Meeting Time: June 10, 2020 at 4:00pm PDT
The online Comment window has expired

Agenda Item

X. Introduction of New Legislative Matter

  • Default_avatar
    Bret Lyon over 4 years ago

    I believe in policing for crime that endangers others, such as shootings. Otherwise, the police are not trained or suitable to handle the complaints they are now handling. We need people to meet and support students, without guns and use of force and training to dominate others. Too many emotional or troubled students are being punished and actually arrested for behavior that, not long ago, would have been handled by a trip to the principal's office. We need to do better than we used to do, not worse. Let's have guidance counselors, therapists and lay support people to help children, not escalate the situation and make everything worse.

  • Default_avatar
    John Hommeyer over 4 years ago

    Hi. Thanks for your patience for all of the outbursts. Let’s work together for positive change. How can we reallocate resources to bring a multitude of resources into OUSD to help kids? Sure some light security, but let’s find counselors, psychologists, nutritionists and learning specialists to really help. It’s like a good toolbox - many tools to handled many situations.

    I’d like to help. My company would like to help. We’re a medical nutrition company and we have 25 registered dietitians and an amazing Chief Medical Officer (who happens to be black) who can help too. Please reach back: john@katefarms.com 415-602-6686.

    All the best and good luck. We can change and thrive!

    Respectfully,
    John

  • Default_avatar
    Rosa Bay over 4 years ago

    I'm the Co-Deputy Director of the East Bay Community Law Center. We are a racial justice organization and provide free legal representation to OUSD students of color who face school pushout in its various forms, including expulsion and school-based arrest. The OUSD police are a driving force of pushout. This is a racial justice issue. Black and Brown students don't need police. We stand with BOP and urge this board to adopt the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. Our students deserve more from us. It's a long time coming and we urge the board to do the right thing NOW. Enough is enough.

  • Default_avatar
    Rebecca Graham over 4 years ago

    I fully support George Floyd resolution dissolve the Oakland School Police. I do NOT support any reframing/education/training of school police. Please redirect the ENTIRE school police budget to services that truly help students: teacher sustainability, trauma-informed counselors, paraprofessionals and educational specialists.

    In my experience as an OUSD teacher, the SSOs I knew were kind individuals, from the community, who cared about helping students achieve positive outcomes. But the weapons, uniforms, and badges, are not the way. BIPOC students need positive interactions with BIPOC adults in their lives. Balance the overwhelming number of white teachers with more more more support from BIPOC community student advocates, NOT POLICE.

    Thank you.

  • Default_avatar
    Linnea Nelson over 4 years ago

    I fully support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland School Police Department. As the mother of a 5 year old entering OUSD schools in August and a 2 year old close behind her, I am deeply concerned about the negative impact on my children and other children of police patrolling their schools. The money spent on OSPD is desperately needed for counselors, nurses, and social workers as our kids return to school in the middle of this pandemic and are more then ever in need of those supports. It has been shown many times across the last decade that Black students are disproportionately referred to the police in OUSD for minor kid misbehavior, including inappropriate 5150 referrals; and every time that happens, a child is damaged. Thank you to the Black Organizing Project for your leadership on this and fighting for kids in OUSD to imagine a better world where restorative justice, mental health professionals, and better academic support are a reality in our schools.

  • Default_avatar
    Abby Herzberg over 4 years ago

    I am in full support of the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department and the reimagining of safety and equity in our schools through an anti-racist lens. I hope this Resolution is just the start of reimagining all parts of OUSD, moving towards equitable funding and resource distribution throughout Oakland schools. Thank you to the Black Organizing Project for fighting this fight for many years to get to this point.

  • Default_avatar
    Joelle Alley over 4 years ago

    I support the elimination of OUSD police and any MOU or partnership with OPD. Police presence on campus is threatening, intimidating, and ineffective. It is inappropriate for police to be present on campuses as it targets Black and Brown youth and it makes it impossible for children to feel safe or to learn. I fully support Black Organizing Project's measure and urge you to replace police with restorative justice specialists, mental health professionals, and broader academic support. I work with high school students throughout the East Bay, including in OUSD, and it is clear to me that they benefit from support, empathy, and provision of resources, not from criminal procedures and policing. Please remove Oakland School Police, OPD officers, and any armed officers from all Oakland schools.

  • Default_avatar
    Brooke Lober over 4 years ago

    I am a parent of an Oakland Tech tenth grader. I support the elimination of the police presence at all OUSD sites. This is a potential beginning, a new phase, in which we can create an environment of study and shared learning in which all students have the opportunity to thrive. Our schools can now make the bold decision to oppose antiblack racism and indeed, all race and class hierarchy. Our schools can also forge a new way to produce safety for all.

