Tiara isn't the only one who believes in education, not incarceration!
On Monday, March 12, the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board
joined the chorus of voices calling on Chicago Public Schools to overhaul its approach to school discipline--beginning with revisions to the Student Code of Conduct that place stronger limits on the use of suspensions.
Online, the editorial led with a video of VOYCE leader Davisha Junius speaking at our March 5 press conference about attending multiple elementary schools where she was suspended and arrested for minor infractions and forced to transfer due to a lack of special education services. You can watch her powerful testimony in the video at the bottom of this post.
In the face of these personal stories and the growing body of research on racial disparities in the use of suspensions in Chicago, the Sun-Times editorial board called CPS a national "poster child" for an extreme "suspension policy [that] doesn't keep kids safe" and "a discipline code that promotes punishment over intervention." Read the whole editorial
here.
We're winning the public debate on what makes our schools safe and our discipline code just. It's an exciting time for us. Thanks for your support.
Davisha testifies at VOYCE's March 5, 2012 press conference.
