This year the Georgia Partners of the Dignity in Schools Campaign hosted two recent events in conjunction with the National Week of Action. On October 4th, we hosted the 2nd Annual March and Rally Against School Pushout at the Casey University Avenue Site in the Pittsburgh community of Atlanta. The second event was a School Discipline Legal Workshop presented by Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Gwinnett.
Before zero tolerance policies, children found themselves in the principal’s office for minor disturbances. These days misbehaving children – often children with disabilities, the LGBT community and children of color – find themselves arrested and sentenced in juvenile courts. The results are often disastrous to their academic career. A single mistake or lapse in judgment must not change the entire course of a child’s life. It’s time to recognize that children make mistakes and should have an opportunity for a teachable moment rather than a tribunal and court date.
The march was designed to shine a light on the secret world of school pushout and the school to prison pipeline. The rally following the march was about the importance of artistic expression and the role of the community as a catalyst for change. The event included pizza, poetry slams, musicians, and local area businesses and organizations dedicated to making public education a positive experience. Students with personal school discipline or pushout experience performed and shared their experience through music, poetry and storytelling. Local artist Shalom Little also performed and shared his school experience.
The following Saturday, Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School offered a free legal workshop regarding school discipline at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Gwinnett. We discussed education law with an engaging question and answer session and then provided private sessions with legal experts so parents could get information more specific to their individual case. It was a great opportunity to explain parental rights rights and the rights of students when faced with zero tolerance policies and life-changing discipline issues.
The Dignity in Schools Campaign is a national organization dedicated to ending the school to prison pipeline. Their partners in Georgia for the Week of Action include Gwinnett SToPP, Georgia Equality, Georgia Safe Schools Coalition, Gwinnett Human Relations Commission, Interfaith Children’s Movement, the ACLU of Georgia, and Lambda Legal.