A group of local pastors and community leaders gathered on West Broad Street early Sunday morning outside the city school district central office building as part of activities for Children’s Interfaith Weekend.
That’s actually a national effort going on in October to bring attention to the needs of children, which is also known as ‘Children’s Sabbath,’ focusing of the needs of children.
Locally, the emphasis this year was on the need to reduce school suspensions, something that the Children’s Agenda has been pushing for.
Brigit Hurley is chief program officer at the non-profit organization, and she said they gathered Sunday at the city school headquarters because it was convenient, but she said the issue involving overused school suspensions is really a nationwide problem..
“There are actually more suspensions per capita in other districts in (Monroe) county,” said Hurley. “And more importantly, there’s more disparities in terms of racial background and income level and also for children with disabilities. So we’re here not just because it’s the city school district but because it’s really every district throughout New York state”
Tedd Pullano is an associate pastor at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, and an organizer of Sunday’s gathering.
He also wants to bring attention to the negative effects of too many school suspensions.
“We want to be here so that people see that we’re standing up for the children, and we’ll have some stories that will be told this morning of kids who got suspended and the difficulties,” said Pullano. “And so the more voices that speak out….last year we actually had an opportunity to do a march through the city just raising awareness.”
Roger Breedlove is the founder and Pastor of In Christ New Hope Ministry in Henrietta. He supports the idea of reducing school suspensions.
“They may make some mistakes, but at the same time, I think all of us have some type of skeletons in our closet that we may not want everyone to know about,” said Breedlove. “But somebody gave us a chance, somebody gave us a second chance, and as a result of that, I’m the person who I am today. And I think we can turn this neighborhood around, or our city around by just giving people opportunity and supporting our children.”
The Children’s Agenda and other advocates are pushing for state legislation that would help reduce the number of school suspensions in favor or programs that would address issues involving students in other ways.
