Call on FES Co-Founder and Board Member Bryan R. Lawrence of Yorktown Partners to put an end to the Campaign
(Long Island, NY) Community, civil rights, and education advocacy groups have launched an online campaign demanding that Wall Street investment manager Bryan R. Lawrence, a founder and officer of Families for Excellent Schools, put an end to the organization’s “Safe Schools Now” Campaign. The campaigns widespread claim that NYC schools are overrun with violence has led to an onslaught of racist media rhetoric portraying Black and Latino schoolchildren as “dangerous.” FES has already contributed to the further criminalization of Black and Latino youth, inciting media coverage that referred to these students as “perps” and “thugs”, which the groups addressed in this letter.
In addition to being a founder and officer of FES, Lawrence is a Partner in Yorktown Partners LLC, a Wall Street investment firm, where he makes millions by getting people to invest in environmentally harmful industries like hydrofracking, coal mining, and oil drilling.
The online campaign is being launched through the website OrganizeFor through ColorofChange.org, the nation’s leading online civil rights organization by a coalition that includes A.C.T.I.O.N The Point, the Alliance for Quality Education, Black Youth Project 100 New York City, the Brooklyn Movement Center, Brotherhood/SisterSol, Citizen Action NY, the Coalition for Educational Justice, ColorOfChange.org, Desis Rising Up and Moving, Justice League NYC, the New Settlement Parent Action Committee, New York Communities for Change, Momsrising.org, Teachers Unite, The Urban Youth Collaborative, Future of Tomorrow Make the Road New York, Sistas and Brothas United, and Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice.
“The rhetoric FES is using to ignite the fear about student violence based on bogus data is nothing short of racist dog whistling. They offer no solutions and are simply politicizing a real issue in order to push their agenda of harsh discipline practices, which we know only feeds the school-to-prison pipeline,” said Zakiyah Ansari, Advocacy Director of the Alliance for Quality Education. “Bryan Lawrence needs to act like a responsible business leader and put an end to this.’
“Black children continue to be over represented in the number of students that are arrested and suspended and under represented in the number of students that are graduating from high school. We can’t continue to act as if the use of suspensions and arrests isn’t pushing Black students out of school and contributing to negative academic outcomes,” said Kesi Foster, Coordinator for the Urban Youth Collaborative. “It’s deeply sad and disheartening that Bryan R. Lawrence and Families for Excellent Schools is working to undermine our efforts to implement policies that recognize the humanity of all Black children. “
“Families for Excellent School’s focus only serves to further demonize public education. As a New York City special education public high school teacher, I see students of color with special needs negatively impacted because they have been pushed out of previous schools,” said Kate Rubenstein with Teachers Unite. “Safety comes from building relationships and working with students, not from ineffective punishments given to students.”
“A task force examining disciplinary practices in the New York City’s 1.1 million-student system found that the overwhelming majority of school-related suspensions, summonses and arrests are for minor misbehavior, behavior that occurs on a daily basis in most schools. Students of color served longer suspensions on average and were more likely to be suspended for subjective misconduct like insubordination Experts in every area of education and criminal justice agree that overly harsh disciplinary policies push students down a pipeline from school into the juvenile justice system,” said Monifa Bandele, from MomsRising.org
Many groups signed on to the letter have been advocating for schools to implement restorative practices, which runs contrary to the harsh discipline pro-charter Families for Excellent Schools promotes.
“Restorative practices enable us hear everyone’s side of the story when a situation occurs in school. We’re trying to solve the issue rather than just throw children out of the class for 2 days, a week, or a month. Punitive discipline doesn’t correct any of the issues. And if you don’t correct the issues, it’s going to keep occurring,” said Michelle Reyes Parent News Settlement Parent Action Committee.
