LETTER IN SUPPORT OF SB 419 TO ASSEMBLY EDUCATION COMMITTEE CHAIR, PATRICK O'DONNELL:
#KEEPUSINSCHOOL!
STATEMENT BY YOUTH AND YOUTH-SERVING ORGANIZATIONS
ON THE NEED TO PASS SB 419.
Dear Assemblymember O’Donnell:
Thank you for the time you took out of your busy schedule to meet with students, parents and educators from Long Beach and Los Angeles on Friday, June 14, 2019. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights about this important issue. We’re glad you agree that no student should be suspended for wearing a hat or being late to class. As we shared, SB 419 is a modest proposal to reduce suspensions for minor misbehavior. Since AB 420 was implemented in California, the state has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of suspensions across the state, and has had a dramatic impact on the lives and education of thousands of students. We look forward to speaking with you about this bill more on July 10, 2019 at the Assembly Education Committee Hearing.
As youth and youth-serving organizations throughout California who have experienced the state’s public schools – including charter schools – we are writing to urge you to vote yes on the bill, both when it is presented in committee and on the Assembly floor.
All of us who signed this letter have either experienced or witnessed the impact of defiance/disruption suspensions. Some of our experiences are included below.
Tauheedah Shakur stated that, “Middle schools and high schools that I have attended were built to look like prisons with random searches, dumping out our backpacks without finding anything, even bringing drug-sniffing dogs into our classrooms. At Crenshaw High School, I have seen students suspended for not having the school uniform, because they refused to take off a baseball cap, or because they didn’t have their school books. Such defiance/disruption suspensions are denying Black and Brown youth our education.”
Gloria Gonzalez was arrested, ticketed, suspended and then permanently transferred to another school in the first year of middle school at age 11. “Defiance/disruption as a category affected me mentally, because I learned that anything that is considered ‘defiance’ can get you kicked out and labeled as a ‘troubled kid.’ I was forced to go to a school far from my house, taking buses for the first time by myself. I never really loved school after that, and I didn’t finish high school until much later when I got into a continuation school that taught social justice.”
Lupita Carballo was suspended in sixth grade for throwing a book into the air and telling it to fly. “I got pushed out of elementary school, and I started to believe that I wasn’t a good student. So, I also got suspended from middle school and eventually pushed out of high school. I never got referred to a counselor. No one asked me what was happening in my life to make sitting in class hard for me. When we get pushed out, a lot of us are forced into continuation schools where, no matter how good your grades are, you have no access to the A-G requirements needed to apply to a Cal State or UC.”
Daniel Mendez was suspended in elementary and middle school numerous times for defiance/disruption. “I couldn’t sit still in class. But it wasn’t until I got to high school that I got tested and they found out I’m hyperactive. Getting suspended left me behind in all my classes. I really thought I was stupid. Also, getting suspended, I was out of school with nothing to do and no one watching me, because my parents both worked. I ended up in the streets, and got arrested a bunch of times. It doesn’t make sense that you take people who are having a hard time in school and put us in the street. You just gave us what we most wantbut don’t need– days off of school with no supervision.”
In addition to the personal struggles of thousands of students, we urge you to sign SB 419 because…
We need your leadership at the state level to support our local school districts in upholding the basic civil and human rights of California students. It is almost always state or federal level intervention that promotes equity and justice for youth of color, for poor youth, for girls and gender non-conforming youth, for disabled youth, foster youth, immigrant youth or LGBTQ youth. This has been true from Reconstruction, child labor laws, Mendez v. Westminster, Brown v. the Board of Education to the Native American Languages Act.Proposition 30 mandated LCFF funds prioritize English language learners, youth in foster care and low-income youth because the state’s education leaders – including yourself – understand we need accountability to support local leaders in ensuring vulnerable communities are protected and given opportunities to succeed.
