Safety with Dignity

To:  Mayor Bloomberg, Chancellor Klein, and Commissioner Kelly

As students, teachers and community members we are concerned about the safety measures you are implementing in New York City public schools. Metal detectors, armed police officers, random scanning and surveillance cameras are supposed to make students safer, but instead they treat them as criminals. Students go to school to learn and to prepare for college. We will not stand for policies that take away students’ dignity. We believe all people, including students, deserve to be listened to and treated with respect.

We join the Urban Youth Collaborative in urging you to:
1. Include youth voice and experience when creating new school safety policies and involve young people in evaluating current initiatives; and
2. Create programs in New York City public schools that train adults to become mediators who can help young people resolve conflicts in positive, proactive ways and use these programs to replace the current system that criminalizes and disrespects young people.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Safety with Dignity Petition to Mayor Bloomberg, Chancellor Klein, and Commissioner Kelly was created by members of the Urban Youth Collaborative and written by Juan Antigua (antigua2006@yahoo.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

Send this to a friend