X.-1 20-1335 Adoption by the Board of Education of Resolution No. 1920-0260 - George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department
I support the resolution. Police serve no day-to-day role in education, and the funds can be better directed to help students in other ways, as outlined in the resolution.
Police do not belong in our schools. We need support scholars, not criminalize our youth. Our family at Oakland Tech chose a restorative justice process after a theft and I believe it was the best thing for all young people involved. School policing disproportionately impacts our black and brown youth, particularly young black men. We need more counselors, more school nurses, more support systems and better paid teachers--not cops.
I am an attorney who represents children in foster care, many of whom are students in OUSD. A majority of the students that I work with are also students with disabilities. Universally, they all have experienced trauma. School must be a safe place for them to grow, heal, and learn. Having police on their school campuses only serves to re-traumatize and criminalize these and all students. Please adopt this resolution to eliminate the OUSD police department, in order to ensure safety and justice for all OUSD students. At a time of looming budget shortfalls, this is an important way to redistribute resources towards trauma-informed, supportive services for students.
My name is Heather Clements and I am a parent in OUSD. I resoundingly approve of the elimination of any police presence in our schools. We have been told for not sure how long, decades? that the schools need to cut budgets. Why are we continuing to pour money into OUSD police officers, when we can barely cover special education services, mental health services, and basic school supplies. It makes no sense. We do not need our own police officers. Please support what the Black Organizing Project has asked for, they have done incredible work talking to the community. Use their expertise to pass this once and for all.
I'm a district 3 Oakland resident writing in strong support of adopting Resolution No. 1920-0260 and eliminating the Oakland School Police Department. Having law enforcement in our schools disproportionately affects brown and black students, harms student learning, does not provide a safe and conducive learning environment, and feeds the school to prison pipeline. Please be on the right side of history and vote to remove police from schools, and re-invest in school counselors, therapists, and other forms of behavioral support. Thank you.
As the parent of two OUSD students I wholeheartedly support the complete elimination of police in our schools. I emphatically urge you to approve this resolution.
I'm writing to you today as an Oakland resident to voice support for this resolution. As a black resident, who has seen the injustices of the "criminal justice" system first hand, I believe it's time that we create new models of community safety that support our youth rather than criminalizing them. We are at a pivotal crossroads on the move towards racial justice and I encourage you to act in a way that will leave you able to say that you were on the right side of history in this moment.
I am here to specifically demand that Oakland divest from school policing by eliminating the Oakland school police department contract and the Peralta community college districts contract with Alameda County Sheriff's Office by the end of 2020. I also would like to see this money reinvested into hiring mental and behavioral health/special education staff for the students and creating a district safety plan that is rooted in transformative/restorative justice practices
The police have lost the community’s trust, and by maintaining the police in our schools, the school system risks losing their trust as well. I am asking you to take this as an opportunity to rebuild the relationship between our education system and the community. Use your platform to directly combat institutional racism in Oakland Unified School District and terminate the Oakland School Police contract. Invest in working with community stakeholders to create a revised district safety plan. We are not disregarding the need for conflict resolution, de-escalation of violent/armed incidents, and support with 5150 holds in our schools. What we are saying is that we need people who are better qualified to resolve these issues and who do not wear a uniform that has lost the trust of the community. I am asking you to dissolve the OSPD so that we can rebuild a network of specialized services to solve problems that OSPD have proven themselves woefully underequipped to manage.
I support the resolution put forth by Oakland School Board of Education to eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department, with the intention of ending the school-to-prison pipeline, unequal enforcement on Black and Brown youth, and the financial waste of this $6 million line item. Oakland Unified School District will be experiencing a deficit this year. Remove this unnecessary expenditure and in doing so protect the well-being of Black and Brown kids, and insure the district reinvests excess police funding in school counselors, restorative justice and relationships.
My children attend North Oakland Community Charter School. I support the elimination of the Oakland Schools Police Department and redistribution of the money toward teachers, psychologists and materials to help students. In the current economic climate, my child's school has had to lay off or furlough 10 teachers for next year and the music/mediation program has been eliminated because of budget cuts. Our student body is 50% black, 65% living at or below the poverty line. We have no librarian, no psychologist and our special education services are very limited. Our student body has the opportunity to thrive at this arts focused, small, social justice oriented school, but with funding as low as it is, we put our children's futures at a disadvantage. Understanding that OUSD spends $6 million a year on it's police force, I would love to see that money redistributed to our schools, many of which are in such dire need of help and support.
