High School Students Head to Sacramento to Investigate Legislative Process and Civil Rights at ACLU Student Conference


For Immediate Release: March 26, 1998

At the seventh annual "Say What??!! Students Celebrating Freedom of Expression Conference" 700 high school students from 30 high schools throughout northern California will investigate youth civil rights issues and discuss strategies on how they can impact the Legislature on bills which affect young people. The event will take place on Tuesday, March 31, from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM at the Sacramento Convention Center.

This free conference, organized by the Howard A. Friedman First Amendment Education Project of the ACLU of Northern California and planned by ACLU student activists, will feature debates, lobbying, music, and workshops on issues facing young people today including juvenile justice, homeless youth, the rights of teen parents, bilingual education, religious clubs on campus, same sex public schools, school prayer, the death penalty, dealing with the police, gay bashing on campus, and more. There will also be a noon performance by the COMBAT AIDS Street Theater.

A rally about building a youth movement at 2:10 on the Capitol steps.

Some of the student participants will personally deliver huge postcards to members of California's Senate and Assembly, asking members to vote against Governor Wilson's 1998 Juvenile Crime package which includes sentencing more youth to serve time in adult prisons and removing the confidentiality of some juveniles' records.