‘Where did you go to school?’ The loaded question Louisville won’t stop asking
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Briana Johnson has thought about how she'll answer the question everyone in Louisville eventually asks.
"Where did you go to school?"
It should be an easy answer for Johnson, a graduate of Louisville's prestigious duPont Manual, one of Kentucky's premier high schools — a gateway to college and success.
But she's torn.
She loves Manual, yet she knows the question is a loaded one, imbued with hidden prejudices about Louisville's schools — and the students who attend them.
She has no desire to feed those assumptions.
"Until that changes, I'll just say, 'I went to a high school,'" she said.
Zyrann Hibbitt would be equally glad to see those assumptions wither.
In the final chapter of our podcast, "The 'Bad' School," we catch up with the 18-year-old as he returns for his senior year at Iroquois High School.
Without doubt, most in Lousville would consider Iroquois a "bad" school, with its test scores that consistently rank among the lowest in the state.
Zyrann sees it as anything but, and he's certain others would see that too, if they opened their eyes to what is happening inside Iroquois' hallways. Teachers and administrators who have worked at Iroquois say the same.
So, the question becomes: Is Louisville ready — and willing — to change the way it treats its 'bad' schools?
Read the project: ‘Magnetic Pull’
Magnetic Pull: An investigation into magnet schools
Read our sister project: ‘The Last Stop’
Louisville's desegregation myth: How a busing plan hurt Black communities it aimed to help
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This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: A 'Bad' School, episode 6: 'The Question' Louisville won't stop asking
