Highlights from the Week of Action

LOS ANGELES, CA
On Wednesday, October 5th, DSC-Los Angeles hosted a virtual rally with participants from Fresno, Oakland, Los Angeles and Sacramento. Over 100 people from Los Angeles alone participated in the rally with many more video-conferencing in from other cities. Claudia Gomez of the Youth Justice Coalition shared her story of being pushed out of the Los Angeles Unified School District through a combination of a lack of appropriate support services, truancy ticketing, suspensions and expulsion. Claudia, who successfully graduated from high school in 2008, called for the protection of students’ human right to education, saying “education with dignity recognizes the school as a community and education as a human right, not just a cycle of tests and punishments.” Other speakers included representatives from DSC-LA member groups CADRE, CDF-CA, the Community Rights Campaign of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, and Public Counsel.

- Click here to view photos from the DSC-LA event.
- Video footage from DSC-LA event: Part 1 & Part 2.

DENVER, CO
On Wednesday, October 5th, Padres y Jovenes Unidos launched its 100 Days of Colorado Stories. Padres members Dalilah Vasquez and her father shared the first story of the series, relating her personal experience starting in middle school with the unnecessary involvement of law enforcement in minor discipline incidents. Padres will continue to release one story a day until the January 12th start of the Colorado legislative session as part of their work to pass state legislation that: limits police interference in schools to serious threats to school safety; provides guidance to school staff and police officers; and provides support for alternatives that focus on students’ needs and puts their education first.

- Click here to view photos from the Denver, CO event.
- Video footage from the Padres y Jovenes Unidos event in Denver, CO.

LEXINGTON & McCOMB, MS
With over 15 forums and actions taking place in different cities and towns throughout the state, Mississippi had the most events during the Week of Action. For example, on Saturday, October 1 youth organizers with the Nollie Jenkins Family Center kicked-off the Week of Action with a “Know Your Rights” training in Lexington, MS. On Tuesday, October 4th, youth members of the MS Coalition for the Prevention of Schoolhouse to Jailhouse and the McComb Youth Council NAACP hosted a community round-table and educational forum for parents, students and community leaders in McComb, MS.

- Music Video: “Pushout is Dissatisfaction" by Nollie Jenkins Family Center.
- See photos from the MS Coalition community round-table.

NEW YORK, NY
On October 4th, over 100 students, parents, advocates, and teachers from DSC-New York held a rally at City Hall Park followed by a march to police headquarters to speak out against punitive discipline policies and over policing in public schools. Speakers at the event included representatives from DSC-New York member groups DRUM, NSA Parent Action Committee, Sistas and Brothas United, and Teachers Unite, as well as Queens City Council Member Daniel Dromm. As part of the rally, the Bushwick Campus Street Theatre group, Bushwick Stage Nerds, performed a visual representation of students passing through a metal detector as they enter school in the morning, getting stopped and searched by a school safety officer and being made late to class.

- Click here to view photos from the DSC-NY rally.
- Click here for video from the DSC-NY rally.

WASHINGTON, DC
On Wednesday, October 5th, the DSC, National Education Policy Center (NEPC), and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform hosted a press briefing at the National Press Club for the release of the report "Discipline Policies, Successful Schools and Racial Justice." The report, authored by Daniel Losen of The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto de Derechos Civiles at UCLA, analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights and found that more than 28% of Black middle school boys had been suspended at least once, compared with 10% of white males nationwide.

Speakers at the press briefing included DSC members Wanda Parker, a parent organizer with Citizens for a Better Greenville (Greenville, MS), and Edward Ward, a youth member of Blocks Together (Chicago, IL).

- Click here for videos from the NEPC Conference.

Organizations that took part in the National Week of Action include:

Access Living, ACLU of Eastern Missouri, ACLU of Pennsylvania, ACLU of Southern California, Action Communication and Education Reform, Activists With A Purpose, Advocates for Children of New York, Advocates for Children's Services (a project of Legal Aid of North Carolina), Advocates for Justice and Education, Atlanta Community Engagement Team (ACET), Black Organizing Project, Blocks Together, Boston Parent Organizing Network (BPON), Boston Student Advisory Council, Boston-area Youth Organizing Project, Center for Community Alternatives, Children’s Defense Fund – California, Children's Defense Fund - New York, Citizens for a Better Greenville, COFI, Community Asset Development Re-defining Education (CADRE), Community Rights Campaign of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, Concerned Citizens for a Better Tunica County, Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), Dignity in Schools – NY, DSC-Los Angeles, Education Not Incarceration, Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC), Fannie Lou Hamer Center for Change, Freedom House, Future of Tomorrow, Generation Y, Girls for Gender Equity, Gwinnett STOPP, Interfaith Children's Movement, Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL), Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools, Lambda Legal's Southern Regional Office, Make the Road New York, Mass Transit Street Theatre, Morehouse Chapter of the NAACP, MS Coalition for the Prevention of Schoolhouse to Jailhouse, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI), New Settlement Apartments Parent Action Committee, New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), Nollie Jenkins Family Center, Padres y Jovenes Unidos, Parents Organized to Win, Educate and Renew - Policy Action Council (POWER-PAC), Portland Parent Union, Power U Center for Social Change, Public Counsel, Safe Schools Healthy Students - New Orleans Recovery District, Sistas and Brothas United, SNAPPS, Sunflower County Parents and Students Organization, Teachers Unite, The Commutation Project, Urban Youth Collaborative (UYC), West Town Leadership United (WTLU), Women of God's Design Ministry, Young Adults Striving for Success (YASS), Young People's Project - Greater Boston, Youth Innovation Movement Solutions, Youth Justice Coalition, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Youth on Board, Youth on the Move, YWCA of the Greater Triangle.