Youth Study Sexism, Gender-Bias at ACLU-NC’s 9th Annual Trip for High School Students


For Immediate Release: August 9, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO—Twenty-four northern California high school students are participating in a week-long trip investigating issues of sexism and gender-bias as they participate in the ACLU’s Howard A. Friedman First Amendment Education Project. Now in its ninth year, the Friedman Project will bring together youth for a trip entitled “SEXism: A Youth Study of Gender, Power and Privilege,” which will include visits with a huge variety of people and organizations involved in issues such as gender discrimination, women’s health, reproductive rights, transgender law, government, activism, performance arts, and violence against women.

“The real opportunity here is the way that the participants will educate their peers after they have themselves learned so much,” said Eveline Chang, director of the Friedman Project. “Not only will they have an experience that is transformative for them personally, but they will also be leaders in discussing such critical social issues among their peers, as they spend the coming school year speaking in classrooms throughout northern California.” .

Highlights of the trip, which spans from August 8th to 15th, include visits to the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, the California Commission on the Status of Women in Sacramento, and the National Organization of Men Against Sexism.

The Friedman Project has sponsored seven previous summer trips that have covered a wide range of topics and included students from high schools far and wide. Previous issues have included juvenile justice, tribal sovereignty, corporate America, and immigration, and this year’s Project participants come from high schools in Sacramento, East Palo Alto, Santa Rosa, Berkeley, San Francisco, and San Jose, among others. Following the trip, the students will be asked to speak in classrooms across northern California and compile a report documenting the trip with their writings, artwork and photographs.

The Friedman Project, established in 1991 in memory of former Chair of the ACLU-NC Board of Directors, Howard Friedman, strives to embody his deep commitment to the education of young people and his dedication to the values of equality, justice, and freedom of speech, by encouraging young people to struggle with the complex civil rights and Constitutional issues of the day. In addition to sponsoring the yearly trip, the Project also organizes two large students’ rights conferences annually, provides speakers for high school civics and history classes, and serves as a model for other ACLU affiliates by making the Bill of Rights come alive for thousands of young people.