Hammad Alam

The Project

Hammad provides legal and policy advocacy and outreach to Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) students and families who are victims of school bullying in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

Hammad’s project provides critically needed representation to AMEMSA students suffering from bullying, harassment, and discrimination across schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, and other parts of the region.

Fellowship Highlights

In the past year, at his previous host organization, Asian Americans Advancing Justice LA, Hammad has:

• Conducted outreach to over 500 AMEMSA students and parents across San Bernardino County, carrying out Know Your Rights workshops, providing advice and counsel regarding school bullying and other education issues, and creating spaces for solidarity and healing
• Represented AMEMSA and other Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (“AANHPI”) students by filing uniform complaints, pursuing California Department of Education appeals, and working with schools and districts to address systemic issues through collaborative and community-based solutions
• Built, led, and participated in coalitions to address students’ rights issues

Next Steps

In the next year, Hammad plans to:

• Provide additional direct legal representation to AMEMSA and other AANHPI students, addressing incidents of bullying, harassment, or discrimination in K-12 schools, with a focus on achieving solutions centering restorative justice and collective healing
• Conduct Know Your Rights workshops and presentations with students and parents across the San Francisco Bay Area and implement anti-bias teacher trainings
• Investigate and implement a broader impact litigation challenge or policy proposal to address key issues impacting AMEMSA students and communities, such as addressing language access, mental health, and trauma, or instituting ethnic studies programs

Media