Next week kicks off the “National Week of Action on School Pushout” sponsored by the Dignity in Schools Campaign.

The Dignity in Schools Campaign is organizing actions around the country during the week of October 11-17. The aim is to expose the pushout crisis in our nation’s schools and advocate for the human right of every student to a quality education and to be treated with dignity.

My organization, Project NIA, is proud to be contributing to the National Week of Action in a couple of ways. We are happy to join all of the other individuals and community organizations who are calling for an end to zero tolerance policies in our schools and an adoption instead of positive approaches to discipline like restorative justice.

We care deeply about the issue of school pushout because we know that education is the surest pathway for preventing future incarceration. Unfortunately, many of our schools are actually contributing to the school to prison pipeline by pushing youth of color out through harsh disciplinary policies and high stakes testing.

Project NIA has been working with the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team (YWAT) for over a year on a youth-led participatory action research project called “Suspension Stories.”

This project includes survey research, interviews, and art and will culminate in a new website. As part of the project, members of the YWAT came up with the idea of commissioning a comic about the school to prison pipeline. Project coordinator, Lillian Matanmi, approached artist and activist Billy Dee and asked Billy to create a comic that would illustrate the school to prison pipeline. Billy generously agreed and the result is Sent Down the Drain.

By Billy Dee for Suspension Stories Project (Project NIA & YWAT)

This comic is accompanied by a set of discussion questions that were developed by Project NIA and YWAT. The comic is meant to serve as a popular education tool that can be used with youth and adults to raise awareness and consciousness about zero tolerance and the school to prison pipeline.

When Project NIA was approached about contributing to the National Week of Action on School Pushout, we reached out to YWAT and asked if we could share Billy’s comic with the Dignity in Schools Campaign. The young women of YWAT agreed that this would be a great way to spread the word about an issue that they care very much about.

As such, anyone interested in using Sent Down the Drain as a popular education and organizing tool, could download the comic and discussion questions at the Dignity in Schools website during the National Week of Action on School Pushout.

After October 17th, the comic and questions will no longer be available at the Dignity in Schools website. So make sure to download the resource this week as it will only be available again in January 2011 on the Suspension Stories website.

In addition, you can view some of the interviews that we have done on our Suspension Stories Youtube Channel. Special thanks to Free Spirit Media for filming these interviews.

This PSA that was created last year by the Rethink Learning Now Campaign seems particularly relevant as we kick off the National Week of Action on School Pushout.