Quotes from Dashka Slater

Never let your obstacles become more important than your goal.

Because I'm going to make you understand the family motto: Never let your obstacles become more important than your goal.

Binary There are two kinds of people in the world. Male and Female. Gay and Straight. Black and White. Normal and Weird. Cis and Trans. There are two kinds of people in the world. Saints and Sinners. Victims and Villains. Cruel and Kind. Guilty and Innocent. There are two kinds of people in the world. Just two. Just two. Only two.

To forgive, you have to forget," he counseled. "Because otherwise you haven't truly forgiven.

Two tongues in their mouths, the one they use to promise and the one they use to lie.

That was the thing about restorative justice. It allowed you to hold two things in your head at the same time--that butt-slapping was funny, and also that it wasn't. That asking permission to touch somebody was funny, but that you really didn't want to be touched by somebody who didn't ask. That the girls wanted Jeff to dial back the ass-smacking thing, but that they still liked joking around with him. That the whole thing wasn't a big deal, and that it kind of was (239).

On her walls she'd posted the family slogan: Never let your obstacles become more important than your goal. The goals: go to class, get your grades up, graduate, stay out of jail, survive.

Sometimes I think the fear of dying is really a fear that you're not living the life you want.

Restorative justice is more interested in relationships. A crime is not act against a rule, it's an act against a person. When you harm somebody, you owe it to them to make things right. By making things right, you begin to heal your relationship with the community. Our system is focused on blame and punishment and not on healing and learning. - Lauren Abramson (RJ Program in Baltimore, MD)

For me at least, genderqueer includes an aspect of questioning," Sasha explains. "The fact that I was questioning my gender meant that I was genderqueer.

That's not how the system works.

Even the brightest, best-meaning teenager doesn't tend to think much beyond the moment, especially when they're with their friends," observes Gerstenfeld. As people grow

The proponents of hate-crime laws are liberals, and yet they are the ones who are the biggest critics of mass incarceration," observes James B. Jacobs, director of New York University's Center for Research in Crime and Justice, and an expert on hate-crime laws. "So there are ironies piled on ironies. The remedy here is imprisonment, and prisons are the ultimate incubators of antisocial attitudes.

Studies show that more than 90 percent of juveniles who are interrogated by police don't wait to talk to a lawyer and don't understand the rights the police have read them.

Lynchings—they're hate crimes," he said. "But the kid who thinks that [wearing a skirt] is anomalous and decides to play a prank is not committing a hate crime.

Our system is focused on blame and punishment and not on healing and learning

Dan, Sasha's savior on the bus visits after the accident] Remember this: All your life you're going to want your parents off your back. Then you realize when you get older, they're the ones that had your back. (YOU had my back -Sasha said. Dan shut his eyes for a moment.)

but there are many languages on earth that are basically gender neutral, using the same word for he, she, and it, or not using pronouns at all. You've probably heard of some of them. They include: Armenian, Comanche, Finnish, Hungarian, Hindi, Indonesian, Quechua, Thai, Tagalog, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Yoruba.

RJ advocates say, is not an act against a rule, it's an act against a person. When you harm somebody, you owe it to them to make things right. By making things right, you begin to heal your relationship with the community.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Because I'm going to make you understand the family motto: Never let your obstacles become more important than your goal.

Restorative Justice} allowed you two hold two things in your head at the same time...that's what community was, all those layers of understanding.

Transgender people are the victims of an astonishing amount of violence. One out of every four trans people has experienced a bias-driven assault, and the numbers are higher for trans women, trans people of color, and people who identify as neither male nor female.

The limbic system is the part of the brain that detects things in the environment that we should pay attention to and sends an emotional signal about what to do in response: Avoid! Investigate! Eat! Fight! Flirt! Starting around puberty, the limbic system becomes more sensitive to stimulus, which is one reason teenagers become both more emotional and more interested in having new and intense experiences.