In Actions, Articles, Bus Riders Union, Campaigns, Fight For The Souls OF The Cities

Board Member Monica Garcia Introduces Motion

to Cut LASPD Budget by 50% Then 75% Then 90%

Please attend the LAUSD Board Meeting Physically on June 23 at 9 AM with Social Distancing

Please Get on the Virtual Board Meeting at 9 AM

and make public comments

The Labor/Community Strategy Center, Bus Riders Union, and Taking Action Social Justice Clubs in L.A. High Schools Commend Monica Garcia for her far-reaching Civil Rights Motion in front of the Los Angeles Unified School Board. The Strategy Center strongly supports he motion to cut the Budget of the Los Angeles School Police Department by 50% in 2021, 75% in 2022, and 90% in 2023. (The entire motion is below).

This is the most sympathetic, visionary, and empathetic response by an elected official in Los Angeles and should be the baseline for the discussion as THE LEAST that the LAUSD should do. Her motion is both visionary and realistic and we urge all LAUSD Board Members, listed below, to support this motion at the June 23 LAUSD Board Meeting .

This Civil Rights Motion, as does the Strategy Center, recognizes the courageous, visionary, and long-distance runner leadership of Black Lives Matter L.A. and Students Deserve. It was a pleasure to work with them  at the terrific demonstration and rally at the LAUSD yesterday. They are essential for us to win the anti-racist future of Black and Latinx students who have suffered long enough.

We urge the United Teachers of Los Angeles to support this motion and help us make Monica Garcia’s Civil Rights Motion a reality. They have many friends on the board as do we and many are and can be Friends of the Movement. Withdrawing any other motion that clearly does not go far enough and supporting the Civil Rights Motion would be essential to this victory.

NO POLICE IN THE LAUSD SCHOOLS is in the great traditions of the African and Black Liberation movement of the 1960s. WE WANT FREEDOM NOW!

Please send letter of support to Monica Garcia and the Strategy Center.  We also urge LAUSD teachers to join Teachers for No Police in the LAUSD Schools organized by the Strategy Center.

Black Power, Black Liberation, Build a Black/Latinx/Third World Alliance

Please take action and get involved.

Here is the full text of her motion and the entire motion with very profound preambles

 

Reimagining School Safety and Investing in our Highest Need Students

Whereas, The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has interrupted structural racism and classism by increasing access and opportunities for all students, and has perpetuated structural racism and classism, by failing to educate all children at high levels with equitable opportunities; and

Whereas, Black Lives Matter, founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, has grown to a national intersectional movement to affirm Black people’s humanity, global contributions to society, and resilience in the face of deadly police and vigilante oppression; and

Whereas, The murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, triggered multi-racial, multi-generational demonstrations and protests in U.S. cities and around the world against police brutality, structural racism, and lack of police accountability; and

Whereas, The Million Dollar Hoods Project at UCLA found that Black youth accounted for 8% of LAUSD’s population, but they accounted for 25% of all of the arrest, and

Whereas, The Brothers Sons Selves Coalition Safety and Youth Justice Survey found that over 43% of LAUSD youth who took the survey (out of 1,840 LAUSD youth and 3,378 overall L.A. County youth) have experienced random police stops and interactions in their schools; and

Whereas, African American children in L.A. Unified School District have been disproportionately impacted by the pervasive school to prison pipeline and discipline policies that have led to them being suspended, expelled, arrested, pushed out of schools, thus limiting their opportunities to benefit from the promise of a quality public education; and

Whereas, L.A. Unified School District leadership, staff and Los Angeles School Police Department have made significant efforts to address education neglect and malpractice, yet in spite of this, racial disproportionality exists in student investment, achievement, and discipline; and

Whereas, L.A. Unified leadership has made a concerted effort to move away from punitive practices and policies that criminalize young people and has implemented the School Climate Bill of Rights, School-Wide Positive Behavior Intervention Systems and Restorative Justice practices; and

Whereas, L.A. Unified has adopted the Student Equity Needs Index as a means to address the significant barriers faced by communities of color; and

Whereas, The Superintendent has formed a task force to make recommendations on safety policy and practice; now, therefore be it

Resolved, That the Board of Education of the City of Los Angeles directs the Superintendent to reduce the budget of the Los Angeles School Police Department starting with 2021-2022 school year, and begin transition plan to provide alternative safety and support strategies consistent with budget reductions of 50% (2021-2022 school year), 75% (2022-2023 school year) and 90% (2023-2024 school year); and

Resolved further, That the Board of Education shall redirect all funds reduced from the Los Angeles School Police Department budget for Fiscal Year 2021-2022 and the subsequent years thereafter to the Student Equity Needs Index for distribution to the highest need schools in support of African American students; and

Resolved further, That the Board of Education acknowledges its responsibility to address the physical, emotional, and psychological violence brought on by structural racism, through trauma informed care, curriculum, professional development, hiring, allocation of resources and accountability; and, finally be it

Resolved, That on an annual basis in the first board meeting in June the Superintendent will report to the Board of Education a summary of achievements and investments being implemented to address the progress on the success of African American students.

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