NESRI: National Economic & Social Rights Initiative

LOCAL projectS on dignity in public schools

Photo of Rally for Dignity in Schools

Public schools in the U.S. that serve low-income students of color too often fail to ensure that young people are taught in an environment of respect, tolerance and recognition for the inherent dignity of every person. Students face educators that have biased assumptions about their capacities and potential, and suffer regular incidents of verbal mistreatment, exclusion and criminalization that humiliate and de-motivate them from learning. As a result, an institutional culture has developed in many schools that violates the child’s human right to dignity and fails to meet educational needs.

The Dignity in Public Schools Project promotes students’ right to dignity and education in U.S. public schools. The project focuses on three areas that impact dignity in school: 1) Mistreatment in the classroom; 2) Harsh school discipline policies that deny access to education and push young people out of school; and 3) Destructive police involvement in discipline that criminalizes students. NESRI partners with social justice organizations at the local level to promote change in school district policies by documenting human rights violations, promoting human rights-based recommendations for change, and providing human rights workshops for community members.

LOCAL PROJECTS:

REPORTS:

Teachers Talk: School Culture, Safety and Human Rights

Deprived of Dignity: Degrading Treatment and Abusive Discipline in New York City and Los Angeles Public Schools, March 2007

Despojados de dignidad, Resumen Ejecutivo

Promoting Dignity in New York City Public Schools
NESRI works with Teachers Unite to document teacher views about what makes schools safe and to organize teachers in support of grassroots organizations concerned with discipline strategies that criminalize students. Read our Teachers Talk report.

NESRI’s Teachers Talk Report Featured by Edutopia.org
On May 13, 2009, an article from Edutopia.org, “How to Develop Positive Classroom Management,” featured findings from the recent report, Teachers Talk: School Culture, Safety and Human Rights, released by NESRI and Teachers Unite in October 2008.

NESRI and Teachers Unite are members of the Student Safety Coalition which includes the New York Civil Liberties Unions, the Urban Youth Collaborative, Advocates for Children, Make the Road NY, the Correctional Association, the Legal Aid Society, Legal Services of New York City, NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Children’s Defense Fund – NY. These organizations are all working actively on issues of school safety, police presence in schools and the juvenile justice system in New York City. The coalition is advocating for passage of the Student Safety Act legislation to improve oversight of school safety, and working to support successful school safety models. NESRI has written commentaries in local press and testified before the City Council and Department of Education about these issues:

NESRI Testifies at NYC Discipline Code Hearing
On June 24, 2009, NESRI and other members of the Student Safety Coalition testified at a public hearing held by the New York City Department of Education (DOE) on the Discipline Code. NESRI criticized changes proposed by the DOE which continue to prioritize zero-tolerance suspensions and removals, and instead recommended that the DOE adopt positive models for discipline that are consistent with fundamental human rights principles for ensuring dignity and the full development of young people. Read the testimony >>>

Article in NY Daily News on conference to explore alternative discipline, October 13, 2008
NESRI presentation to NYC Department of Education Symposium on Reducing Suspensions, April 14, 2008
The Crackdown on New York City Students, NESRI Article in Gotham Gazette, February 11, 2008
Article in NY Daily News on 5-year-old student handcuffed in a Queens public school and NESRI’s Letter to the Editor, January 29, 2007
NESRI Testimony at City Council Hearing on Police in Schools, October 2007
NYCLU Press Release on City Council Hearing
Testimony to the Dept. of Education on NYC School Discipline Code, August 2007

Working with CADRE to Promote the Right to Dignity and Participation in Los Angeles Schools
NESRI works with Community Asset Development Re-defining Education (CADRE) to support their human rights campaign to reduce the use of suspensions and “push outs” in South Los Angeles schools and to ensure that parents have a say in how discipline policies are developed and implemented. CADRE is a community-based, grassroots organization forged by low-income parents of color in South Los Angeles in 2001.

CADRE Victory - The Los Angeles Unified School District Board adopted a new Discipline Foundation Policy for School-wide Positive Behavior on February 27, 2007 aimed at reducing suspensions through “positive behavior support” that prevents and constructively intervenes in patterns of misbehavior. CADRE organized support in Los Angeles and around the country to help pass this new policy, which represents a positive step toward changing the harsh suspensions that students now face. CADRE is now monitoring implementation of the policy.

South Los Angeles People’s Hearing - On June 14, 2006, CADRE held a South LA People’s Hearing to share parent testimonies and research on human rights violations resulting from school discipline practices, and to present their human rights demands for a new discipline policy focused on prevention and supporting students.