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On June 4, Students in NC HEAT, the Education Justice Alliance, and The Coalition of Concerned Parents of African American Youth joined forces to attend the Wake County School Board meeting. The “Consent Agenda” of the meeting included a renewal of the SRO contract which funds the security in the High Schools. SRO’s have been arresting youth at many schools including recently at Enloe. Seven students were taken to jail after a water-balloon senior prank. When a parent went into the principals office to ask why these black boys were being thrown into the ground by police the principal had the parent arrested for trespassing. The SRO’s have little to no training and target youth of color. Youth and community buylevitra members packed public comment section as well as the meeting mounting enough pressure for the school board to move the agenda item of SRO funding to the “action” part of the agenda. After much discussion and debate among the school board members about discipline issues, school board member Keith Sutton said he would consider a moratorium on suspensions for level one infractions. While the funding for SRO’s did end up passing, the board recommended that community members be involved in the SRO summit training in August. This is just the beginning of the pressure we will put on the school board. Students need dignity in their schools and we will work until that is the case. You can watch the entire school board meeting or read more about it!