Current statistics show that 85% of the youth, who
reside in New York City, attend public schools. If
these statistics are accurate then why are the conditions of
most public schools so…horrible? Students are confronted
daily with unsanitary hallways and bathrooms, over crowded
buildings, and narrow minded teachers. The majority of the
kids who live in New York City cannot get a proper educa-
tion without also getting a large dose of gang violence, school
fights and a general atmosphere of chaos. I believe that the
school system in New York City needs new reforms in order
to meet the basic standards of learning and especially the
needs of the students - who are struggling to make the best
of an awful situation. For those of us who do want change,
about walking into the bathroom and smelling nothing but urine and then com-
ing to the conclusion that there is absolutely no soap and
napkins to clean your hands with? How does that make
you feel? Personally I am totally disgusted when I am faced
with situations like that. I am quite sure that every student
in New York City has experienced a similar, if not worse
incident. These things are basic human rights, and it should
be mandatory that every student is ensured a clean learning
environment. Just seven years ago, in 2000, the Department
of Education said that $127 billion was needed to bring
“the nation’s school facilities into good overall condition.”
The New York State Court of Appeals has ruled that the
New York City school system alone is due approximately
$15 billion “to provide students with their constitutional
right to the opportunity to receive a sound basic education.”
Cleanliness isn’t the only thing that keeps students from
learning. Disruptive behavior from other classmates is
also a restriction against productive learning. As a high school
senior, I am well aware that the one thing that always gets an
entire class out of their seats is a fire drill on a spring day, or
a fight in the middle of the hallway. As much as we all love
a “good clean fight” those distractions mean the difference
between passing a class or going to summer school. The size
of classrooms is another factor that limits the ability for a
student to learn productively. Being in an overcrowded room
full of inquisitive students makes it difficult for the teacher
to focus on questions that an individual student might have.
Limiting class sizes will not only make it easier to focus in
class and allow a student to receive the academic attention
they need, it also allows the teacher to know their students by
name instead of just by number.

“Hey Teach!” A nation that devalues educating children
also demeans their teachers. I cannot fathom why we expect
so much from teachers and provide them so little in return.
In 1940, the average pay of a male teacher was actually 3.6
percent more than what other college-educated men earned.
Today it is 60 percent lower. Women teachers now earn 16
percent less than other college-educated women. This bewil-
ders me. Children aren’t born lawyers, corporate executives,
engineers and doctors. Their achievements bear the imprint
of their teachers. There was no Plato without Socrates,
and no John Coltrane without Miles Davis. Is there anyone
here whose path was not marked by the inspiration of some
teacher?

Yet teachers now are expected to staff the perma-
nent emergency rooms of our country’s dysfunctional social
order.

Bill Moyers recently wrote, “One morning I opened The New
York Times to read that tuition at Manhattan’s elite private
schools had reached $26,000 a year, starting in kindergar-
ten. On that same page was another story about a school
in Mount Vernon, just across the city line from the Bronx,
where 97 percent of the students are black and 90 percent of
those are so impoverished they are eligible for free lunches.

During Black History month, a six-grader researching
Langston Hughes could not find a single book by Hughes in
the library. This wasn’t an oversight: There were virtually no
books relevant to black history in that library. Most of the
books on the shelves date back to the l950s and l960s.”
Surely this inexcusable lack of investment is one significant
reason why, despite our national wealth, the United States
ranked 24th out of 29 advanced countries in combined
mathematical literacy, according to the Program for Interna-
tional Student Assessment.

Bill of Rights- a summary of fundamental rights
and privileges guaranteed to a people against
violation by the state

Do you know what the student bill of rights is? It’s a docu-
ment that explains the rights of a student and what they
should expect from their school and their school system.
When doing my research I looked for a student bill of rights
and guess what? There isn’t one in New York City. If there
isn’t a student bill of rights then how are we supposed to
know what our rights are?

Advocate- one that defends or maintains a cause
or proposal

Protest Is Key! There are ways to get our voices heard
and be more involved in our own education. Protest and
demonstration has historically been one of the most effective
methods of getting your voice out there. Martin Luther King
Jr. used methods of peaceful protest to change discrimina-
tion in America. He gained his knowledge from Gandhi who
held peaceful human rights protests in India. Students in the
sixties and seventies protested when their schools and the
government treated them unfairly. In the spring of 1968 stu-
dents at Columbia University occupied the hallways of the
University, preventing teachers from teaching. The students
were reacting to the Vietnam War and racist politics of the
University. Columbia students occupied the hallways and
refused to move until all of their demands were met. These
demands were created to reform Columbia’s policies so that
it could better reflect the ideals and values of the students.
Students today need to know the history behind student
protest and use it as a tool to make our voices heard NOW!

