education Archives - Wear Your Voice

The Criminal Justice System: Returning Citizens Share Their Perspectives

The loudest voices discussing the criminal justice system often aren't the voices we should be listening to. Three returning citizens share their stories here. In September 2019, the 34th Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, stated plainly and clearly that his

Dec 19, 2019

LGBTQIA+

Title IX is Harming Transgender Youth: Here’s What We Can Do

If our youth don’t feel safe in our society, then what kind of society are we? According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, suicide rates and tendencies for TGNC youth are at an all time

May 17, 2019

DishonorRoll

Dishonor Roll: Campus Sexual Assaults Begin Before College

When engaging in conversations about campus assault awareness, we cannot limit it to higher education and college campuses. TW/CW: This essay contains extensive discussion of sexual violence involving minors, including mentions of r/pe. On June 10, a high school valedictorian had

Jun 25, 2018

Sex and Health

Tips for Surviving Academia as a Queer Person of Color

At its core, academia in the United States is still a white supremacist institution that was not made with us in mind. Institutions of higher education in the United States have never been particularly hospitable to women, less so to women

Mar 7, 2018

News & Politics

Safety is Not Just About Shootings: American Students Face Multiple Threats

The conversation regarding school safety cannot start and stop with guns and shootings.

Since 2018 began, at least 8 school shootings have occurred in the US involving injury or death. In the days since the most recent widely publicized shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, several conversations have erupted regarding U.S. school safety. Similar to other shootings, gun control has re-emerged in the mainstream discourse. As well, there are discussions regarding arming teachers and increasing militarization of U.S. public schools. For example, in Broward County, Florida where the shooting took place, the police have reportedly stated that sheriff’s deputies will carry rifles on school grounds going forward. But amidst the growing discourse surrounding violence and guns, one particular discussion about school safety has been erased: that US students have been under threat and are under threat everyday. Understandably it is a worrisome and frightening and grave situation when a school shooting occurs, but “school safety” is more than just about school shootings. And this hyperfocus on the state of US schools only when widely publicized events happen, obscures that schools have been unsafe and that teachers and students are constantly threatened and in dangerous situations. In particular, the conversation on increasing police presence in schools or further incorporating metal detectors and other scanners or arming teachers, ignores that many schools are already militarized and policed in this way. Many schools already have policies in place for metal detectors and drug-sniffing dogs, especially among schools with a greater concentration poor students and students of color. The National Center for Education Statistics notes that up to 24% of U.S. schools have random drug-sniffs by dogs and almost 9% of high schools have random metal detector scans.