OAKLAND — The stereotype of a high-school classroom — kids falling asleep at their desks, or stealthily texting their friends, as a disciplinarian teacher drones on about calculus — is a long ways from here.
While Spanish-language speakers in her community have little access to election information, lawns in upscale Berkeley neighborhoods are peppered with campaign signs, Suarez noted — prompting a peer to ask, “Wait, that’s a thing?” But even the 10th-through-12th graders in the program who won’t pursue law as a career can establish a foundation of knowing their rights and understanding how to organize for them.
“When we’re talking about working with young people of color, there’s of course a history of distrust of the police, of the court system,” said Mara Chavez-Diaz, a program director at the youth law academy. “I’m a proud product of East Oakland,” Sanchez said in an interview. “Growing up in my community, undocumented, and seeing what the legal system looks like for the people within it — resources are just not accessible. If you do not have connections, it is very hard for you.”