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October 8, 2008

Student Safety Coalition's Action Week to Educate Students about their Rights with Police in Schools


***For Immediate Release***

October 8th, 2008 - Throughout the week, students from the Urban Youth Collaborative and the New York City Student Safety Coalition will distribute "Know Your Rights with Police in Schools" informational cards to students at their schools throughout the city. The distribution is part of the Student Safety Coalition's action week to instruct students on how to protect their rights when interacting with the police in schools. All week students, educators, attorneys and social workers, will hand out thousands of cards at city schools that have a large police presence.

Since the NYPD took control of school safety in 1998, it has installed a massive police presence inside the city's public schools. There are more than 5,000 school safety agents and at least 200 armed police officers assigned to the schools. Students have increasingly come into contact, and sometimes conflict, with school safety agents, who are uniformed civilian NYPD employees with the power to arrest.

Along with the NYCLU and the Student Safety Coalition, students from the Urban Youth Collaborative are working to pass the Student Safety Act. The Student Safety Act will provide much-needed transparency and accountability to school security practices and their impact on the educational environment.

WHAT:  Distribution of "Know Your Rights about Police in Schools" informational cards at New York City High Schools

WHERE and WHEN:  Following a series of actions earlier in the week, students and advocates will be distributing these leaflets at the following locations:

Wednesday, October 8th, 2-4 p.m.
  • Bushwick Campus High School, 400 Irving Avenue, Brooklyn
  • Hillcrest High School, 16005 Highland Ave, Queens
  • Washington Irving High School, 40 Irving Place, Manhattan
Friday, October 10th, 7-9 a.m.
  • Samuel J. Tilden, 5800 Tilden Ave at E 58th St., Brooklyn
Friday, October 10th, 2-4 p.m.
  • JHS 172 Powell Middle School,509 W.129th St. at Amsterdam Ave, Manhattan
  • Bushwick Campus High School, 400 Irving Avenue, Brooklyn
WHO:  The Urban Youth Collaborative and its partners in the New York City Student Safety Coalition: The NYCLU,The ACLU's Racial Justice Project, Advocates for Children's Juvenile Rights Project, The Correctional Association of New York's Juvenile Justice Project, The Legal Aid Society of New York's Adolescent Intervention and Diversion Team and Juvenile Rights Practice, Legal Services of New York City, Make the Road New York, National Education and Social Rights Initiative's Human Right to Education Program, New York Law School Teachers Unite.


More on: Public Education 


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Latin American Integration Center and Make the Road by Walking celebrated the announcement of their merger at SEIU 32BJ's Auditorium on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 to a packed audience. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, joined us to celebrate the event.