We, the students of New Jersey, our friends, allies, and accomplices, call on Governor Phil Murphy, Acting Education Commissioner Dr. Angelica Allen-McMillan, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, and on our elected and appointed leaders to integrate our schools and communities!  

New Jersey is America's sixth most segregated state for black students and the seventh most segregated for Latino students, according to a 2017 analysis by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. Our state laws and leadership are often considered progressive, but our lived experiences prove otherwise. We, the students, have spoken, and we call on the Murphy administration to enact the following demands:

• Support students who have recently immigrated to our state.
• Hire teachers, administrators and staff members that are representative of the communities in which they work.
• Stop treating students differently based on test scores and grades.
• Fund justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives for students and administration to unlearn biases.
• Hire more guidance counselors and teachers who care about us.
• Build community inside and outside of schools.
• Give us equitable resources.
• Start conversations -- even though they are hard.
• Build results-driven institutions.
• Create safe spaces for POC and other marginalized groups.

Finally, nothing about us should be done without us. Because youth are closest to the problems, we are also closest to the solutions and we can lead the way!

Tomorrow is too late. It’s time for adults to pass the torch so we, the students of New Jersey, can build our own legacy and end segregation in our schools and communities for good.