I've been thinking a lot about my HS experience and the NYC Council budget. I went to a HS that was extremely over-policed. We had "rolling metal detectors", many school safety agents (cops), and ONLY 1 college counselor for a school of over 600 seniors/1,500+ students.

Rolling metal detectors meant that often times we would show up to school on a regular week day and see 10 police vans parked outside the school and had to go through metal detectors that day (some NYC HS's have permanent metal detectors, others have rolling)

On rolling metal detectors days, our phones would be taken away & we would be talked to as if we had done something wrong, rather than just students trying to get to class. I saw friends of mine get stopped & frisked and even arrested.

That was my HS experience because I went to a school that was majority BIPOC/immigrant. We literally had to share textbooks between students because there wasn't enough. It was incredibly underfunded, our teachers were overworked while my friends in other schools got free laptops

I wouldn't change my experience because I learned so much and it informs the person I am today and my advocacy, but I cannot believe that students are still facing this reality (for context, I graduated HS in 2014). The City Council, Mayor & NYPD constantly fail our children

demanding to take cops out of schools is the bare minimum, they do not keep students safe. I have seen them escalate situations & harass students. BOE doesn't care about its BlPOC students and they make it apparent in every way #NYCBudgetJustice