The same police that are killing Black people in the streets and that continue to harass Black youth in the community, are the same police that are in our schools. We cannot continue to put our youth in harms way! We demand POLICE FREE SCHOOLS! We demand an end to the school-to-prison pipeline. It is simple: Black youth in D.C have been screaming "Love Us. Don't Harm Us"- divest from police in our schools and invest in the social-emotional health and well-being of youth! D.C is the MOST POLICED jurisdiction in America and Metropolitan Police Department's largest contract is with D.C. Public Schools. MPD currently receives $25 million to police and criminalize our youth! This increases the likelihood that adolescent behavior or responses to trauma will not be met with support but further harm. 74% of Black youth will not get the support they need. Instead: - Nearly 100% of all school expulsions are of Black youth, nearly 100% of school based arrest are of youth of color - D.C. police are also responsible for harassing and handcuffing Black youth as young as 9 years old. - 60% of girls arrested in D.C are under the age of 15. - Black girls in D.C are 30 times more likely to be arrested than white youth of any gender identity. - Often girls are disciplined and referred to police for their responses to sexual violence. This creates an unsafe and unwelcoming environment for girls, and compounds the trauma that survivors of gender base violence experience. Always, but especially now, our Black youth need love, not harm! We need to ensure that our young people have what they need to learn, that our young people have increased access to mental health professionals to address the heightened trauma caused by COVID -19 and, rampant police violence and racism. We need your support to protect Black and Brown youth from further harm and to preserve their right to live and thrive!

I am the mother of a 12 year old special needs student. Since school closed, I have been creating learning opportunities at home. As a full-time massage therapist and mom, I know my struggle is similar to that of other parents. Schools are doing the best that they can in these times, but it’s not enough. I strongly urge Oakland Unified School District Superintendent, Kyla Johnson-Tramell to create a plan to expand the district’s WiFi network access so that all district families can use the service at home, provide mobile devices for all students and create a multi-disciplinary capstone project at all grade levels in order for students to demonstrate mastery or growth. These capstone projects should not be dependent upon WiFi access or the use of technology. As a life-long educator and Oakland native, I appreciate her deep roots in the community and urge Superintendent Johnson-Tramell to live up to the district’s equity value to “provide everyone access to what they need to be successful”. On Friday, March 13, 2020, many schools across the nation dismissed for two weeks without providing long-term resources to students and no clear plan for what would happen when social quarantines were extended beyond the recommended two weeks. Oakland Unified School District serves over 50,000 pupils with more than 70% of students eligible for free and reduced lunch. The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing students and parents to make alternative learning plans, largely shifting the focus to online learning. Unfortunately, many students from low-income families will suffer due to the digital divide. For at-risk students impacted by poverty and inequality, this virus has the potential to widen the achievement gap, therefore, deepening the consequences. Slow responses to the coronavirus from national leaders have already exposed the structural deficiencies within our communities. I recognize the effort that local educators have put into planning a thoughtful response for district families, but OUSD must go farther and do the most for those that matter most -- our students, our future. This pandemic, while challenging, presents a new opportunity for students and teachers to demonstrate creativity and promote learning through discovery and experimentation. As a distinguished leader in education, Superintendent Johnson-Tramell can set a new national standard by ensuring that students make progress and that plans for long-term distance learning are accessible for everyone. Kyla Johnson-Tramell often tells people, “My success is your success. We have to work together.” We must demand that she continue her long standing commitment to Oakland students and families and encourage her to work with educators, parents and students to set a new national standard. During this pandemic, we need bold solutions that promote equity and ensure students and parents have the necessary tools and resources to adjust to the demands of the current crisis. This is also a pivotal moment for students to discover new ways to learn beyond the classroom, allowing space and time for imagination and experimentation. The time is now to create a new national standard with Oakland educators leading the way. I strongly urge Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Tramell to uphold OUSD’s core values and make the district’s resources accessible for ALL students. Taking action to increase access, bridge the digital divide and promote student growth would demonstrate her commitment to shrinking the achievement gap. Thank you, Tanosha Redman

All essential personnel that work in these fields, these self-sacrificing fields, go to work everyday placing themselves in harms way in order to provide care for those effected by COVID-19. This would be an extreme help with the economic crisis we now find ourselves facing.

