The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Will Matthews, ACLU, (212) 549-2582 or 2666; media@aclu.org

Media Invited to Attend April 1 Symposium on School-to-Prison Pipeline

ACLU And New York Law to School Host Day-Long Conference Featuring Leading Experts on Race, Justice and Education

NEW YORK

Members
of the media are invited to attend an April 1 conference on challenging
the school-to-prison pipeline. The one-day conference will bring
together prominent attorneys, researchers, students and advocates from
the fields of education law, racial justice, civil rights, juvenile
justice and disabilities law, among others.

The symposium, to be keynoted by
noted Harvard Law School Professor Charles J. Ogletree, will include
panel discussions on the ways in which the school-to-prison pipeline
harms children and effective strategies for dismantling it. The
school-to-prison pipeline is a disturbing national trend wherein
children are aggressively funneled out of public schools and into the
juvenile and criminal justice systems

Break-out sessions led by various
experts will address a range of topics including policing in schools,
educational adequacy, disciplinary alternative schools, legislative
lobbying and policy reform and community responses to the pipeline.

The event will be hosted by the
American Civil Liberties Union Racial Justice Program, the New York Law
School Justice Action Center's Racial Justice Project and the New York
Law School Law Review.

Additional information about the
conference, including a full list of participating experts and
break-out sessions is available online at: www.nyls.edu/stpp

Members of the media interested in
attending the conference are asked to contact Nicole Kief for
registration information at: (212) 549-2636 or nkief@aclu.org

WHAT:
"Challenging the School-To-Prison Pipeline: Harms and Remedies," A
one-day conference exploring the harms of the pipeline and strategies
being utilized to disrupt it.

WHO:
Prominent attorneys, researchers, students and advocates from the
fields of education law, racial justice, civil rights, juvenile justice
and disabilities law, among others.

WHEN: Wednesday, April 1, 2009, 8:15 a.m. to 6 p.m.

WHERE: New York Law School
57 Worth Street
New York, NY 10013

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

(212) 549-2666