While the Legislature and the governor, Kathy Hochulare finalizing details to define the final state budget for fiscal year 2027, which should have been approved on April 1, and which appears to not be defined this April 30, as expected, New York students they intensified their fight so that Albany “does not turn a deaf ear” to their demands.
More than 75 student leaders from the Teen Activist Project (TAP) supported by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) they went to the seat of state government to demonstrate and once again ask legislators to approve bills that they consider urgent to protect students and their families.
Beyond the calls to make a choice to reduce class sizes, increased investment in school districts that for years have been lagging behind and that programs that promote the arts, sports and vocational areas be promoted, the protest, which took place in the middle of the “Youth Lobby Day for Safer Schools and Safer Communities”, where they met with 30 legislators, insisted on three projects.
The protesters explained that part of the list of requests for legislators is to give the green light to the Freedom of Reading Law, in order to guarantee that school students can have access to all types of works. Students report that since July 2021, organizations such as PEN The US have documented 22,810 cases of book bans in Forty five states and 451 public school districts, including New York, particularly with books that deal with LGBTQIA+ people
““This bill aims to address this crisis by codifying students’ right to peep and ensuring that school districts have fair and rigorous protocols for evaluating challenges to library materials,” said the Teen Activist Project (TAP).
Likewise, student leaders highlighted the need for Albany to remove the so-called “New York for All” Law that would make it possible for all New Yorkers, regardless of their immigration status or length of time in the country, to participate in their communities, provide for their families, and live without fear by prohibiting the use of state and local resources to support the Trump administration’s and ICE’s federal deportation agenda.
Finally, protesters advocated for the Safe and Healthy Students Act, which would end the way many public school districts across New York state teach sex education and mandate the creation of comprehensive sex education curricula that help young people make healthy decisions and maintain healthy relationships.
“This bill would require public schools to provide comprehensive health education for grades Okay-12 that is medically accurate and inclusive, appropriate for the age of the students, and that reflects national standards and best practices,” explained the Teen Activist Project (TAP).
Quinn Martha, education strategist at the NYCLU Education Policy Centercalled on senators and assembly members to take actions to protect and guarantee the rights of vulnerable students and their families, especially at a time when the numbers of young immigrants detained by ICE grow and LGBTQ people feel their rights have been violated.
“Today, NYCLU youth advocates said loud and clear that state legislators must prioritize pressing issues affecting New York students. And at a time when the Trump regime is waging a full-scale assault on trans youth, immigrant communities, and free speech, our state legislators cannot stand by,” Martha said.
“Albany must pass the Current York For All Act, the Freedom to Read Act, and the Safe and Healthy Students Act, so that all students feel protected from ICE at school, learn free of censorship, and receive a comprehensive health education,” he added. “New York students deserve no less”.
Santiago Castaño, who studies in a public school in Queens and who describes himself as “a young non-binary and immigrant man trying to have a quiet life,” shared the clamor of the protesters who went to the state Legislature and asked both the senators and assembly members and Governor Hochul not to leave the students aside.
“Schools and we, the thousands of young people who study in places of public education, need real protections in the State and the City today more than ever, because it is clear that with President Trump in power, the only thing we are going to continue receiving from the federal government is more attacks and threats,” said the student from Corona, Queens.
“In addition to better academic programs and investments in our classrooms so that we can have a better future guaranteed, it is life or death that at this moment the politicians who have it in their hands to approve laws that protect us, do so. The priority must be to guarantee that ICE is not going to be near our schools and that the police are not going to collaborate with them,” said the young man. “Also improving education that is more inclusive and where things are called by their name would be healthier for everyone. That is why Albany has to act and not leave the bills stalled.”
Mirna Castro, mother of two teenagers, those who study in The Bronx, also expressed his support for the demands of the student leaders who lobbied in Albany and asked legislators not to turn a blind eye to urgent protections that will give respite to attacked communities such as immigrant and LGBTQ communities.
“As a mother of two children who were not born in this country, one of them joyful, we are exposed to any abuse being committed against us, because my family is made up of two communities that are being increasingly attacked. And if they do not give us legal protections, they are serving us as a plate for those who violate our rights,” commented the undocumented mother. “Hopefully politicians can agree on what is missing so that we are not left out. Protections are what we need to live more peacefully.”
Neither the leadership of the Legislature nor the Hochul governorate have addressed the cries that students expressed during their day of lobbying action, but they have repeatedly mentioned that promoting improvements for schools is a priority.