[SDCPJ] LGBTQ Community Rallies Against School to Prison Pipeline

LGBTQ Community Rallies Against School to Prison Pipeline

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1486152404977656/?ref=br_tf

WHAT: Rally and visibility awareness event as a part of the Dignity in Schools Campaign National Week of Action Against School Pushout

WHEN: Friday October 10^th, 4:30pm – 6:00pm

WHERE: SDUSD Board of Education, 4100 Normal St San Diego, CA 92103

WHO: Parents, youth, educators and advocates. Featured guests/speakers will be Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, members of Canvass for a Cause, and various students

Canvass for a Cause's Event is Part of Coordinated Efforts around the Country to Take Action Against School "Pushout"

 

[San Diego, CA] – On Friday October 10, 2014, members of Canvass for a Cause, a grassroots queer and trans rights non-profit, are bringing their voices to the Fifth Annual National Week of Action on School Pushout by rallying at the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education. The event will be held at 4100 Normal St, 92103 at 4:30p.m. This action is part of Canvass for a Cause's larger Safe Kids Campaign, which works to provide safer spaces for all queer and trans youth, and will discuss Proposition 47, a California proposition that would permanently decrease the amount of people going to state prisons by reclassifying lower level non-violent offenses and using money saved to support after-school programs for at-risk youth.

 

Canvass for a Cause will join over 50 organizations in more than 20 states to demand that our school systems adopt positive approaches to addressing behavior problems instead of relying on zero tolerance discipline policies, school police or armed guards, and other punitive practices that push young people out of school. According to SDUSD data from 2010-2011, black students are at least 4 times more likely to be suspended than white students. Data about LGBT students isn't as clearly available, but personal experiences from community members reveal an alarming trend of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students students dropping out due to nonsupportive faculty, staff and students.

 

The Week of Action, which will take place from October 4 to October 11, is being coordinated by the Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC), a national coalition of more than 80 organizations led by youth, parents, educators, civil rights leaders and social justice advocates that promotes alternatives to zero-tolerance discipline policies. Such policies have been found to result in much higher suspension and expulsion rates, often for minor misbehavior, fueling a "school-to-prison" pipeline.

 

During the week of action, DSC member organizations will hold rallies, marches, forums and trainings calling on states and school districts to hire counselors and school psychologists, and train teachers and school personnel in using positive discipline practices that build healthy relationships between teachers and students and treat discipline as a teaching moment. Canvass for a Cause, along with other DSC members, will also be calling on school districts to address disparities in punishment and referrals of students to the criminal justice system, which disproportionately affects low-income youth, youth of color, LGBTQ students, and those with disabilities.

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Canvass for a Cause is a 501(c)4 grassroots non-profit who fights for LGBT rights that works through a lens of intersectionality. CFAC identifies as strictly radical, always queer, and has been mobilizing and educating the public on queer and trans rights since 2009.