By Chanell Marshall (4/17/10)
At the core of this project are stories. Telling stories can be traced back to the beginning of human history. When we share our stories with each other, we can connect across difference and we can grapple with complicated ideas. We were inspired to launch this project by the work of Creative Interventions and their storytelling project.
According to Creative Interventions,“storytelling brings knowledge, resources, and power back to our communities.”
Suspension Stories is an attempt to document young people’s experiences of harsh disciplinary policies and their impact on their educational trajectories. We believe that all of the stories offer lessons for how we can challenge the school to prison pipeline. We hope that the stories inspire other youth and adults to launch local campaigns to interrupt the schoolhouse to jailhouse track and encourage those who are already working on such organizing efforts to keep pressing forward.
