About
Our Mandate
Black and Brown students deserve to learn in an atmosphere focused on their nurture, not pathways to prison. Black and Brown children should feel safe at school, not worried about ending up in criminal institutions.
We support a school environment that creates safety for all students, staff and administration. Everyone in a school community must understand the components of conflict and violence, and how we commit to handle those. In an environment of safety, the School community should understand not only external strife and threats but those that exist internally.
Our Demands
We demand that mandatory trauma-informed, de-escalation training occur bi-annually for all teachers and staff.
We demand that “security force” personnel, from whatever source, be delabeled as police/security officers. They need a title, clear job description and qualifications focused on transformative justice.
We demand to see staff hired who are clinically and transformatively trained in healing practices, who can deliver holistic care to individuals within the school community that are exhibiting signs of distress or trauma.
We NOW demand that grief counseling become available for the entire school over the course of 2 weeks via the introduction of an additional mental healthcare professional after a school community experiences a death. We have to come to the realization that our children are apart of this society and the larger community. Most of our kids come from working class backgrounds and others come from segregated neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods are targeted by crime as well as overpolicing for a multitude of reasons. They also have had friends and loved ones pass away due to violence.
What we want:
DIVEST
The money spent on all forms of school policing needs to be invested in creating safe, high-quality schools for all students.
DEPRIORITIZE
De-escalation interventions, supportive student services, and restorative practices as primary and the only interventions.
DEMILITARIZE
Complete disarming of all school personnel by removing all weapons and forms of restraints.
DECRIMINALIZE
Eliminate all laws, statutes, and policies that criminalize age-appropriate behavior. Create laws that require the use of alternatives to arrests and police-related consequences.
DELIGITMIZE
School policing in all forms does not equate to safety, especially for students of color.
DISMANTLE
End the practice of policing youth!