ACTION ALERTS
The Right to Education
In the film Books Not Bars, students campaign for a the re-allocation of funds from incarceration to education. But what about the transition from a detention center back to school? A year and a half ago, a Brooklyn student discharged from a detention center was turned away in his in his attempt to return to high-school and he subsequently missed over 51 days of classes.
Seven students have since emerged, saying they encountered similar experiences of being deprived the basic rights to adequate education. These students have joined forces with the non-profit group Advocates for Children, the Legal Aid Society and the Manhattan law firm of Dewey Ballantine to file a 43 page lawsuit against the city and state departmetns of education in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn.
Reporting on this story, The New York Times explains that two-thirds of the 5,200 students released from court-ordered detention each year do not return to school, primarily because of administrative roadblocks. This law suit is fighting for the implementation of re-enrollment services that better explain the procedure of returning to school along with other systems that will track and monitor the progress of the students.
Given the seemingly insurmountable hurdels teens face from the time they are sent to detention centers to their release, it is nothing short of an offense to impede them from having a second chance at new beginning.
READ Susan Saulny's the article from The New York Times
READ about other crinimal justice documentaries listed on MediaRigths.org and LEARN more about Big Mouth Productions' film Innocent Until Proven Guilty.
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