Youth Voices

By Sonia Banker Sonia Banker is a high school senior in San Francisco and is a part of the ACLU’s Youth Liberty Squad and Arts Justice Council. To hear more student voices on social justice issues, check out the creative journal founded by Sonia and the Youth Liberty Squad at www.theroadtofind.org.  When the pandemic began in […]

By Kimberly Sockwell, Youth Liberty Squad Student Picture yourself in history class. You’re taking a test after studying for months, and suddenly you feel that you have started your period. You raise your hand and ask your teacher to go to the bathroom but your teacher says you have to complete your test first. You finish

By Catherine Estrada In the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, as schools transitioned from in-person to remote learning, students were among the first to feel the effects of social isolation. We suffered silently as schools adjusted to virtual learning while paying little attention to the impact of this transition on students’ mental health. But the

Tyler Okeke – student at the University of Chicago Processing the deaths of people who look like us and those we love has been difficult for Black people across the country, especially students with limited agency. But our power is growing. Young people across the country have taken to the streets demanding to live in

By Sasha Rawlinson, 16, El Segundo My life got turned upside down when I was brought into the assistant principal’s office during my sophomore year. While I was taking a math test, a campus security guard burst into my classroom, grabbed my backpack, and said: “Let’s go.” Without any explanation, he led me to the

By William Pleasant, 17, Fresno I received over six hours of detention, served three in-school suspensions, and was constantly harassed at the end of my junior year of high school just for having my hair like this. My school district had a rule against boys having long hair. I knew the rule was unfair. My