Meeting Time: June 10, 2020 at 4:00pm PDT
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Agenda Item

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

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    Stephanie Murphy over 4 years ago

    I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland School Police Department, including “reallocating funds...toward student support positions such as school-based social workers, psychologists, restorative justice practitioners, or other mental or behavioral health professionals.”

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    Sara Reeble over 4 years ago

    As an Oakland resident, I fully support this resolution and hope to see police in schools replaced by social workers and crisis managers who are better equipped to meet the needs of students by non-violent means.

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    Amber Taylor over 4 years ago

    As a teacher and resident in Oakland, I urge you to adopt the George Floyd Resolution. We can not create safe spaces for learning in our schools until we have Police Free School! We must eliminate OPD from the OUSD budget and sever all ties with the police department. Schools must be sanctuaries. Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department immediately. Thank you!

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    Roger Miller over 4 years ago

    I strongly support the George Floyd Resolution to eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. Teachers and students don't need police in our schools. We need more services for our students. Replace these officers with additional social workers!

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    lian alan over 4 years ago

    Resident in north Oakland. Please adopt resolution removing police from schools now. We do not have time for half way measures and studies. Follow the BOP recommendations now!

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    Brooke Lober over 4 years ago

    I fully support this resolution and hope that it will be passed today. As the mother of an Oakland Technical High School student, it is important to me that my child, and all of my child's friends, are in a safe and nurturing school environment. I believe that the police presence in schools decreases student safety. I am against any armed security forces, public or private, in our schools. I am interested in increasing the presence of social workers in schools, and increasing the number of teachers and aides, to fully replace the former presence of police.

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    Bethany Meyer over 4 years ago

    As a special education teacher I urge you to adopt the George Floyd Resolution. This is an issue that disproportionately affects black students with disabilities. We must reinvest in the services that our students need, especially mental health services. All students deserve to feel safe and supported at school.

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    Eli Kaplan over 4 years ago

    I strongly support the resolution. Police in schools are a danger to all students, especially Black and brown students are over-policed and subject to police violence at disturbingly high rates. Moreover, during this time of fiscal constraint we need to be using every resource possible to support our students, not direct resources to policing. Do the right thing, OUSD board. Eliminate the OUSD police and redirect these funds toward supporting students' educations.

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    Bonnie Kwon over 4 years ago

    I am writing with strong support for the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. Policing in schools hurts disproportionately children of color and children with disabilities. As a parent of a student in OUSD, I strongly urge you to shift funding spent on the police to health, wellness, social work, special education, and restorative justice programs. It is time to help develop our children without punitive punishment, threats and fear. We can help bring about a more just, fair and healthy Oakland.

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    Jason Wins over 4 years ago

    I wholeheartedly support this resolution!

    Police do not belong in schools! We need to invest in empowering our kids and their ability to problem solve issues when they come up, not invest in their criminalization. It is far past time to remove police from our schools. Public safety is when kids and communities have the resources to meet their needs and the tools to resolve conflicts when they arise, not having more of a police presence. I work at an elementary school in East Oakland, and I can't tell you how desperately we could use more counseling services available for the students.

    Dismantle the prison to prison pipeline!

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    Evvy ArchibaldShulman over 4 years ago

    As a former educator and community member, I’m writing to urge you to support BOP’s resolution to remove police from Oakland’s schools. Kids can’t learn effectively when they are afraid for their safety, and it should be abundantly clear to you by this point that the presence of police is frightening and traumatic for BIPOC students who are already targeted by state-sanctioned violence. Please do the right thing, and affirm that schools are safe spaces of learning, not tools of oppression. Thank you!

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    Lindsay Barnhardt over 4 years ago

    I absolutely support this. There are better ways to keep children safe.

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    Kate Faust over 4 years ago

    I am writing with strong support for the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. For years there has been overwhelming evidence that policing in schools has a disproportionately negative impact on children of color and children with disabilities. It is time to end OUSD's contract with OPD, and invest those funds in robust, trauma-informed teaching, special education, and restorative justice programs. We need to do everything we can to repair the generations of damage that OPD has done to Oakland children and families.

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    Kyle Kubas over 4 years ago

    As a resident of Oakland for over 10 years, who hopes to send my future children to this fine district, I whole heartedly support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department.

    I strongly believe that this resolution will have a hugely positive impact on the lives of Oakland youth, with specific benefit to black and brown children/teens who are most often targeted by police. I believe in a local school system that supports restorative justice and leverages a strong school counselor corps to address issues currently dealt with by police.

    We need nurses and social support, not police in our schools. Thank you for your yes vote on this resolution.

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    Monica Vu over 4 years ago

    As an educator at Skyline High School, I fully support the resolution to remove OPD from our campuses and district. Police presence does not make our campuses safer - period. OUSD cannot make claims that they prioritize and value the lives of our Black students and other students of color when they have agreed to allow police presence in our schools which threatens the safety of our students. Let’s move the funding for OPD for more useful resources and services like mental health services, programs, and counselors that actually help students thrive and be the best they can be.

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    Josh Nomkin over 4 years ago

    I strongly support eliminating the school police department. Having the police in schools exposed Black students and students of color to early police contact and criminalization. Schools should be restorative, safe places, not punitive environments where students are pushed into the juvenile justice system. OUSDs police force places students under surveillance, criminalizes them, and pushes them out. There are many school districts that have eliminated school police - OUSD can too.

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    Lauren Payne over 4 years ago

    This is incredibly important and the school district should provide safety & protection to our youth by removing the dangerous police force from their schools.

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    hemly Ordonez over 4 years ago

    As a resident of Oakland, I support this resolution. It is time to remove the police from Oakland schools. Oakland’s black youth are arrested in school at a rate that is more than double their proportion of the school population. The Black Organizing Project has been fighting for these changes for years, we need to do more to support black students and I stand firmly with them. It is time that we invest in meaningful support for our youth and not disproportionate punishment.

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    Nathaniel Landry over 4 years ago

    As a parent of an OUSD student, I urge the Board in the strongest possible terms to adopt the George Floyd Resolution. Criminalization of predominantly black and brown children at school constitutes an abject policy failure and a moral abomination. The millions of dollars spent on the Oakland Schools Police Department could help offset continuing budget cuts that, though felt across school sites in Oakland, have the greatest impact on those schools serving the poorest and most vulnerable among us, provide desperately-needed mental and social-emotional health services at schools, Restorative Justice training, nurses, and librarians. Please do not let this moment pass you by - pass the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department.

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    Sarah Schuppisser over 4 years ago

    I'm writing in support of the initiative to remove all police officers from OUSD schools. Schools should move to restorative justice practices that are proven to work and be the safest option for schools. There is no reason to retain officers who do not serve students and often do harm.