Type For Her Freedom

Dear Honorable Victoria Roberts

My name is D’Jaun Currie and I am a 2014 graduate of Osborn Academy of Mathematics, Science & Technology (MST), where Ms. Bowman served as my principal, my mentor, and my friend.

Throughout my high school career, I’ve been to two high schools. First of which was the city and some say nationally famous, Cass Tech High School. I attended the school for my first three years of high school. I would deem my experience at Cass Tech a very distant and cold one. Attending the school gave me a firsthand look on the culture of the school. It was basically a “you’re on your own” type of environment, and I hated it!

A combination of both environment and sports opportunity persuaded my father and me to switch schools. For about a month we were searching for a new school. Ultimately we ended up landing at Osborn MST. At first I really thought I was going to have trouble at this school because of the gangs and the neighborhood. Surprisingly, it was totally the opposite of what was expected.

Once the first semester started I quickly learned that this school was more of a family than anything and I give all respect to our Principal Mrs. Tanya Bowman for that. I can honestly say that she was one of the most inspirational figures I’ve ever met and I was blessed to have her in my life. She’s done more for me individually in one year than the whole Cass Tech staff has done in three! Mrs. Bowman was like a mother to her students and she made it her never wavering responsibility to take care of her children. Mrs. Bowman made sure all of her students had all that they needed to succeed in this world.

As a young man coming from a home with no mother, I honestly looked to Mrs. Bowman as that mother figure that I was missing. There has been times that I’ve asked Mrs. Bowman to help me with homework assignments and she’d stop whatever she was doing in the middle of her busy day just to make sure I was doing my work properly. I’ve stayed late after school for tutoring with no way home and she made sure I got home safe! There are so many different situations in which Mrs. Bowman has helped and improved my life (and the lives of all her students), and to think this all happened (for me) in one year. That makes me wonder, how many lives has she impacted over the years?

Judge Roberts, the majority of students from Osborn are either in school and/or working in full-time jobs because of Ms. Bowman. We still count on her for help (financial and otherwise) to this very day. Everyone else let us go once we graduated, but Ms. Bowman kept her promise to see us through high school and out of college. It would devastate us all if she were not here for us. Mrs. Bowman will always be one of my best friends, awesome educators, and Godly inspirations and no one will ever persuade me otherwise. I only hope the courts can see her as we do.

Sincerely,

D’Jaun Currie