October 1-8: Students, Parents, Teachers and Education Advocates to Engage

in Simultaneous Actions and Events Around the Country

New York, NY - Throughout the week of October 1-8, 2011, thousands of parents, youth, and educators will participate in student-led actions and events in 27 cities to expose the school pushout crisis in our nation and advocate for the human right of every young person to a quality education and to be treated with dignity. The events and actions will include street theater, public forums, rallies, restorative justice trainings, and more.

“In our communities, we know that the ‘dropout crisis’ is actually a ‘pushout crisis’, young people are being pushed out of school by zero-tolerance policies and unwelcoming school environments,” said Edward Ward, a youth member of Blocks Together in Chicago, IL. “Our government and the Department of Education must play an active role in making sure that students across the country are graduating high school and not being criminalized and pushed into the prison system.”

According to U.S. Department of Education data, public schools are currently suspending and expelling students at a rate nearly double that of 1974. Each year, over three million students are suspended and over 100,000 are expelled nationally. Students of color and students with disabilities are disproportionately affected by these punitive practices when compared to their peers. African-American students are nearly three times as likely to be suspended and 3.5 times as likely to be expelled as white students, and Latino students are 1.5 times as likely to be suspended and twice as likely to be expelled as white students. Students with disabilities are suspended and expelled at a rate roughly twice that of their non-disabled peers.

The Dignity in Schools Campaign’s National Week of Action brings together organizations and individuals from 13 states to call for an end to zero tolerance policies, for the implementation of positive approaches to discipline like restorative justice practices and positive behavior supports in place of solely relying on suspensions and expulsions, and for the passage of federal legislation that promotes positive school climates.

Events and actions will be held in the following cities: Fresno, Oakland, Los Angeles and Sacramento, CA; Denver, CO; Washington, DC; Miami, FL; Atlanta and Lawrenceville, GA; Chicago, IL; New Orleans, LA; Boston, MA; Duck Hill, Eupora, Greenville, Grenada, Indianola, Jackson, Kilmichael, Lexington, Tunica, and Tupelo, MS; St. Louis, MO; Raleigh, NC; New York, NY; Portland, OR; and Philadelphia, PA.

Organizations participating in the Week of Action include:

Access Living, ACLU of Eastern Missouri, ACLU of Pennsylvania, Action Communication and Education Reform, Activists With a Purpose, Advocates for Justice and Education, Atlanta Community Engagement Team, The Black Organizing Project, Blocks Together, Boston-area Youth Organizing Project, Boston Parent Organizing Network, Boston Student Advisory Council, Citizens for a, Better Greenville, CADRE, Citizens for Educational Awareness, COFI, The Commutation Project, Concerned Citizens for a Better Tunica County, DSC-Los Angeles, DSC-Louisiana, DSC-New York, Fannie Lou Hamer Center for Change, Freedom House, Generation Y, Girls for Gender Equity, Gwinnett STOPP, Interfaith Children's Movement, Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools, Labor/Community Strategy Center, Lambda Legal - Southern Regional Office, MS Coalition for the Prevention of Schoolhouse to Jailhouse, Nollie Jenkins Family Center, Padres y Jóvenes Unidos, Portland Parent Union, POWER PAC, Power U, Safe Schools Healthy Students – New Orleans Recover School District, Sunflower County Parents and Students Organization, Teachers Unite, The Women of God's Design Ministry, Young Adults Striving for Success, Young People’s Project – Greater Boston, Youth Innovation Movement Solutions, Youth Justice Coalition, Youth on Board, YWCA of Greater Triangle.

The Dignity in Schools Campaign is a coalition of youth, parents, educators, civil rights organizations, and social justice advocates working to ensure the human right of every child to a quality education and to be treated with dignity. The DSC challenges the systemic problem of “push out” and promotes local and national alternatives to a culture of zero-tolerance, punishment and removal in our nation’s schools.

For more information please visit - http://www.dignityinschools.org

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