This past academic year students, parents, teachers & advocates of the Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) across the country rallied to educate on the importance of positive school climates, liberate youth from punitive school discipline and policing, and elevate education justice.

In August 2023, Darryl George, a Black high-school student in Texas, was suspended and placed at an off-site disciplinary program for refusing to cut his locs. On February 22, 2024, the judge handling his discrimination case ruled in favor of the school, stating their dress code does not violate the CROWN Act. In response to the ruling, and in support of Darryl and his mother, DSC members organized a Texas-based action and followed up with Andrew Hairston, the Education Justice Director at Texas Appleseed, activist Dianna Freelon-Foster, Nollie Jenkins Family Center’s Youth Program Director Kameisha Smith and Co Founder & Executive Director of the Nollie Jenkins Family Center Ellen Reddy, Deanie Anyangwe, policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy, and Mississippi Legislator Zakiya Summers.

This past June, DSC-NY published a press release titled The People Saved Restorative Justice and school-based Mental Health access — Needed Expansion Thwarted by Mayor’s Austerity, where membership & campaigns director Andrea Ortiz details the protections passed thanks to the persistence of community power including “restorations of funding for restorative justice ($12M), social workers & psychologists ($74M), the Mental Health Continuum ($5M), and other vital education programs”. While celebrating these wins, Ortiz emphasizes values central to DSC, the need to divest from carceral approaches in schools and to push back against investments into policing.

Though the school year has come to a close, a new academic year approaches quickly. With your support, DSC can continue to organize for our shared vision of a future where every student can learn in a safe and supportive environment.