Club Meeting: Michael Schwartz, Safety Valve Proj.

Michael Schwartz is an attorney in Savannah. His practice focuses on defending individuals whose conduct has been misunderstood by people in positions of power. He defends against allegations ranging from possession of controlled substances to murder. He is a veteran of the Georgia Capital Defender and the United States Air Force JAG Corps.

In 2021, recognizing a pattern in his clients’ lives, he began studying the effects of school suspension and expulsion. With a group of friends, he incorporated a nonprofit organization called the Safety Valve Project, Inc., which exists to provide families who can’t afford it free assistance in defending against suspension or expulsion before school tribunals.

With the goal of slowing the flow of the school-to-prison pipeline, Safety Valve Project pairs students facing tribunals with defense teams trained to identify biopsychosocial and environmental factors that add context to alleged misconduct. Safety Valve Project builds and funds defense teams to investigate allegations, represent students before tribunals and, if necessary, appeal suspensions and expulsions to school boards, the Board of Education, and appellate courts.