On April 18, Reproaction and George Mason University’s Student Power brought together allies from across Northern Virginia to talk about the intersection of reproductive justice and education justice, a framework used to identify and eliminate educational inequity. Students had the opportunity to learn from Linda Shealey Cook, Health Chair of the Fairfax NAACP, Ingris Moran, Lead Organizer at Tenants and Workers United, and Sarah Shannon, an activist from the Virginia Latina Advocacy Network.

Sarah Shannon kicked off the panel discussion by defining reproductive justice, which was used to talk about how issues like the school-to-prison pipeline, weakening of Title IX sex discrimination protections, and student debt fall at the intersection of education justice and reproductive justice. Panelists fielded questions from students, including why there are so many inconsistencies in high school sexual education curriculums, and why emergency contraception costs so much.

Ingris Moran, who works with youth throughout Northern Virginia, explained how many issues start in middle and high school. In her work, she found that many students don’t know about the reproductive health resources available to them, and stigma often leaves students with subpar sexual education. Moran also touched on the fact that pregnant students are often labelled as “bad” and do not get the support that’s needed to help get them where they want to go, whether that’s higher education or into the workplace. Linda Shealey Cook added that accommodations like lactation rooms could make schools more accessible for parenting students.

Sarah Shannon talked about how barriers to accessing abortion care like transportation are much more difficult to access for undocumented people and immigrants, some of which are students. She explained how in Virginia, immigrants aren’t able to acquire government identification, which makes traveling more difficult and costly. “Transportation is a reproductive justice issue,” Shannon explained. “If you were able to have your health center on campus provide the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare services that just makes it easier for people to access what it is, healthcare.”

Panelists also shared how students can make education more accessible. “It costs too much to go to college,” Cook commented. “It seems like it becomes difficult to justify the expense” for young parents, she continued. Then Ingris Moran explained how advocates should look to divest money from school resource officers and privatized security guards, and invest in resources for students.

We were excited to help facilitate a larger conversation about reproductive justice and education justice with the students at George Mason. Reproaction looks forward to continuing to use a reproductive justice framework to address systemic issues in Virginia and around the country.

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