I.-1 20-1335 Adoption by the Board of Education of Resolution No. 1920-0260 - George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department.
As an OUSD parent, I urge the board to vote for this resolution. This resolution is progress and will provide financial resources to support our students. Thank you to all of the board members who have stepped up to support this and imagine non-violent and punitive ways to provide safe spaces for learning.
Please. It's time for a better way. I live in San Francisco and work for a community-based NPO that supports individuals with IDD. I have seen how exposure to authority and the inability of the police to deescalate instances with people with special needs have adversely impacted my clients.
Police equal fear for so many. Until we can shift that narrative, keeping a PD in school keeps children afraid and unable to reach their true potential. Show our kids that we believe that they can be more than criminals. Show them.
Thank you for your time. We will keep pushing for what is right. Join the fight.
Growing up as a black student in predominantly white institutions, school or campus police did nothing to aid my focus in classrooms. Rather, their presence was a distraction, just a constant reminder that any misbehavior on my end would be met with overwhelming force. Please let kids focus on being kids and getting e beat education possible. Please Defund the Oakland Schools Police Department.
As an Oakland resident that has worked on school district campaigns, I have experienced what it means to ask someone to trust the district. All 258 comments on the George Floyd Resolution are Supportive, not a single one is in opposition. The only opposition are law enforcement and specifically the union that represents OSPD, which is understandable. But this whole campaign and comments is an unequivocal demand that the Board pass this resolution without any amendments. People can only trust the Board and District to do the right thing if they can listen to the public and enact what the public needs and wants. This is as clear as it gets. Hold the trust of the people.
My family and I (including our soon to be first grader at Melrose Leadership Academy) fully support the George Floyd Resolution to ELIMINATE the Oakland Schools Police Dept. Police have no place in our schools ever. We need to support our children with more counselors, nurses, social workers and restorative justice.
We need more nurses in our schools. Not cops. Make kids safer with the resources that actually make a difference. Pay teachers better. Create some after school programs. But what we do not need is cops in schools.
As an Oakland parent of two OUSD students, I urge you to vote FOR the George Floyd Resolution. It's time to decriminalize Oakland students and reallocate those funds into supportive services.
As a resident of east Oakland and a past youth organizer with Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. Like the Black Organizing Project is calling for, our BIPOC students deserve police free schools. Black transgender, gender non-conforming, nonbinary, and queer students in particular experience policing of their genders and sexualities by the police who do not have proper training on engaging LGBTQ people. Having police officers on campus reinforces a culture of policing. BIPOC trans/queer youth are disproportionately disciplined and pushed out of school for defending themselves from bullying; exposed to gender-based violence due to the bathroom and facilities that affirm their genders from police, adults, and students; and shamed for who they are and who they love at school and their homes. As a translatina adult, I urge this school board to show up for BIPOC trans and queer youth today!
Eliminate the OSP and redistribute those funds to Restorative Justice, Counselors, Social Workers, African American Male (and female) Achievement, libraries, and other resources to support our students!
As an OUSD parent and District 4 resident, I stand as a member of the Sequoia Community to condemn racism, racist violence, white supremacy, and police brutality. I urge every School Board Member to stand with Black Organizing Project and immediately vote yes on this unprecedented and pathbreaking resolution to eliminate Oakland’s School Police Department.
I live in District 2 and support this resolution to eliminate police from Oakland schools. Like others who have commented below, I hope that the funds can be repurposed towards other supports such as school-based social workers, psychologists, restorative justice practitioners, etc. (Thank you to the Black Organizing Project for their work in this area.)
Good afternoon, my name is Carol Robison, I am a long-time Oakland resident, small business owner, lay church leader and live in the Allendale Neighborhood. I urge Oakland School District to adopt the George Floyd Resolution in order to de-militarize our schools and give students a police-free zone to learn and thrive. Please reallocate money spent on police to social and counciling services that will help support our students to have successful futures rather than criminalizing them which destroys futures. Thank you.
My name is Prashant Donthamsetti. I am a proud father and resident of Oakland. Based on my personal experience as well as discussions with OUSD staff and students, I believe that police have a negative impact on our school community and negatively impact people of color, especially black students. Please vote to remove police from OUSD schools and endorse the George Floyd resolution with no amendments.
Police in schools harms kids, period. A kid makes one mistake and right into the school to prison pipeline they go. All that money should go to other support services that could help kids instead of hurt them. Kids need counselors, therapists, tutors, etc. I used to work at Emiliano Zapata Street Academy as a tutor/mentor. There was a particularly difficult student who was flunking his classes and acting out. He was almost going to be kicked out. When I talked w him, I found it all came from him being behind in math. I worked w him and caught him up in math and he became a perfect student acing ALL of his classes and never acted out negatively again. We need people to support our youth, and they will thrive. Not looking at root causes for problems and exacting punitive punishment for everything, like we do in schools today with heavy policing of students, does nothing but hurt our youth, create mistrust of police (with good reason), and remove oportunity. Policing schools is wrong.
I agree with everyone who's already offered their support to this change. Please be a school board we can be proud of and do the right thing. I don't even have kids or like children, but they deserve to learn in a fair and peaceful environment.