We state these demands out of concern for the health and safety for ourselves, our families, our fellow classmates, and the faculty and staff at UDC.

As a Mother, Grandmother and Great Grandmother that resides in Wake County I am very disturbed that more action has not been taken around the situation this young lady experienced entering her 1st year of High School. Cenayia Edwards, an African American freshman at East Wake High School was informed by one of her friends that some of her classmates were apart of a racist group chat where they advocated for the killing of African Americans, used hate language such as “kill ni**ger babies” and the hashtag #BringSlaveryBack. Cenayia was able to gain access to this exclusive chat room where these racial slurs and offensive hate speech was being exchanged and encouraged. Immediately, Cenayia and her parents reported this hate group to her principal and other school administrators in order to bring their awareness to this unacceptable behavior by her peers and fellow students. To date, the family has not received a response from either school district regarding their intention to prevent and condemn this egregious behavior. We cannot remain silent on the broader issue of racial discrimination and intolerance because silence is compliance. Some continue to say that we are living in a post-racial society and if that is true, how can this type of hatred have been shared in a group chat in 2019. Please sign this petition and help make our Schools Safe for ALL CHILDREN. Policies that address hate speech must be a critical element for all school districts.

Imagine being a 12-year-old child, excited about the opportunity to play football only to be barred from play by adults, coaches, and mentors because of the way your hair grows out of your head. This is what a group of young kids at Impact Christian Academy in Jacksonville had to experience as they were denied an opportunity to be children playing a children’s game by adults in the Sunshine Christian League who are obsessed with policing Black hair. Instead of focusing on how a child’s hair naturally grows out their heads the Administrators should be concerning themselves with the safety of the players and making sure everyone is having a good time. Rev. Bruce Armstrong, a charter member of the Sunshine Christian League, even went on to suggest the team simply abandon their friends and teammates if they’re not willing to cut their locs. This callous attitude towards kids looking to play with their friends and classmates is a perfect example of how the adults of the Sunshine Christian League are more concerned with controlling the appearance and expression of these children than instilling to values and lessons of football. Adults need to stop using our children’s bodies as battlegrounds for their control issues. Tell the Sunshine Christian League to let our kids be kids. Sign now and add your voice today!

On September 26th the police in Orlando put two children, a six-year-old and an eight-year-old, in handcuffs! Instead of treating our children as the kids they are Orange County Public Schools is making them out to be criminals for throwing "tantrums". Firing Dennis Turner isn't enough we need to make sure this never happens to our children again no matter what. We need Barbara Jenkins to act to protect our kids! According to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, last school year Black children made up 51% of school-related arrests across the state, despite making up 21% of the student population. This is totally unacceptable! We are living in a society where kids are being arrested before they are eligible to graduate. The underlying theme here is the role that School Resource Officers have in the School to Prison pipeline is very large. We must limit their role in schools as we continue to combat the effect of over-discipline in our schools. Sign now to demand Dr. Barbara Jenkins limit the role of School Resource officers in OCPS schools.

Tondalao Hall is a domestic violence survivor sentenced to 30 years behind bars under a "failure to protect" law. Tondalao was punished for not leaving her abuser quickly enough, before he could inflict physical abuse on their children. The abuser, Robert Braxton, was released back to the streets the day he was sentenced for child abuse, with only 8 years of probation to serve. He admitted to breaking the ribs, toe, and femurs of the two youngest children. Tondalao, the adult victim of his abuse and mother of his children, is now serving her 15th year behind bars. While we haven’t had much to celebrate in the quest for Tondalao’s freedom, this time is slightly different than others. Here’s how: 1. The Pardon and Parole board voted UNANIMOUSLY in a 5-0 vote to move her case to the next round. 2. Four out of five board members were appointed within the past year. 3. After years of organizing, District Attorney David Prater finally wrote a letter of “support" calling for Tondalao’s release. Oklahoma has the highest rate per capita of incarcerated women than any other place in the word. Hall is 1 of 28 women sentenced across 11 states under “Failure to Protect” laws who are serving more time than the abuser himself. Hall’s appeal for justice could have broader implications for the lives of women across experiences. ​Courts must not use Failure to Protect laws to further victimize survivors of domestic violence by scapegoating them for their batterers’ crimes. Failure to Protect laws must not hold domestic violence victims with children to an impossible standard of choosing between risking their lives (and their children's’ lives) and risking their freedom. After 13 years behind bars, Tondalao has served enough time for a crime she didn't commit. We must do better to protect and #FreeBlackMamas.

