On October 25, the non-profit Girls for Gender Equity launched its School Girls Deserve campaign. They are calling on the New York City Department of Education to improve the safety of girls of colors, transgender, and non-conforming.
Carrie was asked to give remarks at the press conference due to our representation of underage girls of color who were sexually assaulted at school and then retaliated against by the administration.
We are talking about schools today and there are a few things we’re all here to teach the City and Department of Education.
I am here today because I don’t want to keep suing the Department of Education. I am tired of students of coming to me to report that they were victims of sexual violence and then punished by their schools.
Litigation is not the answer to safer schools, change is.
Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen a real tipping point in our society about not tolerating sexual assault. That’s largely thanks to the galvanizing voices of powerful women in Hollywood, but there are other quiet leaders in this movement, like my clients, one who is here today. Because of her, the NYC Department of Education has been under investigation by the feds for the past year because of its pattern and practice of punishing sexual assault victims, especially those like her – young girls of color from financially disadvantaged families. These girls are not believed and instead of being helped after a horrifying tragedy, they’re punished. If there are heroes in this world, she and her mom are heroes.
We are here not to tell the DOE how badly it’s messed up in the past
We need cases like hers to be investigated and the students to be cared for, taught consent, and employ a reasonable number of Title IX coordinators for its 1 million students.