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Dear Friend,

The fight for education equity is a core priority for the Washington Lawyers’ Committee. With the beginning of the new school year, this newsletter is an update on our efforts to ensure that every student, regardless of race, gender, disability, LGBT status or place of residence has access to a high quality education. Below, you can read about:

  • Litigation to remove the names and symbols of the Confederacy from schools in Hanover County Virginia;
  • Work to support the voices of parents in ensuring education equity;
  • The fight against hate speech intended to drive an extraordinary African American student leader from her University;
  • Litigation to protect the right of a parent in a charter school who was barred from the school after expressing criticism of how her children were being treated in school; and
  • Our continued efforts to bring enrichment resources to schools in low-income communities through 60 partnerships.

You are the reason we are able to continue this fight for equal access to education. Together, we can dismantle injustice and pursue lasting change in education.

Thank you,

Jonathan Smith
Executive Director

Generations of students in Hanover County, Virginia have been forced to attend schools in a hostile educational environment that glorifies the Confederacy and the white supremacist movement that the Confederacy is associated with today. The names Lee-Davis “Confederates” and Stonewall Jackson “Rebels” were chosen by the school board during Virginia’s “Massive Resistance” to desegregation and were intended to send a message that African American students were not welcome. We have filed on behalf of a local NAACP chapter to change these names and remedy the environment for students of color, including the elimination of the moniker “Confederate” or “Rebel” which appears on uniforms that students must wear to participate in sports or other extra-curricular activities. Read more.
A heinous hate crime was committed against Taylor Dumpson after she was elected the first African American woman to be American University’s Student Body President. The day after her election, a masked person hung nooses across campus, some with bananas in them, and she received an onslaught of vile racist threats and harassment on social media. Last month, the historic decision was made that internet threats and trolling can prevent access to public accommodations. Read more.
Nykia Braxton, the mother of children ages four and six, was barred from her children’s elementary school in retaliation for her advocacy on behalf of her children. E.W. Stokes Charter School barred Ms. Braxton from the campus for five years after she raised concerns that her children suffered verbal and physical abuse and neglect while at the school. She filed against the school in August after her right to seek redress from Stokes’s officials was chilled, her reputation maligned, and her children traumatized. Read more.
“I knew there was a difference between the schools East of the River - I just didn’t understand why.” Stated parent, Amira Moore, co-president of Friends of Ketcham Elementary School (FoKES). “When we decided to send our son to Ketcham, I knew that I wanted to be involved and engaged with my child’s learning experience.” Upon meeting the dedicated and valiant administration at Ketcham, which is located in the Historic Anacostia, she knew her family had made the right decision by sending their son to their neighborhood school.
Read more.  
DC Public School Partnership Program
 
Our DC Public School Partnership Program continues to grow as a key component of our education justice work, and that growth has provided us more on-the-ground insight into how we can even better address persistent inequities in the DC public school system. More than 11,800 DC students benefit from our 60 partnerships between DC public schools and area firms and businesses. The schools primarily serve low-income communities and have high populations of students of color. Law firm and business partners support the success of students through a broad range of enrichment programs, including tutoring, Street Law, Geo and History Plunge, college readiness, science fairs, summer books, back to school supplies and many other activities. These programs dramatically improve the experience of students and increase academic achievement. Learn more here. 
More News
 
Kaitlin Banner, Deputy Legal Director, gave testimony urging the DC Council's Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety to pass the Special Education Rights for Youth Defendants Amendment Act of 2019, a critical move for young people of color with disabilities.
 
Counsel Maggie Hart gave testimony on the importance of the Georgetown Health Alliance because it provides critical services to DC residents with disabilities.
 
We submitted comments in coalition with other Lawyers’ Committees and colleagues to combat a proposed HUD rule that would oust mixed immigrant status families from public and federally subsidized housing.
 
We joined as amicus in litigation challenging the Public Charge Rule that would allow immigration officials to deny green cards to migrants who use public assistance, including food stamps or housing vouchers. 

“I could have been sane or insane, they just let me walk out the door,” – former ADX prisoner, Mark Bundy, speaking in a recent Vox piece on the deplorable conditions at ADX and how they impact the lives of those released without support.
 
"I think the system has changed. And it's much more complicated than when she was last director, partially because the growth in population, partially because you see a much harsher and more punitive system," – Jonathan Smith on a recent NPR piece about Kathleen Hawk’s reappointment to BOP Director.

“If places like Barry Farm are denied protection, then what do we have left in this city ” – Detrice Belt, president of the Barry Farm Tenants and Allies Association in a WAMU story on Barry Farm’s historic status and redevelopment.
Workers' Rights Clinic
September Schedule
 
Click here to get involved with clinic and additional volunteer opportunities at the Committee.
  • Wednesdays: September 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th from 6-9 p.m. at Bread for the City, 1525 Seventh Street NW
  • First and Third Friday of the Month: September 6th and 20th, from 12-3:30 p.m. at the ONE DC Black Workers' Center at 2500 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE. By appointment only.
  • Last Saturday of the Month: September 28th from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. at Bread for the City, 1640 Good Hope Road SE
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