The University of Alabama has seemingly pushed for the resignation of its dean of students and assistant vice president — a Black man who had been in the job just seven months — for past tweets that made honest, straightforward statements about racism in America. It’s outrageous. Dr. Jamie Riley was apparently forced to resign after the “alt-right” website Breitbart — a favorite of white nationalists, known for its racism, antisemitism, and dishonest smear campaigns — published an article with Dr. Riley’s old tweets. Instead of standing up against this racist hit job against a prominent Black leader at the university, the University of Alabama threw him under the bus. It looks like an effective firing, with the university refusing to give details, only saying that there was “mutual agreement” around his resignation. . While Riley’s tweets might make some people uncomfortable, they’re based in fact and well within the mainstream conversation about racism. Here are two of them: • "The [American flag emoji] flag represents a systemic history of racism for my people. Police are a part of that system. Is it that hard to see the correlation?" • "I'm baffled about how the 1st thing white people say is, 'That's not racist!' when they can't even experience racism? You have 0 opinion!" When the dean of students can lose his job for a couple of old tweets about racism that many people would agree with, the message sent to Black students and faculty couldn’t be clearer: if you want to keep your job and stay at the university, you better keep your mouth shut. It’s chilling, and it conveys a lack of interest in protecting the academic freedom of Black people at the university and an unwillingness to protect Black members of its community when racists come after them with baseless accusations. At the same time, the University of Alabama recruits Black athletes and makes millions in profits from their unpaid labor (anchoring an athletics program that brings in $170+ million in revenue per year). The university wants to profit off of Black peoples’ unpaid work, but it wants us to keep our mouths shut about racism. Making money off of black students while suppressing their speech makes the University of Alabama seem more like a modern day plantation than a modern university. If the University of Alabama doesn’t want to be known as a racist institution, it needs to act quickly to reverse this mistake by rehiring Dr. Jamie Riley immediately.

On Tuesday, August 27, 2019 around 2:00pm, a member of the UDC community threatened our sense of safety by vandalizing the only community gender neutral bathroom on our campus. On the A level of Building 44, adjacent to the Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Affairs, a sheet of paper intentionally obscured half of the gender neutral and accessibility restroom signage. This is a hate crime and a direct violation of Title IX. As the first LGBTQ+ student organization at the University of the District of Columbia and part of only 30% of HBCUs that have active LGBTQ+ student organizations, we The Alliance Group (T.A.G) are requesting a meeting with UDC leadership on addressing this incident and we have created a list of demands. Hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ and Non-binary people have increased since President Donald Trump was elected in 2016. Additionally, 16 Transwomen have been murdered so far this year and all but one have been women of color. Washington D.C has the highest number of openly LGBTQ people in the nation and as the only urban, public Historically Black College in the nation, we believe we cannot sit by when incidents like this happen on our campus. We are asking for your support by signing this petition and sharing it with others. Real change happens when everyday people like you and I come together and stand up for what we believe in. Together we can reach heaps of people and help create change around this important issue of homophobia and transphobia. UPDATE: As we were preparing to send this letter, at 12pm on Wednesday, August 28, 2019, our community has been attacked again; another vandalization occurred at the same bathroom in building 44. This requires outrage and action on our leadership's behalf immediately With Love and Support, The Alliance Group (T.A.G)

