Sacramento Convention Center
1400 J Street, 3rd Floor
Sacramento

On Tuesday, March 23, more than six hundred high school students from throughout northern California will participate in Say What??!! Students Celebrating Freedom of Expression, a conference sponsored by the ACLU-NC at the Sacramento Convention Center. The one day conference, planned and directed by students, will focus on the relationship between youth and police as well as look at issues of concern to youth such as the recent student-to-student hate crimes, juvenile justice, student rights, and homeless youth. The conference will end with a rally on the Capitol steps advocating more funding for public schools.

"At our conference, students talk to students about how to channel their frustrations into youth activism," explains Nancy Otto, Director of the Howard A. Friedman First Amendment Education Project of the ACLU-NC. In a workshop, "Hate Crimes on the Rise," student leaders will discuss their strategies to mobilize students against racist and anti-gay harassment and violence. A panelist, from San Marin High School in Novato, will speak about a rally against hate crimes he recently organized after a 17-year-old senior was beaten just outside the high school, the word fag etched into his arm in pen.

"In another panel, Deputy Sheriff Roslyn Watkins, Vice-Chair of the National Black Police Association, and Jasmin Barker of the Third Eye Movement will discuss what happens between youth and police and how youth activism can improve the relationship between the two," added Otto.

Workshop sessions include The Fight for Juvenile Justice, Prisons: The Fastest Growing Industry, Attacks on Your Education and How the Media Portrays Youth. Youth and student leaders of groups such as Voz, the Bay Area-based group that organized the walkouts last fall protesting funding for prisons rather than education, and We Interrupt This Message, which addresses youth's portrayal in the media, will lead the workshop sessions. Students will meet with state legislators and rally on the Capitol steps to support increased funding for better quality public education.

The Howard A. Friedman First Amendment Education Project, which is sponsoring the conference, works with high school students and teachers to improve student understanding of the core principles underlying the Bill of Rights, and to make the connection between these rights and the issues in their lives.

Members of the press are invited to attend any part of the day's events and may interview student organizers and other participants. For a complete schedule of speakers and workshops, or to find out if students are attending from high schools in your area, please call Nancy Otto or Melissa Daar at the ACLU-NC 415/621-2493.