I am a resident of Oakland living in Lake Merritt - born and raised in the Bay Area. I am Filipino and I stand in solidarity with Black communities in Oakland. I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. It is the duty of city leaders to honor the contributions Black people have made to the city of Oakland and our history of Black and Brown liberation movements. The police have terrorized Black communities since their inception and we need to do everything in our power to defund and dismantle the police and come up with a system that allows Black communities to thrive! Pass the George Floyd Resolution NOW or we will vote you out!
Cops do not need to be in our schools. We need nurses and counselors and librarians and advisors. Not people with guns who do nothing to actually keep people safe and terrorize black and brown communities.
I am calling for the school board to adopt Black Organizing Project's George Floyd Resolution to eliminate school police IMMEDIATELY. Thank you for your solidarity in this.
As a former OUSD middle school teacher, I strongly urge you to support this resolution. I taught at a middle school in East Oakland with NO police presence. Instead, we built relationships with students and families and created a positive school culture. We did not need police. We needed more than one counselor (the list of students who needed her help was endless). We needed a librarian. We needed money for books. Please, I urge you to support this. Police have no place in schools!
As someone who mentors and works with youth in Oakland, I strongly urge that the Oakland Schools Police Department is eliminated and the funds are invested in alternative public safety programs and measures that are more support oriented and involves experts in the field (psychologists, mental health support providers, deescalation experts, etc.). We have seen the negative impact of police presence, especially on black and brown adolescents. We need to invest in students' futures and eliminating the police department presence and involvement at schools is a step towards that. Thank you.
I call on the school board to stand for black students and black sanctuary and adopt Black Organizing Project's George Floyd Resolution to eliminate police from schools.
Deleted User
over 4 years ago
I am a resident of Oakland and strongly urge the board to adopt this resolution. Especially now, it is important for us to re-imagine what safety means for our community and our young people. It has become increasingly clear that policed schools are not safe schools, especially for black and brown students. Please remove all police from our schools and reinvest the relevant funds into services that are more needed - social workers, mental health, nurses, arts, etc.
I support the resolution. Police serve no day-to-day role in education, and the funds can be better directed to help students in other ways, as outlined in the resolution.
Police do not belong in our schools. We need support scholars, not criminalize our youth. Our family at Oakland Tech chose a restorative justice process after a theft and I believe it was the best thing for all young people involved. School policing disproportionately impacts our black and brown youth, particularly young black men. We need more counselors, more school nurses, more support systems and better paid teachers--not cops.
Resolution No. 1920-0260 - George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department.
I'm in support of the Elimination of Oakland Schools Police Department.
I am an attorney who represents children in foster care, many of whom are students in OUSD. A majority of the students that I work with are also students with disabilities. Universally, they all have experienced trauma. School must be a safe place for them to grow, heal, and learn. Having police on their school campuses only serves to re-traumatize and criminalize these and all students. Please adopt this resolution to eliminate the OUSD police department, in order to ensure safety and justice for all OUSD students. At a time of looming budget shortfalls, this is an important way to redistribute resources towards trauma-informed, supportive services for students.
My name is Heather Clements and I am a parent in OUSD. I resoundingly approve of the elimination of any police presence in our schools. We have been told for not sure how long, decades? that the schools need to cut budgets. Why are we continuing to pour money into OUSD police officers, when we can barely cover special education services, mental health services, and basic school supplies. It makes no sense. We do not need our own police officers. Please support what the Black Organizing Project has asked for, they have done incredible work talking to the community. Use their expertise to pass this once and for all.
I'm a district 3 Oakland resident writing in strong support of adopting Resolution No. 1920-0260 and eliminating the Oakland School Police Department. Having law enforcement in our schools disproportionately affects brown and black students, harms student learning, does not provide a safe and conducive learning environment, and feeds the school to prison pipeline. Please be on the right side of history and vote to remove police from schools, and re-invest in school counselors, therapists, and other forms of behavioral support. Thank you.
As the parent of two OUSD students I wholeheartedly support the complete elimination of police in our schools. I emphatically urge you to approve this resolution.