Leadership: To guide someone or something
along a way

SUCCESS STORIES
Speaking Up for Students If you go to www.nycstu-
dents.org, you’ll find students who are advocating for stu-
dent rights at their schools. Members like Seth Pearce and
Lorenzo Mendez are two of the people who are starting to
get the voices of the students heard by people in power. The
New York City Student Union is an organization founded
and run by students and it deals with the problems we face
in the public high school system. Seth Pearce and Lorenzo
Mendez, students at LaGuardia High School, frequently
attend meetings and court hearings that affect the public
high school system. They also work to develop relationships
with state government officials who have influence over the
system. The goal of this organization is to help students voice
their opinions to the people in power but also to each other
and the classes under them. This way, when the members
of the organization graduate, the next generation has the
ability to take the reins and handle the job of advocating for
their classes. In an interview conducted with Seth Pearce and
Lorenzo Mendez, they explained that they are also reach-
ing out to the 8th graders so that when those students get
to high school they will be able to stand up for what they
believe in. The New York City Student Union wants to
influence this younger generation so that they can change
what isn’t right, fix what needs to be fixed, and have a voice in
their own education. These aren’t your ordinary High school
students; Seth Pearce, the president of the student govern-
ment organization, has been quite the advocate for his school
community, meets with our principle, Kim Bruno, almost
every week to discuss ways to improve student moral and an
overall improvement within the schools in general. The New
York Student Union is also working on developing a citywide
relationship between all student government representatives
so that when a problem affects all public High school stu-
dents, these representatives could get together and organize
a protest.

Education Planning as Activism One student group in
the Bronx, New York is taking meaningful student involve-
ment in education planning to the next level. Sistas and Bro-
thas United, or SBU, is working with school district officials
to create a small school focused on educating students for so-
cial justice. SBU has worked to improve the schools in there
community for several years. They’ve rallied and researched,
and as one student said, “[We] got a lot of stuff fixed… that
gives me a sense of power.” The students are flexing their
power in another direction now. They have begun working
with the local school district and a coalition of organizations
to start a new high school called the Leadership Institute for
Social Justice. As the student-written mission statements
says, “A focus on social justice will help students clarify their
values, understand their rights, and relate these lessons to the
broader world around them.” According to SBU, the school
will center on democratic leadership practices and focus on
community impacts. There will be community space and
place-based learning, as well as student-adult partnerships
throughout the curriculum design and grading. The students
do not foster illusions of achieving their goals tomorrow.
According to one student, “In the work we do, you can’t be
selfish… Its about us standing up for what we believe in and
making change for [our sons and daughters]
Revolution-movement designed to effect
fundamental changes in the socioeconomic
situation

Take Action NOW!!! A pressing issue today is the cell
phone ban. Students, especially those who travel to
school, are outraged at the limitations placed on their
ability to carry a cell phone. Parents now have no way of get-
ting into contact with their child besides the few school phones
that are located in the main office. In case of a serious statewide
emergency how is a parent supposed to get into contact with
their child when that child attends a school that occupies over
4,000 students? Well, instead of just getting angry, why not
do something to fight for change. There are so many solutions
that can be put into affect to prevent kids from using their cell
phones in a manner that is not acceptable in a learning environ-
ment. Teachers can require students to place their cell phones on
the desk and any cell phones that go off should be confiscated
by the teacher and returned to the student upon the end of the
day. Students that repeat the offense can have their cell phone
returned to them on the arrival of a parent. That was just one
example of what a group of students could come up with to
compromise with the regulations of the Board of Education.
Students could come up with petitions and rallies that could
start school wide debates, bringing about change. The purpose
of this magazine and the goals of the New York City Student
union is to not only bring awareness to the topics that teens face
today but it is also to give information on how to bring about
change and how to do it product fully. The New York City
Student Union is trying to recruit students so that they can have
the ability to ignite a passion for a revolution. However instead
of complaining about an issue that everyone is upset about, look
to advocates like Seth Pearce, Lorenzo Mendez and historical
figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. in order to motivate your
self to create change and take action.

Want to find out more?
Check out these websites:
www.soundout.org
www.youthnoise.com
www.dreamyardactionproject.com
www.nystudents.org
. . . and these organizaions:
Youth Education Alliance is a group of teenagers and young
adults who know that we have the power to make a change.
We bring youth together to identify the problems in our
schools and solve them collectively. Through direct action and
community education, we hold city leaders and school officials
accountable to young people in our nation’s capital.
Youth United for Change (Y.U.C) is an organization
dedicated to developing young leaders in Philadelphia and
empowering them to improve the quality of education and
services in their communities to better meet their needs. This
is done through a process of institution-based community
organizing where a diverse group of young people comes
together to identify common concerns and takes collective ac-
tion to address them.
Revolt Against Terrible Schools This website includes a
Student Protest Guide, information on organizing a walkout,
a ‘zine making guide, how to resist, and tales of protest, all cre-
ated by young people..
Make the Road by Walking A not-for-profit, membership-
led organization based in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Its Youth
Power Project encourages community youth, aged 5-19, to
become leaders in their neighborhood and activists in their
schools.