Since the rise of COVID-19, we have seen a national push for responses in areas in which neglect has occurred nationally. COVID-19 in the United States has led to deaths, intensification of trauma, and the widespread recognition of the racial disparities within the United States. Although these disparities are nothing new, it has garnered a…
The pandemic of racism has plagued African Americans for over four hundred years, increasing in intensity and mutating into different forms throughout this time; therefore, racism did not magically invent itself when an African American father was killed, so it appalls me when Americans say that now, today, made them aware of African American’s plight…
Someone somewhere said, “Build it and they will come”. Gwinnett SToPP did just that for this year’s Dignity in Schools Week of Action event that was hosted at Georgia Gwinnett College in collaboration with the End Mass Incarceration GA Network, Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities, GGC Psi Chi Honor Society and GGC Student Government…
On December 5, 2018, the Communities for Just Schools Fund (CJSF) released “Do the Harder Work–Create Cultures of Connectedness in Schools,” a report responding to the proceedings of the Federal Commission on School Safety and calls to “harden” schools. The Commission was appointed after the Parkland tragedy to make “meaningful and actionable recommendations to keep students safe…
Gwinnett Coalition to Dismantle the School To Prison Pipeline (Gwinnett SToPP), Georgia Council for Developmental Disabilities (GCDD), and Interfaith Children’s Movement in conjunction with the Dignity in Schools Week Of Action, hosted “From Lockers to Lockdown: Black Boys, Special Education and the School to Prison Pipeline” last Saturday. The event explored racial equity in schools and…
Earlier this year, The U.S. Department of Education (ED) met with advocates to discuss the possible repeal of the federal school discipline guidance. As a result of a suggestion received during the meeting, ED decided to hold listening sessions around the country to hear more from stakeholders. Following the Parkland, FL school shootings Ed…
Toyasha Vaughn, 2014 Parent Leadership Institute graduate has been hard at work in Gwinnett County establishing an empowerment program for girls called S.E.L.F. (Self-Determination, Empowerment, Love Freedom). Ivy Preparatory Academy at Kirkwood, a gender-focused charter school, partnered with Toyasha to implement Professional Development Wednesday. She provided age-appropriate workshops with the entire student body focused on…
Dignity in Schools Campaign members, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Partners for Each and Every Child launched the ESSA Engage for Equity campaign and pre-released its accompanying jointly developed Toolkit. The campaign is designed to empower students, parents and other stakeholders to hold conversations in their local school that can only positively impact education. This…
On Friday, December 8, 2017, the Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) and NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) attended the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) briefing entitled, The School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Intersections of Students of Color with Disabilities. It is an independent, bipartisan, fact-finding federal agency charged with enhancing the development and enforcement of national…
In the face of increasing threats to student civil rights throughout the nation, Gwinnett SToPP has joined with more than two dozen leading education and civil rights groups to launch the Education Civil Rights Alliance (ECR Alliance). Schools should serve, educate, empower and be safe for all students, yet all across America today, far too…