    I oppose the hiring of any private security form or any armed guards in schools. Instead, an increase in social workers and health professionals, more teachers and aides, restorative justice professionals, and the presence of new, innovative programming that will ensure all of our students' safety and will support their ability to truly thrive.

  • Default_avatar
    Jimin Yoo over 4 years ago

    School needs counselors not policemen

  • Default_avatar
    Geri Landman over 4 years ago

    As a pediatrician and former public school teacher, I know firsthand that students benefit much more from counselors than police.

  • Default_avatar
    Emma BrennerBryant over 4 years ago

    As a Bay Area native, an Oakland resident, and a health education supervisor at school based health centers at 6 OUSD schools, I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. Police don't keep our students healthy or safe. To the contrary, as we can see from recent police violence and from well as documented cases of OPD abuse and racial profiling, police often put our students of color, particularly our black students, at higher risk in terms of endangering physical safety, emotional safety, and their ability to thrive in their education. As a someone working at the intersection of the healthcare and education systems, I know all too well the deep racial inequities we see around health and educational outcomes in general. This inequity is particularly evident in regards to the traumatic impact of police presence on students' health and education. Please help prevent the pandemic of police violence by taking police out of our schools!

  • Default_avatar
    Jennifer Coward over 4 years ago

    I am an OUSD parent and I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. I urge the Board to redistribute funds that would be used for the school police towards student support structures - Restorative Justice, Counselors, Nurses, Librarians, etc. Thank you.

  • Default_avatar
    Sean Finney over 4 years ago

    I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. You can put those funds to a better use.

  • Default_avatar
    Greg Cover over 4 years ago

    I am a lifetime resident of Oakland. Over 68 years. I also support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. I urge the board to boost the budget for councilors, R.J, librarians and cut the budget for school police. This would show a genuine respect for the ousd community.
    Thank you

  • Default_avatar
    Miles Murray over 4 years ago

    My name is Miles Murray I have taught in OUSD for almost 15 years. I strongly support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. I urge the board to boost the budget for councilors, R.J, librarians and cut the budget for school police. This would show a genuine respect for the ousd community.

  • Default_avatar
    Chela Delgado over 4 years ago

    As an OUSD alum, parent and teacher of color, I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. Police have never made my students or myself safer on campus-safety has been created by the students and staff who create strong school communities, space for social-emotional learning, counseling, and real restorative justice. No one wants campuses to be less safe; rather, we want the adults responsible for safety to not be invested in any kind of policing of students, and who have training in mental health. As someone who lived through some of OUSD’s most turbulent years at Bret Harte and Skyline in the 90s, and as a teacher with 15 years of experience, I urge you to do the right thing.
    - Dr. Chela Delgado, Skyline c/o 99, CCPA teacher, Melrose parent

  • Default_avatar
    Gina Ledor over 4 years ago

    I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. As a student of Berkeley High School, I know the value of a police-free campus. (We have only a few security officers.) OSPD disproportionately targets Black students and actively reinforces the school-to-prison pipeline. The 2011 murder by OSPD of an innocent black man and subsequent appointment of the murderer as OSPD police chief is just one example of OSPD's unacceptable actions. This kind of violence cannot be tolerated anywhere, especially in our schools. I am hurting for my peers who feel unsafe in what should be a peaceful space for learning. Eliminate OSPD!

  • Default_avatar
    David Liebman over 4 years ago

    I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. Their presence endangers and criminalizes students rather than protecting them, disproportionately so for people of color and people with disabilities. Conflicts in the schools should be managed by professionals trained in crisis management, de-escalation, and reparative justice. To clarify further, if a police presence is believed necessary to protect students from violence, e.g. school shootings, then they should be engaged only in those extreme situations.

  • Default_avatar
    Alison Hamburg over 4 years ago

    Born and raised in Oakland, I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. I strongly believe that law enforcement do not belong in schools. Their presence creates an environment of fear and punishment and places black and brown students at risk of serious physical and emotional harm. Oakland is already a leader in school-based restorative justice programs, so there is no reason that we should not expand those programs and remove police from our schools. Oakland, we can do better. With our city's long history at the forefront of black freedom movements, we can show the nation that we stand in support of black lives. Please act now, act today.

  • Default_avatar
    Talia Cooper over 4 years ago

    Hey, I'm Talia, I'm an Oakland resident. We have an opportunity here to make history, and I would love to see Oakland school board lead the way. The number of young folks of color who are getting killed by the police is horrifying. It is sadly, nothing new. Every life taken is one too many. More and more we can see that the whole world is watching. We have an opportunity in Oakland to lead the way towards true community safety. If Minneapolis city council can pledge to de-fund the police, I would hope Oakland school board can do the same. Oakland is full of creative thinkers. We can get so much more imaginative than continuing to do business with the police who pose more threat than offer safety. I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. There is no reason to delay- now is the time.