Blog
Thu, 09/08/2011 - 10:49am
DOE Releases New Discipline Code; Students, Parents, Teachers Say Changes Not Enough to Fix Broken System
As students return to school this week, youth, parents, public school teachers and advocates with the...
Wed, 08/31/2011 - 10:49am
After completing a six session intensive summer workshop series on Restorative Justice principals and practices, Leopolda Villalobos, is not satisfied. "This was just a taste of what this new way of thinking is. I realize how this is not just about helping the kids but helping me to grow as a person and I would like to meet regularly and keep going."
Ms. Villalobos is a participant in...
Thu, 08/11/2011 - 12:43pm
On July 25 and 26, students, parents, educators, and advocates from 11 states, representing 26 different organizations, traveled to Washington, D.C. for two days of meetings with Members of Congress to raise awareness and build support for urgently needed school discipline reform. The trip to Washington came less than a week after...
Thu, 08/11/2011 - 12:37pm
The Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) commends the Council of State Governments (CSG) for its report on school disciplinary practices in Texas, and calls on other states across the country to make similar commitments to investigate the negative impacts of suspension and expulsion on students academic outcomes.
The CSG...
Thu, 08/11/2011 - 12:37pm
Over one hundred students, parents, and advocates gathered to speak at press conference and public hearing on high suspension rates, school pushout, and positive alternatives
...
Thu, 08/04/2011 - 2:50pm
By Annette, Fuentes
Here are two tales of two very similar school incidents and how the principals at the respective schools responded in very different ways to student misbehavior. They both happened in California public schools within a few days of each other, so reading about them in the news in close succession brought home for me the sharp contrast between the harsh policing...
Thu, 08/04/2011 - 2:50pm
By Annette Fuentes
When I was reporting and researching for my book, Lockdown High: When the Schoolhouse Becomes a Jailhouse, I learned about the problems of high zero-tolerance suspensions in a Florida school district and the efforts by legal advocates there to turn it around. I found my way to Barbara Briggs of the...
Thu, 08/04/2011 - 2:01pm
Across the nation, youth, parents, community members, educators and advocates joined together and raised their voices last week to testify before school boards, hold town hall meetings and organize teach-ins to advocate for positive alternatives to zero tolerance discipline with the same unified goal: to push back for dignity and fairness in schools. The actions, taking place in 15 cities...
Thu, 08/04/2011 - 2:01pm
The Dignity in Schools Campaign-NY Chapter held a session on "Organizing for Change" at the one day conference, "Restoring Community in Schools: Promoting Positive Alternatives to the School to Prison Pipeline," hosted by the ...
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 3:31pm
By Mariame Kaba, Project NIA
On April 7th, the NAACP released a report titled Misplaced Priorities: Over Incarcerate Under Educate. The report "examines America's escalating levels of prison spending and its impact on state budgets and our nation’s children.” It offers profiles of 6 cities to...