COPWATCH AMERICA INCORPORATED HAS A PRIMARY GOAL TO MINIMIZE & ELIMINATE UNJUSTIFIED DEATHS DUE TO ILLEGAL ACTIONS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT IN AMERICA AGAINST CIVILIANS. COPWATCH AMERICA INCORPORATED USES UNITED STATES/STATE LAWS, FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT, CIVILIAN COMPLIANT REVIEW COMMITTEES, POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY MONITORING PROGRAMS, AND OTHER FORMS OF RESOURCES & ACTIONS TO ESTABLISH TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY IN EACH AND EVERY LAW ENFORCEMENT DEPARTMENT/AGENCY IN AMERICA.

This petition is to appeal to the Department of Education to add a Race Relations class to the high school curriculum to foster greater understanding between students of different backgrounds. America is currently polarized across racial lines, and these divisions are only growing. These biases are fostered from a young age and carry into adulthood. We have always been taught that the civil rights movement was the beginning of the end for racism and that education was going to be the final blow. We were told that diversifying our classrooms would break down racial stereotypes in the next generation. However, it's become apparent that this isn't effective. Very little progress has been made since such efforts began. The problem is clear. Schools are trying to increase the number of minorities in their school, hoping that by simply putting students of varying backgrounds into the same classroom, cross-cultural relations and understanding between students will form on their own. In a perfect world, this approach may work. However, we live in a world where kids are constantly influenced by their surroundings and racial biases form from an early age. Because of this, a passive approach simply won't work. A more active approach is required if any real change is ever going to happen. Diversity is just a series of statistics. It's simply the presence of different backgrounds under the same roof. Diversity is the prerequisite for change. Real change can only happen by means of integration- building a sense of understanding, breaking down misconceptions, and constructing a baseline of trust and respect among students of varying backgrounds. But why a class? For starters, the cause of racism is a misunderstanding between people of different backgrounds. These phobias are only fostered by conversations in households. School is meant to be an environment to learn and grow. Therefore, there is no better place for students to learn about one another than in schools. According to Yale Professor Albert Laguna claimed this is, "One class all students should take." Also, as studies have shown, this class is something that will be most effective early in life. By waiting until college, which is when these classes are currently offered, most prejudices have already been ingrained and cemented into students' thinking. Instead, by offering this class in high schools, we allow students to develop ideas about other races before they have been formed and while they are still malleable. Currently, the only such material regarding race in the classroom is very superficial and spread far and wide. It's time we stop ignoring this critical aspect of our education and dedicate real time towards it. This class has to be included in our schools' curriculum. By continuing the passive approach that schools have taken towards educating students about race and the implications a lack of understanding has on our society, we are contributing to the racial divide happening in our nation. Sign this petition and let us take a step towards giving our students a more well-rounded education that prepares them for a more equitable and understanding society. "Educating ourselves and others about race is an essential step in the process of change." - Beverly Daniel Tatum "We will not move forward in Race Relations if we are comfortable. We must embrace the discomfort." - Robin DiAngelo Summary of Reasons and Advantages for Race Relations Class: Students gain a better understanding of the outlook of classmates from different racial backgrounds The only source of discussion on race is through household conversations, which are often biased. A class will offer students a more well-rounded base of information. Current curriculum passingly touches the topic of race without any depth. Offering a dedicated class will fill a clear gap in students' education Similar courses at the university level are lauded for their impact on students, but they are not accessible to most students. Offering it at the high school level enables all students to take such a class. Racial biases are formed from a young age. Offering a class that delves into race relations will influence a child before prejudices fully develop and become cemented into thinking. References: https://www.cnn.com/2015/11/10/opinions/laguna-race-ethnic-studies-university/index.html https://www.theodysseyonline.com/what-my-race-relations-class-taught-me https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233175919_Raising_Ethnic-Racial_Consciousness_The_Relationship_Between_Intergroup_Dialogues_and_Adolescents'_Ethnic-Racial_Identity_and_Racism_Awareness