High School Students Lead Interactive Youth Justice Summit

Teaching Story by Vanessa Williams and Erika Landberg

In a workshop on the teacher shortage, participants were asked to move to different corners of the room to indicate their position on statements such as, “Teachers should pay for their own supplies” and “It impacts students negatively when teachers leave mid-year.” Photo: Allison Acosta

High school juniors at Capital City PCS in Washington, D.C. organized and presented 30 workshops at this year’s annual Youth Justice Summit (formerly the Youth Justice Food Summit). The six sessions of workshops encompassed a range social justice topics including book banning, the impacts of gentrification, queer representation in schools, gun violence, disability and policing, climate justice, and more.

Welcome and Opening Session

The day-long summit, held on a Thursday in April, kicked off with a welcome and brief orientation led by students Ares and JJ in the school’s theater. They introduced the schedule for the day and led a discussion about the interconnectedness of the many workshop topics. After their dialogue wrapped, the audience of 9–12th graders was dismissed in waves to head to the first session of workshops.