News & Commentary

Arizona does not need more mandatory minimum sentences. We need a system that values treatment and prevention, as well as flexibility for judges to determine individualized sentences when incarceration is unavoidable.

Racial bias plagues our criminal justice system. That is why yesterday, with the Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, we filed a brief with the Arizona Supreme Court in a case about racially discriminatory jury selection, Urrea v. Arizona.

When a child is born in Arizona, their vital records should reflect--and respect--the reality of the family they are born into. Right now, that's not the case. We hear far too often from LGBTQ parents who are frustrated and upset that their child's birth certificate does not match their family.

When the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools cancelled its monthly meeting “due to no requests for Board consideration,” education advocates and parents like me decided to hold our own public meeting and highlight the issues the board refuses to acknowledge.

Demand to Learn recently took a team of youth, moms, educators and community organizers to Denver to learn about the restorative practices (RP) that have transformed a school there from a prison pipeline to a model of smart school discipline. I was lucky enough to attend and learned far more than I imagined I would. I thought I would be learning about their discipline procedures and I did learn about that, but what struck me was that the majority of restorative practices are not about how to deal with conflict and rule infractions but how to build relationships and create a culture of caring and respect.

On January 16, Demand to Learn allies accompanied me as we delivered over 2,500 petition signatures to the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools and demanded they stand up for families across Arizona. The signatures were gathered after an ACLU of Arizona report, Schools Choosing Students, was released in December that revealed hundreds of public charter schools across the state have enrollment policies that are unlawful or discriminatory.

This piece was originally published by The Arizona Daily Star.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the 2016 presidential election. Prior to President Trump’s arrival to the White House, the ACLU made a promise ─ should Trump act on the unconstitutional policies he proposed on the campaign trail, we would see him in court.

A few days ago, parents, student advocates, and educators came together for a policy summit at Balsz Community Center in Phoenix to develop concrete policies that will help alleviate the problem of schools pushing kids out of the classroom with harsh, and often biased, disciplinary practices.