I'm writing to you today as an Oakland resident to voice support for this resolution. As a black resident, who has seen the injustices of the "criminal justice" system first hand, I believe it's time that we create new models of community safety that support our youth rather than criminalizing them. We are at a pivotal crossroads on the move towards racial justice and I encourage you to act in a way that will leave you able to say that you were on the right side of history in this moment.
I am here to specifically demand that Oakland divest from school policing by eliminating the Oakland school police department contract and the Peralta community college districts contract with Alameda County Sheriff's Office by the end of 2020. I also would like to see this money reinvested into hiring mental and behavioral health/special education staff for the students and creating a district safety plan that is rooted in transformative/restorative justice practices
The police have lost the community’s trust, and by maintaining the police in our schools, the school system risks losing their trust as well. I am asking you to take this as an opportunity to rebuild the relationship between our education system and the community. Use your platform to directly combat institutional racism in Oakland Unified School District and terminate the Oakland School Police contract. Invest in working with community stakeholders to create a revised district safety plan. We are not disregarding the need for conflict resolution, de-escalation of violent/armed incidents, and support with 5150 holds in our schools. What we are saying is that we need people who are better qualified to resolve these issues and who do not wear a uniform that has lost the trust of the community. I am asking you to dissolve the OSPD so that we can rebuild a network of specialized services to solve problems that OSPD have proven themselves woefully underequipped to manage.
I support the resolution put forth by Oakland School Board of Education to eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department, with the intention of ending the school-to-prison pipeline, unequal enforcement on Black and Brown youth, and the financial waste of this $6 million line item. Oakland Unified School District will be experiencing a deficit this year. Remove this unnecessary expenditure and in doing so protect the well-being of Black and Brown kids, and insure the district reinvests excess police funding in school counselors, restorative justice and relationships.
My children attend North Oakland Community Charter School. I support the elimination of the Oakland Schools Police Department and redistribution of the money toward teachers, psychologists and materials to help students. In the current economic climate, my child's school has had to lay off or furlough 10 teachers for next year and the music/mediation program has been eliminated because of budget cuts. Our student body is 50% black, 65% living at or below the poverty line. We have no librarian, no psychologist and our special education services are very limited. Our student body has the opportunity to thrive at this arts focused, small, social justice oriented school, but with funding as low as it is, we put our children's futures at a disadvantage. Understanding that OUSD spends $6 million a year on it's police force, I would love to see that money redistributed to our schools, many of which are in such dire need of help and support.
I am a resident of Oakland living in Lake Merritt - born and raised in the Bay Area. I am Filipino and I stand in solidarity with Black communities in Oakland. I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. It is the duty of city leaders to honor the contributions Black people have made to the city of Oakland and our history of Black and Brown liberation movements. The police have terrorized Black communities since their inception and we need to do everything in our power to defund and dismantle the police and come up with a system that allows Black communities to thrive! Pass the George Floyd Resolution NOW or we will vote you out!
Cops do not need to be in our schools. We need nurses and counselors and librarians and advisors. Not people with guns who do nothing to actually keep people safe and terrorize black and brown communities.
I am calling for the school board to adopt Black Organizing Project's George Floyd Resolution to eliminate school police IMMEDIATELY. Thank you for your solidarity in this.
As a former OUSD middle school teacher, I strongly urge you to support this resolution. I taught at a middle school in East Oakland with NO police presence. Instead, we built relationships with students and families and created a positive school culture. We did not need police. We needed more than one counselor (the list of students who needed her help was endless). We needed a librarian. We needed money for books. Please, I urge you to support this. Police have no place in schools!
I support George Floyd’s resolution to end funding oakland police in schools
As someone who mentors and works with youth in Oakland, I strongly urge that the Oakland Schools Police Department is eliminated and the funds are invested in alternative public safety programs and measures that are more support oriented and involves experts in the field (psychologists, mental health support providers, deescalation experts, etc.). We have seen the negative impact of police presence, especially on black and brown adolescents. We need to invest in students' futures and eliminating the police department presence and involvement at schools is a step towards that. Thank you.
I call on the school board to stand for black students and black sanctuary and adopt Black Organizing Project's George Floyd Resolution to eliminate police from schools.
I am a resident of Oakland and strongly urge the board to adopt this resolution. Especially now, it is important for us to re-imagine what safety means for our community and our young people. It has become increasingly clear that policed schools are not safe schools, especially for black and brown students. Please remove all police from our schools and reinvest the relevant funds into services that are more needed - social workers, mental health, nurses, arts, etc.