Black and Brown girls, queer, and gender non-conforming youth are being criminalized for normal adolescent behavior, trauma, crimes or offenses based on survival, mental health issues, substance abuse issues, and offenses that truly require social and community support and resources rather than zero-tolerance discipline or incarceration. 

As a microcosm of the larger society, schools end up being hostile environments that recreate the structural oppression that Black and Brown girls, queer, and gender non-conforming youth face in the outside world. As a result, hostile school environments across the country have profound impacts on the mental, physical, and emotional health of youth and represent clear pathways to juvenile detention. 

When Black and Brown girls, queer, and gender non-conforming youth resist discrimination, harassment, and violence in their learning environments, they are read through a lens that typically leads to their criminalization and punishment rather than their protection and support rendering them vulnerable to significant danger and undesirable outcomes.

In addition to this digital and printed guide, each “Know Your Rights” guide handed out invited youth across NYC to participate in a training designed to educate and provide accessible materials to community members and youth with context, answers, and solutions about their rights in school so that they know what to expect and how to react when dealing with police/policing in their schools.

Collaborators: Qadir El Amin