Keeping Score: An Update
(left to right) Lauren Valme, Maya Velasquez and Mariah Morgan, members of the John Jay Jaguars girls varsity volleyball team. photo by Yachin Parham
“Integration wins.”
Earlier this year we collaborated with WNYC Studios on an in-depth series about a year of reporting from inside a divided Brooklyn school building trying to unite through sports. The series is called Keeping Score. If you missed it, definitely go back and check it out.
Today’s episode is an update from two of the Miseducation reporters-turned-characters in the series, Mariah Morgan and Lauren Valme.
Mariah and Lauren are members of the girls varsity volleyball team. The Keeping Score series followed Mariah, Lauren, their teammates and coaches over the course of the first season of the John Jay Jaguars. Prior to last season, there were actually two varsity girls volleyball teams in the same school building. The girls went to different schools on different floors, and were rivals. One of the teams had mostly Black and Latin players. The other – mostly white and Asian. But, in 2021 they decided — after a decade of playing on opposite sides of the net — to join forces, to merge, to integrate.
In this interview with fellow Keeping Score reporter Renika Jack, Mariah and Lauren dig into what happened in Year 2 of this experiment at the intersection of race, class, and public schools.
The volleyball season ended a few weeks ago. Did the Jaguars make progress toward integration and equity on the court? Did they reach their goal of a city championship?
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