This edition of the Equity Dispatch states that on their own, students often fail to realize the systemic nature of school problems and internalize the belief that they are to blame for school failures. Without the guidance and support of advocates to transform the system, they may engage in self-defeating resistance—the behaviors we typically see, interpret, and track before labeling them as dropouts, including defiance, failure to complete assignments, and truancy. These are symptoms of a systemic problem that will only be resolved when we stop pushing out and subtracting and begin inviting our young adults to the table to chart a course for their high school experience and determine for themselves the symbolic value of their high school diploma.