Youth Address Disparities in FUSD that Cause Students to be Pushed Out and Drop Out

Students, parents, and community members will come together at “Dropout kNOw More!” a community event to increase awareness about the alarming dropout rates in the Fresno Unified School District. Current high school student leaders will share their stories of the struggles they face through personal testimony, performance art and poetry. Additionally, they will share their proposals to help decrease the dropout rates in Fresno Unified and how they can work with the district to ensure students receive the education they deserve.

Student leaders have identified the following 3 areas as major contributors to why students dropout:

• Unfair and inconsistent discipline policies.
• Lack of good and healthy student/teacher communication and connection.
• Lack of culturally relevant curriculum that reflects the diversity of Fresno Unified.

This event will give a human face to the dropout rates and further Californian For Justice’s campaign “Educacion sin Barreras/Education without Borders,” which aims to prevent and reduce high school dropout rates in Fresno.