Forcing a student out of school for minor misbehavior is dangerous. When students are not in school, they are often in danger. Cris Carter left school because a girl he had a crush on hurt his feelings. He was hanging outside an apartment building during school hourswhen a car came by spraying bullets. Cris was shot in the head and killed. Ana Lopez missed school to go to a house party. Ana was shot and killed in the front yard, during school hours. Jeremy Burrell was late to school – riding a bike near his home – when he was shot and killed in a drive-by during school hours. Statistically, youth are in much greater danger for drug use, sexual and physical assault, sexual exploitation and trafficking, arrest and detention, homicide and suicide when we are not in school.
Students deserve college prep, not prison prep.Defiance/disruption suspensions and other school discipline policies are key components of a harsh school-to-jail track. Because the school-to-jail track’s historical roots are in California, our state’s leaders have a particular responsibility to dismantle policies that prepare us more for prison than for college. President Nixon (out of LA County) declared the War on Drugs and enacted the first use of zero tolerance laws in communities. President Reagan (also out of LA County) expanded the War on Drugs and his Secretary of Education, William Bennett, was the first to enactzero tolerance in schools. School shootings were used as an impetus to expand these policies at the local, state and federal level - most famously by President Clinton following Columbine. Despite the fact that, back to the 1700s, ninety-eight percent of school shooters and ninety-six percent of school shooting victims have been white, the harshest school discipline – including suspensions, expulsions searches, and arrests – have targeted youth and communities of color.
We urge you to pass SB 419 and help us push foreffective solutions to school safety:
1. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)– specific strategies educators can use to reward positive student behavior, hold students accountable for our actions in ways that keep us in school, cause self-reflection and growth, and improve our relationships with school staff.
2. Community Intervention/Peacebuilders in schools– trusted community leaders who are trained to provide safe passage to and from schools; create a safety perimeter in and around schools especially during breaks and lunch; reach out to students who are regularly late or missing from school; work with youth who are acting out in class or on campus; prevent inter-group or inter-neighborhood conflict – often contributing to or stemming from neighborhood conflicts that, if unresolved, can lead to serious violence in the community; rumor control to prevent future violence and retaliation; run violence prevention, conflict mediation and restorative/transformative justice meetings; and make home visits to students who are struggling in school.
3. Restorative/Transformative Justice (RJ/TJ) in schools,which develops the skills of students, staff and other community members in conflict mediation and problem solving, de-escalation of violence, and techniques to defuse bullying, harassment and disrespect. RJ/TJ involves students and others in solving problems such as truancy, fights, bullying, theft, intoxication, vandalism and failure to follow school directives without resorting to suspension, expulsion, ticketing and/or arrest. In addition, youth and staff learn skills that we can use to improve relationships and solve conflicts outside of school.
4. Support the development of schools as Community Centersopen year around, after school and on weekends to extend the school day, build public safety, and increase student attendance and achievement through homework help, tutoring, college preparation, counseling and health/mental health care (many community schools have on-site health/mental health clinics), job training and placement, arts and recreation, even night school for parents and older family members. Schools that operate as community centers also increase family involvement in schools, leading to improved student relationships with parents/guardians and increased graduation rates.
We can empathize with the frustration that some teachers experience in classroom management. SB 419 still allows teachers to remove a student from their classroom for defiance/disruption for up to two days – without also pushing that youth out of school. It also includes a sunset for the upper grades to allow education leaders and communities time to identify any challenges in implementation unique to older grades.
We have seen how attempts to build school safety with harsh school discipline and suspensions, expulsions and arrests have pushed hundreds of thousands of California’s youth out of school – including many of us who are sending you this letter. We have been pushed into juvenile halls and prisons, forced into low-wage, dehumanizing and back-breaking work, and struggled to survive the dangerous underground economies of the streets where death is too common.
For all of these reasons, as youth of California and the adults and organizations who work with us, we urge you to vote yes on Senate Bill 419 for all students, K-12.
Sincerely,
Youth:
Please sign on below!
Organizations:
Please sign on below and email your logo to:
action@youth4justice.org by Monday, July 1st at midnight!
THANK YOU!
