A New Chapter for Sarah 01.26.24
In August 2011, Sarah Comeau and I met at the DC Public Defender Service as legal fellows ready to take on the world. We talked about cases all day and night. We anxiously awaited bar results together. Two years later, we embarked on a long-shot dream together to start an organization that provided free special education legal services to older, court-involved students with disabilities. We learned how to build a stable, sustainable, and meaningful nonprofit together. Last summer, we celebrated School Justice Project’s 10-year-anniversary together.
It is with a mix of admiration, pride, and hope (plus, of course, a little sadness), that I write today to share that Sarah, SJP’s Director of Programs & Co-Founder, will be leaving SJP on Wednesday, January 31, to embark on a new and important opportunity. Next month, Sarah will be taking a position in DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office as Senior Counsel to the Attorney General of DC. There, she will be advising the AG as part of senior staff on issues regarding public safety, positive youth development, and violence prevention. The Office of Attorney General is so privileged to have Sarah share her experience, talents, and knowledge, and I know that Sarah’s role there will make a positive difference to our community.
During Sarah’s tenure at SJP, she touched so many lives, from SJP’s clients and staff to community colleagues and national practitioners. Sarah brought her passion, candor, and deep belief in justice to everything she did. Sarah played a key role in critical litigation during her time at SJP. She left an indelible mark on the provision of education in secure facilities through Brown v. District of Columbia (DC was still responsible for providing education to students with disabilities, even if they were placed in Bureau of Prisons facilities) and Charles H. v. District of Columbia, which SJP and co-counsel filed to ensure that students who were at DC Jail during the pandemic received education and compensatory education for time lost.
Sarah has been the longtime co-chair of Thrive Under 25 Coalition, a transformative coalition that uses advocacy, legislation, and public education to end the racist, damaging, and punitive responses of DC’s adult criminal legal system toward people who came in contact with the system when they were under 25. Through Thrive, Sarah has worked on key reforms in DC, including the passage of the Second Look Amendment Act of 2019, an expansion of the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA). Second Look allows a person who committed a crime before the age of 25, and who has served a minimum of 15 years in prison, to apply to the DC Superior Court to have their sentence reviewed.
Sarah also worked to shepherd one of SJP’s key initiatives into fruition—the establishment of the special education court-appointment panel in criminal court (now §16-714 of the DC Code). And these are just a few of the things Sarah has worked on during her time at SJP. She is a powerhouse, and we will miss her dearly.
Sarah’s determination, zeal, and vision helped mold SJP into what it is today, and I am so grateful to have spent my entire legal career working with her. One client called Sarah the “constitutional pitbull,” and I’m pretty sure anyone who knows Sarah can understand why. I know you’ll all join me in wishing Sarah the best on her next big step.
