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 am an Oakland resident in district 2. I am in SUPPORT of this resolution. We need to fund school counselors, enrichment programs, special education, and update classroom materials. Instead of expecting teachers and parents are to donate day-to-day materials, let's fund them. Our students need restorative justice and healing.
I am in agreement with the Black Organizing Project and urge you to vote in favor of the George Floyd Resolution to eliminate the OAPD. Those funds would better meet the needs of all students if reallocated to school based social workers, psychologists and other rehabilitation services.
As an Oakland teacher, I feel it is completely necessary to get police out of schools. The school to prison pipeline must be disrupted! Having police in schools makes our environment less safe.
I, as well as other Oakland Unified School District teachers and staff, stand with the Black Organizing Project to urge the board to SUPPORT THE GEORGE FLOYD RESOLUTION TO ELIMINATE OAKLAND SCHOOLS POLICE DEPARTMENT and DEFUND POLICE IN THE OAKLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT. This funding should be allocated to increase resources around restorative justice, counseling, career opportunity, educational and emotional support. Please consider the future, safety, and security of our students and DEFUND POLICE IN OUSD!
I am an OUSD alumn and former Oakland teacher. I stand with the Black Organizing Project demand to the board to SUPPORT THE GEORGE FLOYD RESOLUTION TO ELIMINATE OAKLAND SCHOOLS POLICE DEPARTMENT and DEFUND POLICE IN THE OAKLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT. This funding should be allocated to increase resources around restorative justice, visual and performing arts, counseling, career opportunity, educational and emotional support. Please consider the future, safety, and security of our students and DEFUND POLICE IN OUSD!
This change is long overdue and is for the good of all of the children and youth of Oakland. Fund mental health services, food, school supplies, and more teachers - not police!
I support police-free schools on two conditions, in this case: 1) that you thoroughly remember the reasons that led to police in schools to begin with, 2) that you propose a feasible solution that would have been a solution to these reasons to begin with (and I'd like to know why if there is a different solution, that wasn't used to begin with), and 3) that you don't call it the "George Floyd Resolution..." because while he did not deserve to die, he was in fact a criminal with a line of charges including robbing a pregnant woman at gunpoint in her home. To support police-free schools, but name it after a home invading, gun pointing, robbing criminal does not seem right. Can we just call it the Reform Resolution or something?
I am in full support of the George Floyd resolution to eliminate the Oakland School Police Department. As someone who attended a middle school filled with police presence, i can say that their presence never made me feel safe. In fact, it did the exact opposite.
Can we spend this money to provide more active enrichment of children's education and livelihood like counseling, libraries, and perhaps even FOOD? How about we make sure no child is hungry? Or that every child can read? Or that every child has an adult they know they can trust and talk to?
I strongly support the resolution to remove OUSD police from district schools. Statistics demonstrate two things: 1) a need to reallocate policing funds to schools and families and 2) a police bias against African American students. Police in schools is not protecting our most vulnerable. It is a misuse of school funds.
There is NO place for police in schools. Any kind of "safety" they offer could be offered in a MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE way by psychologists and trauma-informed experts in deescalation. Rather, school police are triggering for students, most of who know someone who has lost a life due to the police. WE KNOW the police target Black students and students of color in general. We may not have a safety plan just yet but honestly ANYTHING is better than a white supremacist system.
Please vote to cut ties with the OUSD police force. Police have no place in schools. School is supposed to be a safe learning environment, where kids feel comfortable and are allowed to make mistakes. For black and brown students, police presence brings about fear and makes students feel like they've already been criminalized before they've even done anything wrong.
Kids often act out when they are bored or when they feel threatened/disrespected. Not to mention kids with autism or other mental health issues. Far too often, police are called to respond to situations that would be much better served by a counselor or mental health professional-someone trained in adolescent behavior & de-escalating techniques.
There are many alternatives to policing, that also encourage positive behavioral changes. Engage students in extracurriculars, invest in the arts and hands-on learning techniques, support student-led restorative justice groups, increase the number of counselors in schools.
I am a longtime resident of Oakland who attended OUSD schools for nearly a decade. For the past six years, I have run the school library at Parker K-8 in Deep East Oakland and I support the vital work of The Black Organizing Project and call for the immediate passage of The George Floyd Resolution AS IS. Oakland needs to eliminate police in our schools to reduce trauma to our students and create school spaces that are true sanctuaries. In Alameda County, we are the only one out of 18 school districts that has a police force to police our largely Black and Brown student body. REIMAGINE what safety can be in our schools and move police funds into areas that research and data demonstrate make the biggest difference in the health and wellness of students - restorative justice, social workers, mental health therapists, nurses, and so on!!! STOP POLICING OUR STUDENTS.
I strongly support the George Floyd resolution. Our students deserve education, not a path to incarceration. Spending money on policing our students robs the students and the community of greater prospects of a peaceful future.
I am an Oakland resident and parent and am calling on board members to do the right thing and pass this resolution. Police make our schools less safe, especially for Black and Latino students, and we desperately need this money for other services.
My son, a 1st grader was 51/50'd at Greenleaf Elementary 4 times from August to November which officially puts him in the school to prison pipeline. Someone else should be responding to this besides the police. Please redirect funds from police to behavioral health services.
I am an Oakland resident in district 2. I am in SUPPORT of this resolution. We need to fund school counselors, enrichment programs, special education, and update classroom materials. Instead of expecting teachers and parents are to donate day-to-day materials, let's fund them. Our students need restorative justice and healing.
