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Brooklyn Technical High MARCH 3, 2018 VIA FAX -- 212-607-3318 and 212-607-3329 School National School The Civil Liberties Union 125 Broad Street Walkout New York, NY 10004

Organization To Whom It May Concern: Committee We are student activists at Technical High School in ㅡ Brooklyn, NY. We are organizing a walk-out/protest on March 14, Planning Committee: 2018 to remember the victims of the Parkland, FL school shooting Divya Tulsiani - Media Outreach one month ago and to demand that Congress pass comprehensive Liaison With over a dozen other students gun reform. We are writing to seek your advice and assistance in organizing and effectuating this walk-out with maximal success but Photography and Design: minimal repercussion. Advanced Photography Club in collaboration with Student Media Many of us have organized protests before, but never on this scale. Brooklyn Tech has a student enrollment of at least 5,500 students, In coalition with students from: and we aim to have at least a few thousand walk out. So far, we Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School have united students on a Facebook group with about 1,600 members, an Instagram account with about 200 followers and a High School of website (see left). We have received dozens of messages from Trinity School passionate students who support the cause, and we are joining Beacon High School Bard High School Early College forces with activists from other high schools to make pamphlets Hunter High School explaining the cause and how to fight for gun control. High School for American Studies at However, we’ve also received messages from students worried Lehman College about being punished for missing class and being suspended due to Columbia Grammar and Preparatory the discipline code infraction of leaving the building without School authorization, which is a more severe infraction than cutting class. Francis Lewis High School Edward R. Murrow High School To that end, the committee has reached out to the school Esperanza Preparatory Academy administration, which has been very cooperative but cannot formally write to excuse students from the protest due to the political nature of such a message. We have read the information Facebook “Brooklyn Tech National School on the ACLU website with regard to legal rights; however, Walkout” students are still not really sure what to do if an unfortunate situation arises or if they are punished. Instagram @bthswalkout The plan is to exit the building, surround the school, recite the names of the Parkland victims and have 17 minutes of silence Website (likely with a “lie-in”), complete with placards and protest signs. http://bthswalkout.tk Some students have asked about extending the protest and perhaps

This project is entirely student-led and is not necessarily endorsed by the school administration or any employee of the NYC Department of Education.

Email going to City Hall or some other public place and not returning to [email protected] school, but those plans are not yet finalized and we are not sure if

the administrators will punish students who walkout for longer Address 29 Fort Greene Pl, than the originally agreed upon 17 minutes. Brooklyn, NY 11217 To that end, we respectfully request that you write to explain students’ rights and to assure them that they cannot be punished for protesting. We would appreciate it if you could write a letter to the school principal, David Newman, and advise him of our rights as well. He and the administration will likely take us more seriously if there is a powerful non-profit dedicated to civil rights standing behind us. Additionally, if possible, we would appreciate if you could help us notify the press about this protest and help us draft a press release. We would love for the media to attend and amplify thousands of students’ voices, especially since Mayor Bill de Blasio seemed to endorse our efforts when he said that “[t]hese high school students are doing something very commendable and very powerful”1 and that “I respect it. If I was a high school student today, I’d be walking out. There’s no question about it.”2 Moreover, we would greatly appreciate help inviting the media to our fellow high schools’ protests on the same day to make these protests maximally impactful.

Thank you very much in advance for your guidance and advice. Your help is immensely appreciated, especially since this is only the first in a series of walkouts being planned.

Please let us know what you can do for us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Alex Bavalsky Brooklyn Tech National School Walkout Organization Committee [email protected] 917-819-2114 (cell)

1http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/de-blasio-reaffirms-support-students-gun-control-walk-out-ar ticle-1.3838108 2 https://www.amny.com/news/politics/walkout-de-blasio-active-shooter-1.16912891

This project is entirely student-led and is not necessarily endorsed by the school administration or any employee of the NYC Department of Education.