campaign for nonviolent schools

In the recent state budget proposal, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett proposed a cut in the education system of around $550 million (that's right, million). At the same time, the Pennsylvania prison system has not received any cuts and in fact has gotten an increase in funding (of approximately 11%).

The crowd began forming at Juniper and Filbert streets around 3:30 pm as set-up was still underway.  As school let out, high school students from over 25 schools across the city began making their way downtown.  Each new group made the size of the gathering swell until the crowd spilled into Filbert street and it had to be closed to traffic.  Dozens of students from Sayre, Bok, Furness, South Philadelphia, Kensington, Paul Robeson, CAPA, West, Bodine, Edison, Sankofa Freedom Academy, and other schools began to converge from all directions. 

MMPTV tells the untold stories of those uniting across struggles to build a movement to end poverty.

On Tuesday, November 9th, the Campaign for Nonviolent Schools hosted the Youth Power Summit. Over 200 students from 45 schools came together for a day of youth led workshops and dialogues.

Workshops included 'Bias Violence: Overcoming Divisions in Our Schools'; 'Know Your Rights'; 'Restorative Justice: Tools for Peace'; 'School to Prison or School to College' and 'Nonviolence: Power that Heals.' Each youth led workshop was designed to arm students with knowledge and concrete tools to take back to their school.

Harsh disciplinary policies, such as zero tolerance, contribute to the school to prison pipeline by criminalizing students and pushing them out of school. Restorative practices, on the other hand, offer an opportunity to repair & move forward after a problem arises, keeping more students engaged in their education.

On this month's show:
    •    Highlights and victories from PSU's '09-'10 school year
    •    Connecting the struggles of students and taxi workers
    •    Philly & Harrisburg students talk about ending violence
    •    Youth express themsleves through poetry
    •    Music and education news

This show was hosted by Azeem Hill and Gregory Jordan-Detamore. Matt Johnson was the engineer.

The Philadelphia Student Union's Building A youth Movement (BAYM) Leadership Institute is happening again this summer! Every summer, high-school age young people from all over Philadelphia are invited to join Philly Student Union's youth leaders for a week of leadership, creativity and fun.

In April 2009, myself and seven other students at Sayre High School trained our school security officers.  The reason why we did this all stemmed from a situation that took place back in September 2008 at my school.  The media called it a riot, but it all started with a miscommunication that escalated way beyond what it needed to be.

Members of PSU recently traveled to Harrisburg PA to meet with students from Harrisburg's William Penn High School and engage them in our Campaign for Nonviolent Schools and our Campaign for Equitable School Funding. We led a participatory workshop that explored the root causes of violence in our schools and communities. We also talked about conditions inside our schools, and students from both Philly and Harrisburg agreed that underfunding of schools is a root cause of many of the problems we face.

By sharing our experiences, students came to the realization that the problems we see in our schools are not isolated to our own districts; that the struggle for a high quality education is a statewide struggle. In this radio piece, we hear from Harrisburg students about conditions in their school, their views on violence, and how PSU's Nonviolence workshop affected their perceptions.

On, Tuesday April 20th around 2pm, Philadelphia Student Union conducted a 3-minute action. In only 180 seconds, we showed the power and leadership that young people have when we are organized for non-violence.