Over the past several years, increasing militarization and policing on school campuses have made African American, Latino and Native American students even more vulnerable to harsh discipline, criminalization and pushout than ever before. When youth of color come onto high school campuses they often see scenes like this:

For African American students criminalization begins as early as preschool, with black students accounting for 48% of school suspensions despite comprising only 18% of the preschool population. By contrast, white students comprise 43% of all preschoolers and 26% of those suspended. Nationwide, LGBTQ and disabled students of color have some of the highest pushout rates among all student groups. Last year Black Skeptics Los Angeles became part of the Dignity in Schools campaign, a nationwide coalition of organizations working to end school pushout and redress the institutional conditions that contribute to it. As a result of these deepening trends, our First in the Family Humanist scholarship focus has expanded to include youth who are or have been system-involved.

For the third year of Black Skeptics Los Angeles’ First in the Family Humanist scholarship fund the secular community stepped up and helped us exceed our fundraising goal for 2015. We’d like to thank the following donors for their advocacy and generosity:

Bridgette Crutchfield and Minority Atheists of Michigan

Zach Moore

August Brunsman IV

Mai Dao

Mandisa Thomas and Black Non-Believers

Roy Speckhardt and the American Humanist Association

Darlene Pineda

Kirreck Williams

Daron Scott

David Duncan

Susan Walsh

Greg Epstein

Steve Schlosnagle

Catherine Crompton

Donald Wright

Greta Christina

James Underdown

DeAngela Morant

Jennifer Taylor

Michael Lightsmith

Black Beyond Belief

Andrew Tripp

AJ Johnson

Debbie Goddard

Amelia Pergl

Ruth Seid

Chris Stedman

Bri Van Til

Stef McGraw

Sincere Kirabo

Perde Williams Jr.