ABOUT US

Youth do not have the right to vote. They cannot propose litigation, run for office, or make budgetary decisions. In New York, 1.2 million public school students attend the nation’s largest and most segregated public school system. Furthermore, students as young as 9 years old can be incarcerated in New York’s juvenile facilities. These legal structures rob the next generation of the right to education, access to democracy, and the possibility of a shared future. As long as youth lack autonomy, institutional power, and legal resources in the institutions that control their worlds, they will continue to experience systemic oppression. As long as universities and the legal profession continue to gate-keep legal information, access, and resources, youth, especially low-income youth of color will continue to lack the tools to transform the institutions that determine their lives.

In May 2019, Mayor DeBlasio announced the city would implement the IntegrateNYC student platform as the blueprint to integrate the nation’s largest school system. A year later, as COVID-19 and racial uprisings ravaged New York City, Mayor DeBlasio had not implemented the blueprint and divested millions of dollars in the initiative. Without legal networks, resources, and expertise in the movement, Peer Defense Project believes lawmakers will continue to break promises and tokenize youth movement leaders working to dismantle systemic racism and oppression.