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June 6, 2012 
Students and Others Rally Before Discipline Code Hearing
By
Theodoric Meyer
/ New York Times
About 100 parents, teachers, students and advocates turned out for a hearing at Stuyvesant High School on Tuesday evening on proposed changes to the city’s discipline code, which would, among other things, lessen the number of offenses for which students could be suspended.
Many of those who spoke at the hearing, including Daniel Dromm, a City Council member and a former New York City teacher, applauded the revisions but said that they did not go far enough to make sure students were not suspended for small incidents of misbehavior.
The criticisms came a day after Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker and a frontrunner in next year’s mayoral election, and Robert Jackson, another City Council member, sent Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg a letter urging him to limit suspensions even more. Mr. Jackson echoed those comments at a rally outside Stuyvesant before the hearing protesting suspension policies.
Adilka Pimentel [a member of Make The Road New York], 22, a student at Morrisville State College in upstate New York who spoke at the rally, said her brother and sister had both been suspended for infractions as minor as wearing a hoodie and being in the hallway when they were not supposed to be.
“That is not fair for my mom who is a single parent and works extremely hard to support her family,” she said.
For original article, click here.
More on: Public Education 
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 Victory for Immigrant Families: Preventing Unjust Deportations in NYCOn March 18, 2013, Mayor Bloomberg signed new legislation to stop federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from using NYC’s criminal justice system to deport thousands of New Yorkers.
Building on legislation we helped to win just over a year ago, Local Laws 21 and 22 prohibit not only the Department of Correction but now also the NYPD from spending millions of city taxpayer dollars to hold individuals on behalf of ICE agents for detention and deportation. Each year, thousands of New York families will stay together who would otherwise have been torn apart by overly aggressive, indiscriminate immigration enforcement.
At a moment when the country is debating immigration reform, with these laws, New York City sends a clear message to Washington that tearing apart thousands of immigrant families is bad policy.
With your support, we look forward to winning national reform that keeps families together. We thank our partners at the Center for Popular Democracy, the Cardozo Immigration Justice Clinic and the bills’ sponsors, NYC Council Speaker Quinn and Council Member Mark-Viverito, for their courageous leadership. 
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