trevordayschool

TREVOR DAY SCHOOL / 59 when my daughter was born. It was humbling. I had a lot of bravado before then. I thought I knew it all, but when I looked at this little person, I realized, "I know nothing." So I was humbled, and it grounded me in the best way. Seeing her develop is amazing, and whenever people say she's like me, I think, they're doing her a disservice. She's so much better than I could have even imagined being. I'm intensely proud of both of my children. Trevor: What are some of your proudest professional moments? Ayesha: I'm most passionate about my current role, because I can immediately impact change in someone's life. It's an incredible privilege that I get to do what I think is right or wrong. Though I could be appealed; my decision could be reversed, but that's going to be months or years down the line. Today was a good day for a couple of reasons. There was a youth who was in detention all weekend on a minor charge. He's from Brooklyn but was arrested in Nassau County and he did not have a single family member who had the means to find their way to Nassau County to pick him up. So, he came before me today and the case is being transferred to Brooklyn and I was told that he would have to spend another night in the juvenile detention center. Our youth are no longer incarcerated in the manner that they were years ago. We make every effort to have them return to their homes and receive services in the community. There are very few maximum security juvenile detention centers left, even statewide, but I happen to have one next door to me, so that's where my kids end up staying. Because we incarcerate so few youths, at least at that maximum-security level, a non-violent youth does not belong there. It's nightmarish and he already spent three days because of the holiday weekend. In the normal process, the case would get put over to tomorrow, and he'd be transported to Kings County to see a judge there for his disposition (I resolved his case today) and likely be released because his family could get to Kings. It's 10:45 am, and I asked, "Why can't we send him to Brooklyn today?" They said, "Well, it takes 24 hours for the transport paperwork to go through," and I asked, "Does it really?" So, I just scheduled the case to be heard in Brooklyn for this afternoon. Now they must take him to Brooklyn right away, and that youth doesn't spend another night here. They kept telling me I couldn't do it, and I just said, "That's the privilege of me being the judge. I'm going to sign my name on this piece of paper and then someone has to do what I say." You know, this event isn't going to be in Newsday, but I love those little moments. To be disruptive in a good way in some of these kids' lives. I think the things I'm proudest of are the things that no one will notice, recognize, or even remember. But, you know, if there's a kid out there with a fond memory about some engagement that I've had in their life, then that's the one. Trevor: You were part of a transitional 8th-grade class in the school's history, just as a high school was added. What were some of those memories that you have from that time? Ayesha: I don't spend that much time going back to those years, but the academic setup really worked well for me. As I said, I always colored outside of the lines... I remember we had a math lab and somewhere we could do assignments at our own pace; I don't remember having a traditional math class. We had the lab, and I could go and do the assignments. I would check the folder and sit down, and I would just do all the math assignments immediately. The faculty was there to respond to me, so even if I started working ahead on the assignments, they let me and would just give me a little tutoring session to make sure I understood it and let me go at my own pace. They put me in a position to be able to compete with these kids who were learning at these other incredible Ayesha's 8th-grade portrait from The Day School yearbook. I N S I D E T R E VO R T R E VO R T R A N S L AT E S F E AT U R E A R T I C L E S A L U M N I

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