VivirLatino

From the VivirLatino Inbox:

DC 37 employees play a critical role in our school community as parent coordinators, tech support, and school aides who help our schools run like clockwork. They are invaluable members of every school community. Laying off DC37 workers not only hurts the learning of all children, but disproportionally affects low-income communities of color like the Bronx. Some neighborhoods are slated to lose up to 25% of their DC 37 staff members!

How can you get involved?

•                Wear GREEN to school on Tuesday, October 4 to show your support to all DC37 employees throughout the city.
•                Join DC37 workers at a protest rally at City Hall on Tuesday, from 4pm-6pm.
•                Call 311 to tell the mayor to stop the layoffs of all 700 DC37 workers. Our students need these workers and there is a surplus in the budget!
Tuesday, October 4: Day of Action Against School Pushouts and to Create Positive Discipline in NYC Schools (City Hall, 5pm)
•                In collaboration with the DC37 rally, students, parents, educators and organizers involved with Dignity in Schools Campaign-NY will also be at City Hall on Tuesday, at 5pm.  This New York City rally and student street theater action is part of a national campaign supporting local and federal policy change to reduce suspensions, expulsions and arrests, and implement positive approaches to school climate and discipline like restorative practices and positive behavior supports.

•                Supporters will walk from the DC37 rally to the other side of City Hall for the Street Theater Action at 5pm.October 1- October 8 (this week) National Week of Action on School Pushout.

Students and educators across the country are participating in political actions to raise awareness of the negative impacts of zero-tolerance discipline policies and over-policing of public schools.  These policies contribute to a disproportionate number of poor (especially Black and Latino) students who end up dropping out of our schools. Some facts:
•                Nationwide, over 1 million students who start high school this year won’t finish.
•                In New York City in 2008-2009, there were 73,000 suspensions in public schools.
•                Students with disabilities in NYC are four times more likely to be suspended than students without disabilities.
•                More than 38,000 Black students are suspended every year in NYC, and the majority are male.