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Schools

Citizens for Public Schools calls on Legislators to cancel MCAS testing

[caption id="attachment_1741" align="alignleft" width="2048"] Testing Times Ahead by Pete (2009) in the Public Domain[/caption] On February 17th Citizens for Public Schools published the following letter to Massachusetts legislators calling for a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education in order to cancel this year’s MCAS tests. Dear Senators and Representatives, In light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its impact on our schools and students, we, the undersigned groups representing parents, educators, students and advocates for education justice, call on Massachusetts officials to seek and obtain a testing waiver from the U.S. Department of Education and cancel this year’s MCAS...

Massachusetts anti-mascot legislation re-filed

[caption id="attachment_1586" align="aligncenter" width="800"] "Protest against Washington football team name”, by Fibonacci Blue, licensed under CC by 2.0[/caption] Professional sports teams are rapidly getting rid of their Native American mascots. And here in Massachusetts the Barnstable, Acton-Boxborough, Braintree, Quincy, and Walpole schools have all addressed them in recent months. But some Massachusetts towns are clinging to their racist mascots as desperately as others do their Confederate monuments. Dartmouth is one of about two dozen towns in Massachusetts that still won't give theirs up. While these towns and school boards root around their cupboards for the moral courage they seem to...

First stop on the school-to-prison pipeline

On February 3rd the Sentencing Project published a new study, Racial Disparities in Youth Incarceration Persist, by Josh Rovner, Senior Advocate Associate. It examines disparities in arrests of white children and children of color, and it does not paint an encouraging picture. For the NAACP the study's findings are no surprise. Black, Native, and Latino youth have been historically disciplined and arrested in disproportionate numbers and make up a lopsided percentage of those who are fed into the criminal justice system. The good news from the study is that in the last decade youth incarceration has been cut in half....

SROs and Juvenile Justice

For anyone unable to join last night's presentation on Juvenile Justice and SRO's — you missed an absolutely great program! Moriah Wiggins, Founding Co-Chair of IMPACT (Improving Multicultural Presence & Advocating for Community Transformation), co-hosted the Zoom meeting with Branch President Dr. LaSella Hall. Presenters included: Leon Smith, Esq., Executive Director, and Joshua Dankoff from Citizens for Juvenile Justice; Matthew Cregor, Staff Attorney, Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee; and Ricardo Rosa, Ph.D., Co-chair, New Bedford Coalition to Save Our Schools/. In addition, we were joined by a number of members of the community, including school committee members and School Superintendent...

Community Forum and Discussion: Juvenile Justice in New Bedford and School Resource Officers

NAACP New Bedford Branch Community Forum and Discussion Juvenile Justice in New Bedford and School Resource Officers Thursday, January 28, 2021 at 6:00pm- 7:00pm Please join the NAACP New Bedford Branch for a panel discussion on Juvenile Justice reform and School Resource Officers in New Bedford, MA. Panelists will be discussing a new report on juvenile justice in New Bedford and a new initiative led by youth of the city. Panelists: Leon Smith, Esq., Executive Director, Citizens for Juvenile Justice Joshua Dankoff, Citizens for Juvenile Justice Matthew Cregor, Staff Attorney, Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee Ricardo Rosa, Ph.D., Co-chair, New...

Schools

Looking at the race problem in NBPS hiring, school by school

In 2017, the Standard-Times ran an article, "New Bedford school officials pleased with job fair turnout," which covered the School District's 4th Annual job fair at Keith Middle School and described the District's hiring process: "The setup reflects the hiring process. Dr. Pia Durkin, the superintendent, has the legal mandate to hire personnel. First, Durkin has principals screen applicants and interview them. The one a principal recommends will be sent to the Human Capital office to be vetted and interviewed [by Heather Emsley]. Then the nominee is sent to the superintendent for approval... As the job fair wound down, Deputy...

NAACP Decries Silencing of Native Voices in Dartmouth ‘Indian’ Debate

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: July 20, 2020 – 8:30 a.m. NAACP Decries Silencing of Native Voices in Dartmouth ‘Indian’ Debate New Bedford – At a meeting of local activists convened by the NAACP, area residents criticized the Dartmouth School Committee’s handling of the debate over the school’s offensive mascot, particularly singling out the Committee’s decision to exclude anyone not a Dartmouth resident from its deliberations. This virtually ensures that no Native tribal members and leaders will be heard. In response, the group agreed to mobilize to ensure that those and other voices are brought before the public. The...

Defund SROs: put real resources back in our schools

There was an unintended display of fireworks at the July 13th Zoom meeting of the New Bedford School Committee. Christopher Cotter, Vice Chair of the Committee and a New Bedford Police officer, lectured two of his colleagues about the true nature of "School Resource Officers" ( SROs) — otherwise known as school cops: "Shame on you," Cotter scolded Committee members Joshua Amaral and Colleen Dawicki, for suggesting there are still a lot of questions about the SRO program. "You sit there and say that you don't know what the program is, what it entails, whatever the case is, you have...