FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUSTIN – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas today launched the first Community Action Network (CAN) tool kit, “Educate Don’t Incarcerate.” This online advocacy tool supports individual and community action on one of the organization’s three strategic statewide campaigns, decriminalizing school discipline.
“This initiative represents the old as well as the new ACLU of Texas,” said Executive Director Terri Burke. “We saw many of our earliest civil rights successes, dating to our founding in 1938, through the work of volunteers. We want to return to that model. We believe an activist network ignited around the state will help us change the hearts and minds of Texans and through state laws, show Texans’ respect for all their neighbors, no matter their color, heritage, religion, orientation or abilities.”
ACLU of Texas policy strategists have worked during the current legislative session to pass bills that will reduce reliance on ticketing in public schools for minor disciplinary matters, and advocated for passage of other measures that will encourage students to stay in school instead of dropping out and into “the school to prison pipeline.”
“We are coming to the end of a difficult legislative session during which civil liberties have been repeatedly threatened and attacked. We know the real work to protect the rights we hold so dear must be done at the local level. We want to empower activists to take action in their own communities,” said Burke. “The ‘Educate Don’t Incarcerate' website is the first of several we will launch in coming months.”
Other tool kits will focus on:
How to become a “local government watchdog”
Immigration and civil liberties
Religious freedom in public forums
Censorship and books banned in public schools
For more information on ACLU of Texas CAN, see www.aclutx.org.
