June 3rd is Youth Empowerment Day

FOR Immediate Release
Friday, June 2, 2006
For more information: Emani Davis, (646) 523-5081


International Figure Lennox Hinds and R&B/Pop Star Raz
B Join the Education Not Incarceration Coalition (ENI)
for Youth Empowerment Day to launch a campaign to
address the crisis of students pushed out of school
and into prison

WHAT: “Youth Empowerment Day” to Stop
“Pushouts” from School into Prison

WHEN: Saturday, June 3, 2006, 6pm to 9pm, Press
Conference: 7PM

WHERE: McClymonds Educational Complex , Peace Plaza,
2607 Myrtle Street (26th Street, between Adeline and
Market Streets)

WHO: Students, parents, labor unions, educators,
community leaders, interfaith leaders and elected
officials

Oakland, CA – Youth, parents, educators, labor unions,
interfaith, community members, and elected officials
will join Lennox Hinds, lawyer for South Africa,
Rwanda, Nelson Mandela and Angela Davis; Raz B, R&B
Pop Artist, formerly of B2K; Camila Chavez, daughter
of Delores Huerta, niece of Cesar Chavez and Executive
Director and co-founder of the Dolores Huerta
Foundation, and Barbara Becnel, gubernatorial
candidate and lawyer for Stanly “Tookie” Williams for
Youth Empowerment Day to launch our campaign to stop
students from being pushed out of our schools – into
our streets - and into our prisons. Oakland City
Council declared June 3rd “Youth Empowerment Day” and
County Supervisor Keith Carson also declared his
support.

According to the Urban Institute Education Policy
Institute, nearly 70% of youth and 80% of African
American youth in Oakland do not finish school.
According to the NY Times, throughout the country in
inner-cities over 50% of African American males do not
finish high school; 72% of these “pushouts” were
jobless in their 20s; by their mid-thirties, 60% had
spent time in prison.

Through excessive policies of suspension and
expulsion, lack of adequate resources, insufficient
school staffing, deteriorating and decrepit facilities
and standardized “one size fits all” curriculum, our
youth are increasingly being pushed out of our schools
– on to our streets – and into our prisons.

Education Not Incarceration has worked extensively
with youth, parents and educators at McClymonds
Educational Complex and throughout Oakland to develop
a campaign that seeks to make changes to the education
system that will make students want to stay in school.

“The issue of pushouts is central to communities of
color throughout the nation. Students forced out of
school leads to unemployment and forces young people
into criminal activity to survive. We can either
invest in our children today or in their incarceration
tomorrow.” said keynote speaker Lennox Hinds.

For interviews: Please contact Emani Davis, (646)
523-5081, Jumoke Hodge, (510) 918-4403,
Perry, (415) 503-4170.