Michigan Civil Rights Commission Passes Resolution Drafted by MSAN District Students
March 23, 2015
Students from Michigan’s Farmington Public Schools, one of 28 school districts that are members of WCER’s Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN), drafted a resolution on social justice and civil rights and successfully secured its state-level adoption by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission on Jan. 26.
The “Resolution on Social Justice and Civil Rights Education” encourages Michigan’s schools and districts to promote civil rights education and diversity learning, and implement best practices that encourage “all students to constructively exercise their first amendment rights to speak on the policy issues that affect them.”
Several of the Farmington’s Youth Dialogues Policy Leaders, the students who drafted and promoted the resolution, participated in the 2014 MSAN National Student Conference, which was hosted by Farmington Public Schools in Ypsilanti, MI. MSAN Executive Director Madeline Hafner praised the group for its work in advocating for the resolution, calling them, “An amazing group of students.”
“With the support of educators in their district and at the University of Michigan, they have accomplished state-level policy change in Michigan! And this is not their first time doing so. In 2011 the Michigan State Board of Education and State Superintendent of Public Instruction approved a resolution that encouraged all districts in the state to implement policies and programs that promote diversity learning,” Hafner said. “As you can see, Farmington student leaders set a high standard for all of our MSAN districts.”
The Michigan Civil Rights Commission was created in 1963 to investigate alleged discrimination against any person because of religion, race, color, national origin, sex, age, marital status, height, weight, arrest record, or physical and mental disabilities and to secure the equal protection of such civil rights without such discrimination, according to its website. The seven-member commission approved the resolution unanimously.
