Students Speak

Through Students Speak, HLS students participating in the Movement Lawyering Clinic support secondary school students from historically marginalized groups to raise their voices about what they need in order to do well in school while helping them strengthen their advocacy skills. High school students work with their HLS mentors to prepare and deliver testimonial statements about their school experiences to the Massachusetts legislature; design and implement advocacy projects in their local schools and communities; and come together with a larger group of youth from across the state to engage in an annual day-long Students Speak Youth Summit.The young people who engage in Students Speak are predominantly students of color, and many have intersecting identities as students with disabilities and as members of other historically marginalized communities. All of the students’ advocacy is documented on the Students Speak website.

This initiative has come to be a central strategy in TLPI’s long-range work of setting systemic and policy conditions that support all schools to create trauma-sensitive, healing-centered, antiracist school cultures that enable all students to succeed at their highest levels in school and in life. Students themselves are rarely asked about their own experiences of school, what works or does not work for them, and what schools might do differently to support their learning and growth. Typically, it is the adults who make decisions on behalf of young people based on untested assumptions about what is best for them. But students are in the best position to understand what they need in order to do well in school. Students Speak provides a platform that uplifts students’ voices and showcases their actions and advocacy so their ideas can influence educational decision making.

 

Learn more at https://students-speak.org/.