NEWSSTUDENT CULTURE

Despite or because of the defeat of Proposition 19 in California -- which would have legalized possession, recreational use, and commercial production of marijuana, within limits -- students in California and beyond are continuing the campaign's momentum.

On November 6, the University of Colorado chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) hosted a conference to address strategies for legalizing marijuana in Colorado through a state ballot measure in 2012.

In attendance: Students, community members, SSDP organizers, keynote speaker Rick Doblin, founder of the Multidisicplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (the event's co-sponsor), and other high-profile speakers such as Steve Fox, director of state campaigns at the Marijuana Policy Project.

While SSDP doesn't focus exclusively on marijuana by any means -- it was founded as an international network of students against both drug abuse and the counterproductive policies of the war on drugs -- it is clearly the issue of the day. SSDP activists and conference attendees scrutinized Prop 19 for flaws, discussed ways to rectify specific mistakes, and took all ideas into account for a redrafting of a similar proposal in Colorado.

Last year, all-male Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia made some changes to its dress code. Students at the historically black college discovered they were now forbidden from wearing dresses, tops, tunics, purses or pumps -- really, anything that makes a man not look like one.

Morehouse College called it a just and minor part of their "Appropriate Attire Policy" instituted at the beginning of last school year. Others called it the last straw.

Vibe Magazine spoke with one student who no longer calls himself a Morehouse man and is seeking to get his education elsewhere. Part of  the openly gay population on campus  and its sub-culture of cross-dressers, he told Vibe that he now feels understandably out of place. The policy, which the college's gay organization voted on and passed, was and still is controversial. The punishment is heavy-handed: If the code is broken, a student can and will be suspended.

Morehouse's policy is troubling to an A student who happens to tote a purse. It puts limits on not only self-expression, but self-identity. Just this week, a student from George Washington University became the first transgender Division I athlete. Women's basketball player Kye Allums was granted the opportunity to be called a man by his university. His decision to no longer be seen as a woman was not scrutinized by his school, nor was it celebrated. He was simply allowed to be what he always was -- a student.

Eric Mohat told his parents that his math teacher had caught the bullies who were tormenting him. The tall, skinny 17-year-old who wore pink shirts and played the piano at his Mentor, Ohio high school was taunted daily with names like "Twiggy," "fag" and "queer."

Six days later, a classmate told Eric to go home and shoot himself. He did.

Eric's parents have filed a lawsuit against the school district arguing that there could have been more done to prevent the bullying that caused his death. Two separate lawsuits say bullying played a role in the deaths of five teens who have committed suicide in Mentor between July 2005 and October 2008.

Homophobic bullying hurts students of all sexual orientations. Targeting students perceived as falling outside the "norm" creates a dangerous learning environment for young people struggling to grow. The teen years are the first time many students are thinking about and developing their own sexual identity. For many, school is the place where that identity development happens. Whether they are gay, straight or somewhere in between, all students deserve to learn in a safe environment.

A 2009 survey by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network found that <

Getting to school on time can be a chore. But for thousands of students in Chicago, it's a death-defying task. The New York Times reports that 258 public school students were shot in the city last year on their way to or from school, and 32 of those were killed.

And that was before this week's Second Amendment Supreme Court ruling that threatens Chicago's stringent handgun ban.

But a ground-breaking project that matches at-risk students with advocates is bringing change to the air in the Windy City. The largest intervention program ever attempted to stem the tide of violence against, and between, urban students, the initiative paired each of 250 high-risk students with a professional advocate.  Available 24/7, these advocates are tasked with keeping their students safe, in school, and on track to graduation, whether that means driving them home from school, sitting by them in the hospital, or finding places to live for those that are homeless.

As childhood obesity rates continue to rise, so do our fears about the long-term consequences of an expanding nation. Whether we are declaring "War on Obesity"; "Battling Obesity"; or joining the "Obesity Fight," the message is clear: Fat is the enemy, and we must join together to defeat it.

But a major girls' organization is calling for us to rethink our focus on children's thickening waistlines, pointing out that a constant emphasis on weight from the anti-obesity camp can intensify body image stress for girls who are already pulled between contradicting messages about health, beauty and their own value.

"The childhood obesity epidemic has caused girls to be caught in a double bind—on one end they hear that children are overweight today and that is unhealthy and unattractive—on the other end of the spectrum they see images of girls and women who are super-thin and over-sexualized," reads a recent announcement from the Girl Scouts of the USA and the National Collaboration for Youth, who sponsored a June webinar on the topic, so popular it ran twice, on the future of girls' body image, health and the media.

