres. Great. We could find you on
00:20:22.307 --> 00:20:26.447
LinkedIn. We could find you on Thrill.
00:20:27.487 --> 00:20:31.267
Yep. Great. All right. Thank you, Stephanie. It was really good having you here
00:20:31.267 --> 00:20:33.207
today. It was wonderful talking with you.
00:20:33.807 --> 00:20:37.827
Thank you so much for having me here. Again, I'm really graceful for the opportunity.
00:20:38.267 --> 00:20:40.367
And for giving me a voice. Great.
00:20:40.927 --> 00:20:44.347
Well, that's it for us today, folks. Thank you to Stephanie Atenco-Torres.
00:20:44.447 --> 00:20:48.047
And to learn more, check out their writing on Tr!llMag.com.
00:20:48.387 --> 00:20:52.347
I'm Aurora from ILA, and this was a deep dive with Stephanie Atenco-Torres.