this is very nice so oh wow – so I’m
dick Juan beaver I’m a community
organizer with legal a Justice Center
and I’m also a part of a statewide
nonpartisan campaign called rights to
youth and our goal is to reform the
juvenile justice system by closing our
last two remaining juvenile prisons and
reinvesting that money into a continuum
of community-based alternatives within
rise we have a youth steering committee
which we go by the name of the Youth
Advocacy Network and we’re focused on
essentially the same thing reforming the
juvenile justice system but also
dismantling the school-to-prison
pipeline and giving a better
understanding to our community what the
school-to-prison pipeline is and what
the continuum is and get advice on what
that should look like in our community
what does our community really want so
does anybody know like has anybody ever
heard of the school-to-prison pipeline
like oh that’s great that’s great but I
still see a few people who have this so
the school-to-prison pipeline is exactly
what it sounds like it’s an invisible
pipeline that railroads are students
into law enforcement and Virginia is
number one in all 50 states and
referring students to law enforcement so
with that being said we have two
students here today they actually attend
Richmond Public Schools and and we’re
gonna give them an opportunity to talk
about how they feel about the schools
and what they think should be different
so I’m pastor Doug I’m Doug I’m 16 years
old I’m a part of the arm rights for
youth network and I already network I’ve
been going to Richmond Public Schools
basically all my life and I’m now
attending John Marshall High School and
the conditions in the school are
terrible John Marshall recently had
Babel
Moe and now they have boarded windows I
feel like the police and staff and
schools are not properly trained to
handle you for example one evening I was
I was just having a bad day I was
sitting on the steps and the school
principal seemed he didn’t ask any
questions why was the he just told me
come to his office and he suspended me I
also felt like they serve the same food
piece of fries every day but I felt like
these issues should be addressed as soon
as possible but I’m gonna let my brief
pick up on it yes my name is Maurice I’m
16 years old I would say I went to
Henderson middle school we have no laws
like a student at OU Pisa
at a student Kato object over city next
class from a headed teacher Orca his
student my I’m currently I’m currently
involved in space Academy and it’s three
floors the first was like office stuff
the second floor is well nine through
ninth grade through twelfth grade and
it’s only four classes so like from 9 to
10 2006 were very tight in there for
class it’s the same like that she’s the
same thing how could we have such bad
pork edition schools like this and we
but we could pay for new chairs we could
pay for new praises but can’t put the
money into the schools and Brielle could
talk to you about the school the school
to Prison Pipeline
hello I’m for y’all with the youth arise
our mission for the school to Prison
Pipeline is to have better funding for
the Richmond public school systems we
also want to reevaluate the
zero-tolerance policies we have youth
being suspended from school for modern
things such as yelling or phone usage we
want less officers in the school systems
and more counselors to de-escalate some
situations to get to the root of the
problem
or even security prevention plans we in
general we just want to have the lower
rates of high incarceration for our
youth we feel like they’re being pushed
into the juvenile justice system and
Virginia were known for being number one
for doing so for the cost for one youth
for one year in 2015 in Virginia was one
hundred and thirty five thousand dollars
imagine if we could take some of those
funds lower the incarceration rates and
put it back into our community how it
so what you heard today is a group of
young people as you see various ages
that won’t change and they’re fighting
for that change you’re probably
wondering why we keep talking about
prisons and our topic is like the school
to Prison Pipeline
but as Brio said Virginia is number one
and referring students to law
enforcement so that’s like our first
flag our second flag is that our
recidivism rate here is seventy three
point five percent meaning that within
three years of an individual’s release
they will be rican reconvicted and
recommitted to the state so it’s not the
the reinvestment we’re getting isn’t the
reinvestment we need and it starts in
the schools we also feel that having a
network of impacted individuals
you’ve been impacted by the school to
Prison Pipeline you’ve been impacted by
the juvenile justice system you are the
best advocates to tell your story
because the powerful story we feel plays
a big part and I think lastly I want
everyone to know that we need you all
help this problem needs to be brought up
in our communities we want everyone to
know that prisons don’t work and the
school to Prison Pipeline needs to be
dismantled
we need youth we need adults we need
teachers we need principals art when a
team perform statistics are the example
of something that’s never happened
before
lawyers and advocates and artists all
working toward the same goal and that’s
a like sister organization so shout out
the performances sistex I know y’all are
there somewhere
[Applause]
but we the youth network we’re here to
say that prisons don’t work and we want
your help to break this broken system
that I’ll fix this broken system that we
have so thank you [Applause]