“Challenging the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Harms and
Remedies”
Conference to Be Held at New York Law School
New York, NY—The Racial Justice Program at New York Law School’s Justice Action Center and the Racial Justice Program of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) will present a daylong conference “Challenging the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Harms and Remedies” on Wednesday, April 1 from 8:15 a.m. to 6 p.m. at New York Law School.
“Every child deserves to receive a quality education, but many of our most at-risk children are being cheated out of this basic right due to the ‘school-to-prison pipeline,’ which pushes them from the classroom and either directly or indirectly into the juvenile and criminal justice systems,” Deborah N. Archer, Professor of Law and Director of the Racial Justice Project, said. “I am happy that we will be able to shed more light on these practices and work towards solutions through this conference with the ACLU.”
The conference will explore the harms of the school-to-prison pipeline and will highlight actions being taken to dismantle the pipeline. There will be two full-conference panels—one to discuss the harm to children and the other to discuss solutions to ending the pipeline. In addition, there will be several break-out sessions organized by issue area (including educational adequacy, policing in schools, special education, disciplinary alternative schools, and court-involved youth) and by advocacy strategy (including legislative lobbying and policy reform, community responses, impact litigation, research and public education, and human rights framework).
The conference will bring together advocates, organizers, litigators, and researchers, including keynote speaker Charles J. Ogletree, Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houson Institute for Race and Justice; Anurima Bhargava, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; Judith Storandt, National Disability Rights Network; New York Law School Professor Nadine Strossen, former President of the ACLU; and Hon. Steven Teske, Judge, Clayton County Juvenile Court. To view the full list of participants and conference schedule, please click here.
“More and more students are being shunted from the educational system into the juvenile and criminal justice systems through the unfair and discriminatory policies and practices which make up the school-to-prison pipeline,” Dennis D. Parker, Director of the ACLU Racial Justice Program, said. “We are pleased to be joining with New York Law School and experts and practitioners from across the country in exploring ways to disrupt the pipeline in order to assure that all students get the opportunity to reach their full potential by assuring their full access to equal education.”
Members of the media are invited to attend the event. Registration is required. To RSVP and for more information, please contact LaToya Nelson at 212.431.2191 or latoya.nelson@nyls.edu.
About the Racial Justice Project at New York Law School
The Racial Justice Project is a legal advocacy organization
dedicated to protecting the constitutional and civil rights of people who
have been denied those rights on the basis of race and to increasing
public awareness of racism and racial injustice in the areas of education,
employment, political participation, and criminal justice. The Racial
Justice Project’s advocacy includes litigation, training, and public
education.
About the Justice Action Center
The Justice Action Center brings together New York Law School faculty and
students in an ongoing critical evaluation of public interest lawyering.
Through scholarship and fieldwork, the Center seeks to evaluate the
efficacy of law as an agent of change and social betterment. The Center
fosters collaborative efforts by faculty and students to engage the
specific problems presented in the fields of anti-discrimination law and
economic justice, civil liberties, criminal law and death penalty,
environmental law, family law, immigration law, labor and employment law,
and mental disability law. In addition to a focused curriculum, symposia,
and research opportunities, students have the opportunity to gain direct
exposure to the field of cause lawyering through externships, clinics, and
workshops. To learn more about the Justice Action Center, visit www.nyls.edu/jac.
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