I am in agreement with the Black Organizing Project and urge you to vote in favor of the George Floyd Resolution to eliminate the OAPD. Those funds would better meet the needs of all students if reallocated to school based social workers, psychologists and other rehabilitation services.
Police have no place in schools. I support eliminating police at all OUSD schools.
As an Oakland teacher, I feel it is completely necessary to get police out of schools. The school to prison pipeline must be disrupted! Having police in schools makes our environment less safe.
Police have no place inside our schools. I fully support the effort to remove all police presence from OUSD campuses.
I was a preschool teacher for 3 years. I think the school age is too young to be introduced to police.
I, as well as other Oakland Unified School District teachers and staff, stand with the Black Organizing Project to urge the board to SUPPORT THE GEORGE FLOYD RESOLUTION TO ELIMINATE OAKLAND SCHOOLS POLICE DEPARTMENT and DEFUND POLICE IN THE OAKLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT. This funding should be allocated to increase resources around restorative justice, counseling, career opportunity, educational and emotional support. Please consider the future, safety, and security of our students and DEFUND POLICE IN OUSD!
I am an OUSD alumn and former Oakland teacher. I stand with the Black Organizing Project demand to the board to SUPPORT THE GEORGE FLOYD RESOLUTION TO ELIMINATE OAKLAND SCHOOLS POLICE DEPARTMENT and DEFUND POLICE IN THE OAKLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT. This funding should be allocated to increase resources around restorative justice, visual and performing arts, counseling, career opportunity, educational and emotional support. Please consider the future, safety, and security of our students and DEFUND POLICE IN OUSD!
In full support of this proposal! Cops do not belong in schools, and OUSD can do their students right by passing this amendment.
This change is long overdue and is for the good of all of the children and youth of Oakland. Fund mental health services, food, school supplies, and more teachers - not police!
I support police-free schools on two conditions, in this case: 1) that you thoroughly remember the reasons that led to police in schools to begin with, 2) that you propose a feasible solution that would have been a solution to these reasons to begin with (and I'd like to know why if there is a different solution, that wasn't used to begin with), and 3) that you don't call it the "George Floyd Resolution..." because while he did not deserve to die, he was in fact a criminal with a line of charges including robbing a pregnant woman at gunpoint in her home. To support police-free schools, but name it after a home invading, gun pointing, robbing criminal does not seem right. Can we just call it the Reform Resolution or something?
I am in full support of the George Floyd resolution to eliminate the Oakland School Police Department. As someone who attended a middle school filled with police presence, i can say that their presence never made me feel safe. In fact, it did the exact opposite.
Can we spend this money to provide more active enrichment of children's education and livelihood like counseling, libraries, and perhaps even FOOD? How about we make sure no child is hungry? Or that every child can read? Or that every child has an adult they know they can trust and talk to?
I strongly support the resolution to remove OUSD police from district schools. Statistics demonstrate two things: 1) a need to reallocate policing funds to schools and families and 2) a police bias against African American students. Police in schools is not protecting our most vulnerable. It is a misuse of school funds.
There is NO place for police in schools. Any kind of "safety" they offer could be offered in a MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE way by psychologists and trauma-informed experts in deescalation. Rather, school police are triggering for students, most of who know someone who has lost a life due to the police. WE KNOW the police target Black students and students of color in general. We may not have a safety plan just yet but honestly ANYTHING is better than a white supremacist system.
Please vote to cut ties with the OUSD police force. Police have no place in schools. School is supposed to be a safe learning environment, where kids feel comfortable and are allowed to make mistakes. For black and brown students, police presence brings about fear and makes students feel like they've already been criminalized before they've even done anything wrong.
Kids often act out when they are bored or when they feel threatened/disrespected. Not to mention kids with autism or other mental health issues. Far too often, police are called to respond to situations that would be much better served by a counselor or mental health professional-someone trained in adolescent behavior & de-escalating techniques.
There are many alternatives to policing, that also encourage positive behavioral changes. Engage students in extracurriculars, invest in the arts and hands-on learning techniques, support student-led restorative justice groups, increase the number of counselors in schools.
I am a longtime resident of Oakland who attended OUSD schools for nearly a decade. For the past six years, I have run the school library at Parker K-8 in Deep East Oakland and I support the vital work of The Black Organizing Project and call for the immediate passage of The George Floyd Resolution AS IS. Oakland needs to eliminate police in our schools to reduce trauma to our students and create school spaces that are true sanctuaries. In Alameda County, we are the only one out of 18 school districts that has a police force to police our largely Black and Brown student body. REIMAGINE what safety can be in our schools and move police funds into areas that research and data demonstrate make the biggest difference in the health and wellness of students - restorative justice, social workers, mental health therapists, nurses, and so on!!! STOP POLICING OUR STUDENTS.
I strongly support the George Floyd resolution. Our students deserve education, not a path to incarceration. Spending money on policing our students robs the students and the community of greater prospects of a peaceful future.
I am an Oakland resident and parent and am calling on board members to do the right thing and pass this resolution. Police make our schools less safe, especially for Black and Latino students, and we desperately need this money for other services.
My son, a 1st grader was 51/50'd at Greenleaf Elementary 4 times from August to November which officially puts him in the school to prison pipeline. Someone else should be responding to this besides the police. Please redirect funds from police to behavioral health services.