October 2023 Convening

On October 18, 2023 five organizations came together to honor the resilience of Black girls, femmes, and gender expansive youth who are challenging police sexual violence in and around their schools. The organizations chose to collectively release distinct but connected research, designed to elevate young people’s voices and challenge the narrative that school police create safety. Hosted by Andrea J. Ritchie and Tarana Burke, the event set out to name and document the harm, envision solutions, and point toward the powerful youth organizing that can shift conditions.

Across the United States students attend public schools where they experience sexual harassment,  sexual assaults, and daily indignities which threaten their bodily autonomy—at  the hands of school police and security. The organizations that gathered are working to make the invisible harassment, abuse, and sexual violence that young people experience in and around schools, visible. We hope to craft a path forward where young people would be able to learn in environments that are safe, healing, inclusive, and supportive.