Do You Know Your Rights?

A group of our upper school scholars recently attended Know Your Rights Camp, a campaign founded by former NFL player and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick. This one-day camp aims to raise awareness on higher education, self-empowerment, financial literacy, healthy choices, and understanding and individuals’ rights when interacting with law enforcement.

Mr. Kaepernick has been touring the country to raise awareness about these issues and brought his program to Baltimore on Saturday, March 23. The camp featured an informative program that educated students about 10 basic rights that all Americans should know about:

  1. You have the right to be free.
  2. You have the right to be healthy.
  3. You have the right to be brilliant.
  4. You have the right to be safe.
  5. You have the right be loved.
  6. You have the right to be courageous.
  7. You have the right to be alive.
  8. You have the right to be trusted.
  9. You have the right to be educated.
  10. You have the right to know your rights.

After receiving this inspiring message, the students met other well-known figures supporting Mr. Kaepernick’s campaign of self-empowerment, including singer/actor Nick Cannon, NFL players Kenny Stills and Eric Reid, and various civil rights leaders including attorney Benjamin Crumb, ambassador and Malcolm X’s daughter Attallah Shabazz, and rapper/entrepreneur Chamillionaire. The students were also rewarded for giving up a Saturday to learn about their rights, and accepted gifts that included a copy of “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” a Nike backpack, and an ancestry DNA test kit.

A warm thank you to Mr. Collick for organizing the event and to Ms. Hughes, Mr. O, and Mr. Patterson for chaperoning our students on Saturday. This wonderful experience left an impression on our students and brought them one step closer to being the future leaders people that we at City Springs want them to be!