Is exam school admissions a zero-sum game? A student from Chinatown says that’s not fair.

“… make more buildings.”

Mika Liu (bottom row, second from the right) speaks to the Exam School Task Force May 21.

The Exam School Admissions Task Force heard public comment at every meeting. On May 21, a student from Chinatown delivered an eloquent protest against what she sees as the exclusion of hard-working and talented Chinatown students.

But she didn’t want to revert to the old admissions system. She wanted the exam school curriculum offered at more schools.

Here’s what she had to say, slightly abridged:

Hi everybody, my name is Mika Liu.

I am 10 and a fourth grader in Quincy Elementary School in Chinatown.

When I was seven, my mom and I went to a 7/11 close to my school. There was a white elderly lady there and she yelled at me, “Go home to where you came from!” I was too young to comprehend, but I was frightened. Now that I am older, I understand what she meant: I don’t belong here.

When I think of the impact of a zip code policy to Chinatown, I think of my 7/11 experience. I am an American. I live ten minutes away from my school, yet this elderly lady didn’t want me here.

I have friends who, despite having a B-plus to A average, are told by you that they do not belong in the exam schools because they live in Chinatown 02111. A sixth grader string ensemble mate of mine had an A-minus GPA. I played the violin with her, and she lives in affordable housing in Chinatown.

Her parents don’t speak English; her mom is a hotel cleaner and her dad is a restaurant worker. She worked very hard to prepare her audition videos that got her into a prestigious music summer camp in Vermont on scholarship.

Where BPS denied her an exam school seat, another place accepted her, recognizing her talent, hard work, and her family’s financial needs. My question is, can you do that for families like my friend’s by changing your zip code plan so you do not exclude qualified kids in Chinatown anymore?

During Black History Month, I shared a video of myself saying if America loved Black people and Black culture, it would be less segregated and more diverse, where people of different races will be living in the same buildings, neighborhoods, and towns.

I believe that for exam schools, too.

But we do not exclude Chinese residents from the building to make more room for Black and Latino students. We make more buildings.

We expand our seats to include more qualified disadvantaged students.

Why don’t you make Quincy Upper School an exam school? Then you will have more space for the students who are excluded on your zip code plan.

Finally, I want to speak to my Chinese uncles and aunts out there. We do not leave Chinatown, we do not leave Boston. We depend on each other to make our schools excellent. We need to stick together. We are the descendants of dragons.

Quincy Elementary and Quincy Upper are good schools. Even though we do not get millions of dollars as donations, if I end up in Quincy Upper School, I will get a good education. In fact, I will get into an even better college than my Boston Latin School brother.

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More on exam school admissions

*Crunch time for exam school admissions: Task force members seek agreement despite deep splits, June 14*

*What is “rigor”?, June 15*

*Should “exam” schools be just for the “best,” or all who can handle the work? June 16*

*Jeri Robinson: Replicate BLS to meet demand, add attractive magnet schools. No more winners and losers. June 17*

*Test or no test? June 22*

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