#holdTUSDaccountable

About me:

Hi there,

My name is Jay Davis. If you’re reading this; I first want to thank you for taking the time to even consider giving when we live in such a time of need, and, secondly, I’d like to apologize that we live in a world where the values of integrity, truth, and compassion impressed upon us at birth can ultimately be lightning rods for our own suffering. Children and animals have always had a special place in my heart, they exist in a world they had no part in making—a world that wasn’t made for them to begin with—and are given one of the most difficult challenges life has: to have been given nothing and exist entirely at the expense of others. The powerlessness of childhood can be such a traumatizing experience that I genuinely believe most adults repress these memories and would rather pretend that they’ve never experienced such humility. For my own life, I have always strived to embrace these discomforts in the hopes to better my perspective and compassion. In the foster care system, I learned that adults can and will let you down; from when I was placed into an emergency youth shelter for 6 months before seeing my caseworker for the first time (despite her being required to meet with me monthly and having to attend weekly court meetings to keep my placement there), to when I was forcibly placed in a G.A.P. (God Answers Prayers) Ministries home despite my protests and clear history of religious trauma, to when I was placed in a group home so disgusting and filled with kids who attacked and bullied me that I attempted to take my own life. Throughout these times and many others, I learned that I had to speak up for myself and that no one but myself could be the advocate I needed. This lesson would bear me many fruits, I stopped allowing myself to be victimized by well-meaning adults, along with many thorns. I grew up in an environment where there was no unconditional love, adults were paid to watch over you in shifts and the kids who made waves were seen and treated as problems to be solved rather than children starved for affection and desperate for better. I learned that the best way to get what you needed was to make yourself as little of a burden as possible because no one cares about difficult kids. My academic inclinations, self-reliance, and commitment to make it to college led me to taking advantage of many opportunities (opportunities absentminded case workers neglectfully tended to forget to present) and seeing moderate levels of success that made people often quip that “I made it”. The reality was that I was just one person who had managed to survive, flourish maybe, despite adversity, and that for every kid like me who “made it” there were 20 kids who didn’t. Electing to stay within the system to receive benefits to help me survive the encroaching adult world, I left for college. The first couple of years of college went excellently, but, like the stories of millions, COVID-19 changed everything for me. After failing my first semester at the new online format, I entered a depressive rut that I would only leave when my roommate for two years told me on a random Tuesday that he couldn’t afford living on his own anymore and that he’d be going back to live with his parents. He and I both knew that I had no parents nor support system for me to go back to, that I was completely and utterly alone, and that I would not survive on my own. I begged him to reconsider but he told me that he knew I would find a way because “I always did”. I left college and began searching for full-time work, hoping that some time away would help me get my life together until I’d return and finish my degree. I quickly realized that I am not the type of person who can just clock into a job and clock out, I couldn’t work mindlessly in a call center nor do retail and “fake it” til I made it, that I needed to do something that gave me a sense of purpose. I started looking into social work, determined to be the advocate for kids that I needed when I was in the system. I found my first job in social work with a company that very much epitomized everything wrong with the behavioral health and social work fields: adults with minimum training and credentials in positions to make life-altering decisions for children they didn’t understand nor sympathize with, prioritizing profits over children’s experiences, and workforce politics superseding job efficacy. I left this position in August of 2022 seeking something in the education field as I fondly remembered the different teaching positions I had throughout college. This was when my partner moved in with me and I began working with the Sonoran Science Academy—Davis-Monthan.

Sonoran Science Academy—Davis-Monthan

The Sonoran Science Academy will always be a bittersweet collection of memories for me. It is the place where I discovered and fell in love with teaching and the special education program. It is a place filled with talented, caring faculty who are criminally underpaid and overworked and a population of precocious kids with limitless potential. It is also a school of neglect with ableist practices and beliefs enforced to a point that it is borderline eugenics. I applied for this job initially believing that the system works, that the failures of schools had more to do with the failures of individual people, and that as long as I followed the rules and applied the best of myself, the amount of good I could create would always grow in proportion. I was hired to be a supplemental math instructor working under the Special Education teacher because of my years of experience with teaching math and my different inclusive approaches to special instruction as I had many of the same cognitive and social disabilities that this specific student population had. I was illegally fired from this position two days after filing a formal complaint against the head of HR, Jayne Wiseman, and former Dean of Students, Karen Rogers, for discrimination and violations of both the ADA and HIPPA. I filed an EEOC complaint and will be meeting with the Attorney General in April.

Roberts-Naylor K-8

I was fired from this position on orders direct from the superintendent according to my previous supervisor at my firing. This was done because I posted a tiktok that went viral in which I exposed Roberts-Naylor for having three unlicensed paraprofessionals teach a special education class for which they had adequate notice to find a sub. I described in detail how this is grossly illegal and violates the rights of the children and their families. I implored parents to look into TUSD and the special education program at all schools because their children cannot advocate for themselves and that my concerns were going unaddressed by the staff.

Why I need this money:

I have no other options, I have no one else to turn to. I never expected that the video I posted would go viral nor that I would be fired when I engaged in a legally protected activity in which I did nothing wrong. I am tired of big corporations who violate the rights of their employees and clients alike and get away with silencing the voices of those who hold them accountable because we live in a system that crushes the poor. I am angry that in a country where we are raised to be integrous and to advocate for our rights, doing so is the quickest way to commit financial suicide.

Where will this money go:

The initial donations will immediately be used to pay off my bills (utilities and loans which total approximately $577) and the negative balance on my checking account—as of writing this, I am -$121.66. From there, my goal is to keep raising money to secure my rent for April ($800). Money raised passed this will go to paying off my credit-card debt ($5K) so that I can use it again and money I owe to my partner and my friends ($10K), who are in the same boat as me financially and without whom I would not have been able to survive to this point. The rest of this money will be going to legal fees as I search for attorneys to represent me in my suits against my previous employers.

What my goals are:

I want to create a trend and movement that brings to light the numerous and horrifying ways that TUSD and other schools/districts in Arizona are failing to serve the children within them. I want to share the illegal practices and policies enacted by administration and teachers that do an injustice to one of the most vulnerable and neglected communities. I want to advocate for and create a real change because our kids and we, as people, deserve better.

Thank you so much for your consideration and kindness.

-J