NYCLU’s Action Week to Educate Students about their Rights with Police in Schools

October 9, 2007 – Tomorrow from 2 to 4 p.m., the New York Civil Liberties Union and its partners in the Student Safety Coalition will distribute “Know Your Rights with Police in Schools” informational cards to students at Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx.

The distribution is part of the NYCLU’s action week to instruct students on how to protect their rights when interacting with police in schools. All week, members of the Student Safety Coalition – including college students, educators, attorneys and social workers – are distributing these cards at city schools that have a large police presence.

Since taking control of school safety in 1998, mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg have assigned more than 5,000 school safety agents and at least 200 armed police officers to the city’s public schools. This massive presence makes the NYPD’s school safety division larger than all but four of the nation’s police forces – larger than Washington D.C., Detroit, Boston or Las Vegas. That massive, unchecked presence creates a hostile atmosphere that makes it difficult to learn and often leads to the mistreatment of students and educators.

The NYCLU and all of the members of the Student Safety Coalition, as well as 25 City Council members, support passage of the Student Safety Act, Intro. 816, as an important first step in ending the overpolicing of New York City schools. Just yesterday, the NYCLU sent a letter to NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly about police illegally arresting approximately 300 children age 15 and younger at New York City public schools.

The “Know Your Rights” cards are designed to help students feel secure and safe in their schools.

WHAT:
Distribution of “Know Your Rights” informational cards

WHERE:
Theodore Roosevelt High School, 500 E. Fordham Rd., the Bronx

WHEN:
2 to 4 p.m. Friday, October 10.

WHO:
The Student Safety Coalition: Advocates for Children of New York, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, UAW 2325, Children’s Defense Fund – New York, Class Size Matters, Correctional Association of New York, CUNY Graduate Center Participatory Action Research Collective, Make the Road New York, NAACP-Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, National Lawyers Guild – New York City Chapter, NYCLU, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Suspension Representation Project, Teachers Unite, and Urban Youth Collaborative.