Interviewer: “If elected, I will fight for...”

Bessie Harris: All students. But let me divert a little bit. Okay. My passion where I started as a teacher was a special education teacher for over 20 years. So that's my baby. And I was one of the first resource teachers when they started researching resource classrooms in Detroit Public Schools. So that's my baby also. So I would definitely I want to fight for our ESE students. They need us. The parents need us.

We need to make their way smooth and easy. And I don't think it's as smooth as we can make it. We're in the right direction, but we need to have our parents behind us saying, “Oh, yeah, they're doing this for my students and this for my students.” And so we need to make smooth and easy their transition because they just learn in a different way.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Bessie Harris: But they learn. I started out as a special ed teacher, went on to resource, went on to assistant principal and then to principal. So I've hit in every facet. And so I see where our students are. I see where they can be.

It looks like a smooth IEP process. A smooth process where parents are saying, where they're NOT saying, “I don't know what to do here. I don't know what do, I'm not hearing from the school. I'm not hearing from the psychologist. I'm not here.” We need to make that a smooth transition. So smooth that they're like, “Oh, wow!” Look up and your child is placed in the appropriate setting, not a setting that we're just putting them in, but an appropriate setting. And you have dialogue with the teachers and everybody connected to your child.

Interviewer: Put yourself in your mind when you were a student coming up. Oh, I got to go back. And I want you to finish this sentence: “As a student, I wish my school had...”

Bessie Harris: I wish I had air. It's so hard to learn in a building where it's hot. It's so hard to learn when we're closing schools because of the heat. They're missing out. I wish all of the schools had air. I know by 2029 all of them will have it except for ten. I know that ten still seems like a huge number, but when you have 100 and some schools, that's okay to have 90 with air, and we'll make accommodations for those ten. And we have to bring in air conditioners or portable air conditioners, we'll make it comfortable for those ten. Air is, is--

Interviewer: So such a basic need.

Bessie Harris: Yes it is! But it is it's critical. It's one that you forget about, but our students don't forget when they're sweating and they're trying to do some home do work or they can't concentrate because I'm hot.

Candidates appear in ballot order, alphabetical by last name.

Vote for not more than 4

• Natalie Bien-Aime*

• Steve Bland Jr.

• Michelle Broughton

• Katrina Brown

• Cidney Calloway

• Bobby Christian*

• Nicole Conaway

• Vilma Escamilla Duran

• Daniel Ferguson III*

• Duane Larry Grigsby Jr.

• Bessie L. Harris

• David Harris

• C. Allan Hubbard

• Henrietta Ivey*

• Tabrian C. Joe

• Shinese Johnson

• Theodore Jones

• Georgia Mae Lemmons

• LaMar D. Lemmons

• Clement O. Lett*

• Phil Lloyd II

• Darious Morris*

• Liana Mulholland

• Tyshea Pope

• DaNetta L. Simpson

• Tawanna Simpson

• Jameel Montgomery Smith

• Calesther Smith-Arnold*

• Terry E. Whitfield

• Elizabeth A. Williams

• Theresa Williams*

* Did not participate in the CitizenDetroit candidate video series.

Ijazz Jackson*

Aliya Moore

Shawn Vaughn

* Did not participate in the CitizenDetroit candidate video series.