The New York Department of Education is considering new rules that would allow schools to suspend teenagers who send suggestive text messages or photos for 90 days. The rules would apply to sexts (as they are called) sent both within and outside of school hours. This is not the first set of rules attempting to deal with sexting and it certainly won't be the last.

For years now, legislative branches across the country have been adopting laws that criminalize sexting. Depending on the state, sexting carries anything from a fine and a required educational program to a class 2 misdemeanor to a felony charge of child pornography. Basically, no one knows exactly how to penalize teenagers who distribute nude or suggestive photos of themselves or of other teens.

The challenge in creating appropriate legislation is that the sexting problem is three-fold.  It involves teenagers who don't understand the ramifications of using technology to nude photos of themselves, teenagers who send suggestive photos of other people out to the school and beyond, and the child sex offenders who might be the recipient of these photos.

Arizona has a bad history. Over the last 100 years, it was home to schools to assimilate Native American children against their families' wishes, the site of Japanese internment camps, and was one of the last states to make Martin Luther King Day a holiday. Now Arizona has made its mark again with its new immigration law. As if that was not bad enough, now Arizona is trying to eliminate ethnic studies programs and is trying to fire teachers who speak English with an accent.

They are really on a roll. And it seems like there is a theme. Keep Arizona free of multiculturalism. The bill banning ethnic studies programs has passed in the legislature and is going onto the governor for a signature. If it passes, it will be "illegal for a school district to teach any courses that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals."

How will they decide if a teacher is teaching courses that promote the overt

Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

"We African American Women seldom do just what we want to do, but always what we have to do. I am grateful to have been in a time and place where I could be a part of what was needed."

This is the quote inscribed on Dr. Dorothy Height's Congressional Gold Medal, just one of the many dozens of awards Dr. Height received over her extraordinary life, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  The brilliant Dr. Height was a lantern and role model for millions of women and a long haul social change agent blessed with uncommon commitment and talent.  Her fingerprints are quietly embedded in many of the transforming events of the last seven decades as Blacks, women, and children pushed open and walked through previously closed doors of opportunity.   To me she was a dearest friend, mentor, and role model, and the Children's Defense Fund was blessed to have her serve on our board for over 30 years.  When she passed away on April 20 at age 98, we all lost a treasure, a wise counselor, and a rock we could always lean against for support in tough times.

Today, students across the country will be speaking up for their LGBTQ peers by staying silent all day long.

To symbolize the way in which anti-queer bullying, name-calling, and harassment forces students to keep their sexual orientation or gender identity quiet, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students and allies participate in the Day of Silence. They also sport stickers explaining their reasons for silence, and asking people to "Think about the voices you are not hearing today."

Every student should feel that school is a safe place where they can be who they are, without the fear of being a target of hateful attacks. Yet Jordan Rubenstein reports on the Gay Rights blog that some people find the Day of Silence so offensive, they're organizing students to walk out of school. Is seeing your peers offer a silent protest against hate and discrimination really that offensive? No matter what the cause — sexual orientation, religious preference, gender — bullying and harassment silences vibrant young voices that should be developing and taking pride in their identities. And everyone should be taking a stand to stop that from happening.

Bullying and harassment have serious consequences; at the extreme, they can lead to suicide. When 11-year-old students are killing themselves over homophobic harassment, you know that something is deeply wrong. Carl Walker-Hoover, a child who was harassed for his perceived sexual orientation, would have been celebrating his birthday tomorrow, if he hadn't been driven to take his own life. So whether you're participating in the Day of Silence today or not, think about the students, especially children, who are afraid every day to reveal who they are. Do your part to make your school or workplace a safe, inclusive, intolerance- and hate-free zone, and please give your support to the Student Non-Discrimination Act.

A moment of silence, please.

Photo credit: Megadeth's Girl

Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

Two recent decisions by school boards in North Carolina are local signs of a troubling national trend towards resegregation in public schools. In New Hanover County, which includes Wilmington, parents and advocates spent much of last year debating a new middle school redistricting plan that would focus on "neighborhood schools," essentially resegregating the schools by race and economic class because our neighborhoods look that way.

School board member Elizabeth Redenbaugh was the only White and only Republican member to join two Black Democratic colleagues in opposing the new plan. In a letter sent to parents and fellow board members last fall, Redenbaugh described some of what she was seeing: "I have literally had parents...approach me and state, ‘The bottom line is this: I do not want my children in school with black children.' I have had parents ask me why we do anything at all for the black children in our county. They look me in the eye and say, ‘we have spent so much money on black children . . . Nothing helps. I don't know why we even try anymore'...Such statements literally grieve my heart and beg the question: Who is my neighbor?" But despite the concerns Redenbaugh and her colleagues shared, they were ultimately overruled by the other members early this year in a 4-3 vote.