Press Release
U.S. Attorney’s Office, SPLC Hold Student Success Conference
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Alabama
BIRMINGHAM – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama and the Southern Poverty Law Center will host a day-long conference Thursday, Oct. 27, that will explore strategies to keep children in schools and out of the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
The Student Success Summit will be held at the Harbert Center, 2019 Fourth Ave. North, in Birmingham, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
Educators, law enforcement personnel, elected officials and stakeholders from across the state are expected to take part in the event. Members of the state’s Prison Reform Task Force and At-risk Youth Task Force have also been invited.
Panels will focus on successful school discipline models; pitfalls that cause children to engage in negative behavior; strategies to limit youth court-involvement; and access to educational services for youth held in detention and correctional facilities.
Speakers will include representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, U.S. Department of Justice, the Southern Poverty Law Center, state and local education agencies, law enforcement and social services.
The conference will focus on curtailing the use of suspensions, expulsions, school-based arrests and excessive-force practices that too often, particularly among African-American students, lead to the school-to-prison pipeline. It will also include a discussion about what to do about children who are trapped in the criminal justice system, as well as the needs of youth held in detention.
For more information, contact Ashley Levett, Southern Poverty Law Center, (334) 296-0084, or at ashley.levett@splcenter.org, or Jeremy Sherer at Jeremy.sherer@usdoj.gov.
Updated October 24, 2016
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