Top Youth Activism Victories of 2009

By The Editors, December 23, 2009

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From shutting down rat-infested prisons to improving voting registration and making college more accessible, young people put their energies into extraordinary actions that changed their communities, and the world.

The decades-long battle to close some of the nation's most decrepit youth prisons got a big boost in 2009.

On May 29, Washington, D.C. closed long-troubled Oak Hill Youth Center after years of reported scrutiny over rat-infested cells, abuse by guards and dismal educational programming (PDF).

The facility was replaced by New Beginnings Youth Center, a $46 million dollar campus that eschews razor wire fencing and clunky cells for electronic entry cards, a library and a landscaped courtyard.

"[New Beginnings] is the anti-prison," Vincent N. Schiraldo, director of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, told The Washington Post in May. "What we had before was a training school for them to become adult inmates. We want them to aspire to college, to be in a place that looks like you care about them."

In August, California state officials announced plans to close Herman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino. A report released in 2007 concluded that the environment was so bad at the facility that youth were especially prone to violence or suicide.

The Community Justice Network for Youth (CJNY), a juvenile justice advocacy group based in California, warned that the Stark closure is bittersweet, adding that the state still intends to transform the facility into an adult prison.

Both prison closures came amid new reports (PDF) of abuse and neglect in youth detention centers across the country.

Richmond, Calif. Students Learn From Tragedy

The horrific news of a 16-year-old girl who was allegedly gang-raped outside of her homecoming dance at Richmond High School in Northern California shocked millions. What made it even worse were reports that the attack was witnessed by over a dozen people who, over the course of two hours, allegedly took photos and joined the attack, but failed to intervene or call police.

In the weeks that followed, Richmond High students faced intense media scrutiny. The students, most of whom are working class and of color, were called "animals" and "monsters" by several outraged media observers.

Students acted quickly. With the help of campus-based organizations like Youth Together, a Bay Area education reform organization, hundreds of dedicated students and teachers mobilized candlelight vigils and financial support funds to help the victim recover.

"Some people think Richmond doesn't care, but would we all be out here if nobody cared?" said one student leader at a school rally held shortly after the attack.

Students and activists are also developing gender violence trainings to be added into the school's permanent curriculum. By the end of the training, organizers hope that students will examine how they perpetuate violence in their own lives, know how to respond to a bystander and become certified anti-violence trainers.

Video:

Richmond High Responds to Homecoming Rape from New America Media on Vimeo.

Wisconsin Students Dream Big

While federal officials stalled on immigration reform this year, students in Wisconsin went full steam ahead when they successfully passed a state-based version of the DREAM Act.

According to immigration activists, each year thousands of undocumented students are barred from going to college because they don't qualify for state or federal financial aid. Student-led groups across the country have increased their efforts to pass the DREAM Act, a proposed piece of federal legislation that would provide undocumented students with a path toward legalization and qualify them for financial aid.

On June 29, Wisconsin became the 11th state in the nation to allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition. Students organized with the support of immigrant advocacy groups Voces de la Frontera and Students United for Recognizing Immigrant Rights (SUFRIR).

"I really think this gets us back on course with our brightest having more access to education," State Rep. Pedro Colon told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

It's estimated that between 400-650 undocumented students graduate each year from Wisconsin high schools.

WireTap reporter Antonio Daniel Ramirez, a former Milwaukee public school teacher, recalled that at the school where he taught, four of the class valedictorians in five years had been undocumented students.

Green Jobs, Clean Energy

In February, 12,000 young people descended on D.C. as part of the Power Shift '09 campaign -- organized by the Energy Action Coalition -- to push for a ban on coal, immediate action on climate legislation this year, investment in green jobs and a 40 percent carbon emissions reduction by 2020. Youth from all 50 states hammered their message home in some 370 meetings with Congressional members and staff.

Organizers have plenty of successes to tout. The stimulus package passed in February set aside $50 billion for the nation's energy economy, focusing mostly on renewable energy, including $5 billion to make homes more energy efficient. Another $500 million was specifically allocated for green jobs. The administration has pushed to eliminate Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage, and in his address to the joint session of Congress, Obama asked members to deliver legislation to support caps on carbon pollution and investment in renewable energy.

Moving Voter Registration Into the 21st Century

The Bus Federation's affiliates in two states -- the Oregon Bus Project and New Era Colorado -- helped pass online voter registration bills, which moves the voter registration process in our country closer to the 21st century. These bills make voter registration easier by allowing anyone with a valid state ID the ability to register online and not deal with printing and mailing in the form, as is required in all but five states now. By pairing the voter registration database with state DMV databases, county clerks can verify the signatures on file to prevent fraud. The whole system will reduce administrative costs in the long-term.

Jeff Mapes reported in The Oregonian that registering online has already become popular in Arizona and Washington, the first two states that adopted online registration -- particularly among younger voters. In Washington last year, 25 percent of all new registrants signed up by internet.

The director of New Era Colorado, Steve Fenberg, says, "It took us two years to get the bill passed, but the second time we introduced it, it was broadly bipartisan -- it passed unanimously in the Senate. I'd say the coolest part of the bill is that it was supported completely by a grassroots effort with no hired lobbyists and it was actually written and lobbied through by young interns of New Era."

Students Win Higher Education Standards

Tracking. It's a term used to describe the ugly practice in American public education of placing students in different academic settings based on ability. Score low on a standardized high school entrance test and a student might be given only remedial and non-rigorous classes, which ultimately can limit their college choices. Californians for Justice (CFJ), a grassroots statewide youth organizing non-profit working for educational and racial justice in public schools, has been fighting for all students' rights to the A-G course sequence required for admittance at California State and University of California system colleges and universities.

Top photo courtesy of Steve Liss, the author of No Place for Children: Voices from Juvenile Detention.