I am in support of the BOPs initiative to eliminate Oakland School Districts Police Department. As a substitute teacher, and soon to be full time educator, I find students thrive within supportive environments and the presence of a police force in the midst of classroom education shows a lack of trust. This is just solidifying the school to prison pipeline and endangering those who we are suppose to be educating, raising, and loving.
My name is Mary Fata and I am a law student at UC Berkeley. I am writing to support Black Organizing Project's resolution to eliminate the Oakland School's Police Department. This funding should be reallocated to counselors and student services. The Black students in Oakland's community deserve more.
As an OUSD parent, I urge the board to vote for this resolution. This resolution is progress and will provide financial resources to support our students. Thank you to all of the board members who have stepped up to support this and imagine non-violent and punitive ways to provide safe spaces for learning.
Please comment to defund police from Oakland unified school district!
Please. It's time for a better way. I live in San Francisco and work for a community-based NPO that supports individuals with IDD. I have seen how exposure to authority and the inability of the police to deescalate instances with people with special needs have adversely impacted my clients.
Police equal fear for so many. Until we can shift that narrative, keeping a PD in school keeps children afraid and unable to reach their true potential. Show our kids that we believe that they can be more than criminals. Show them.
Thank you for your time. We will keep pushing for what is right. Join the fight.
Growing up as a black student in predominantly white institutions, school or campus police did nothing to aid my focus in classrooms. Rather, their presence was a distraction, just a constant reminder that any misbehavior on my end would be met with overwhelming force. Please let kids focus on being kids and getting e beat education possible. Please Defund the Oakland Schools Police Department.
As an Oakland resident that has worked on school district campaigns, I have experienced what it means to ask someone to trust the district. All 258 comments on the George Floyd Resolution are Supportive, not a single one is in opposition. The only opposition are law enforcement and specifically the union that represents OSPD, which is understandable. But this whole campaign and comments is an unequivocal demand that the Board pass this resolution without any amendments. People can only trust the Board and District to do the right thing if they can listen to the public and enact what the public needs and wants. This is as clear as it gets. Hold the trust of the people.
My family and I (including our soon to be first grader at Melrose Leadership Academy) fully support the George Floyd Resolution to ELIMINATE the Oakland Schools Police Dept. Police have no place in our schools ever. We need to support our children with more counselors, nurses, social workers and restorative justice.
I support the remove of police from OUSD campuses. Instead, there should be more focus on Restorative Practices.
We need more nurses in our schools. Not cops. Make kids safer with the resources that actually make a difference. Pay teachers better. Create some after school programs. But what we do not need is cops in schools.
As an Oakland parent of two OUSD students, I urge you to vote FOR the George Floyd Resolution. It's time to decriminalize Oakland students and reallocate those funds into supportive services.
As a resident of east Oakland and a past youth organizer with Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), I support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. Like the Black Organizing Project is calling for, our BIPOC students deserve police free schools. Black transgender, gender non-conforming, nonbinary, and queer students in particular experience policing of their genders and sexualities by the police who do not have proper training on engaging LGBTQ people. Having police officers on campus reinforces a culture of policing. BIPOC trans/queer youth are disproportionately disciplined and pushed out of school for defending themselves from bullying; exposed to gender-based violence due to the bathroom and facilities that affirm their genders from police, adults, and students; and shamed for who they are and who they love at school and their homes. As a translatina adult, I urge this school board to show up for BIPOC trans and queer youth today!
Eliminate the OSP and redistribute those funds to Restorative Justice, Counselors, Social Workers, African American Male (and female) Achievement, libraries, and other resources to support our students!
As an OUSD parent and District 4 resident, I stand as a member of the Sequoia Community to condemn racism, racist violence, white supremacy, and police brutality. I urge every School Board Member to stand with Black Organizing Project and immediately vote yes on this unprecedented and pathbreaking resolution to eliminate Oakland’s School Police Department.
I live in District 2 and support this resolution to eliminate police from Oakland schools. Like others who have commented below, I hope that the funds can be repurposed towards other supports such as school-based social workers, psychologists, restorative justice practitioners, etc. (Thank you to the Black Organizing Project for their work in this area.)
Good afternoon, my name is Carol Robison, I am a long-time Oakland resident, small business owner, lay church leader and live in the Allendale Neighborhood. I urge Oakland School District to adopt the George Floyd Resolution in order to de-militarize our schools and give students a police-free zone to learn and thrive. Please reallocate money spent on police to social and counciling services that will help support our students to have successful futures rather than criminalizing them which destroys futures. Thank you.
I support the George Floyd resolution to remove police from the schools in Oakland.
My name is Prashant Donthamsetti. I am a proud father and resident of Oakland. Based on my personal experience as well as discussions with OUSD staff and students, I believe that police have a negative impact on our school community and negatively impact people of color, especially black students. Please vote to remove police from OUSD schools and endorse the George Floyd resolution with no amendments.
Police in schools harms kids, period. A kid makes one mistake and right into the school to prison pipeline they go. All that money should go to other support services that could help kids instead of hurt them. Kids need counselors, therapists, tutors, etc. I used to work at Emiliano Zapata Street Academy as a tutor/mentor. There was a particularly difficult student who was flunking his classes and acting out. He was almost going to be kicked out. When I talked w him, I found it all came from him being behind in math. I worked w him and caught him up in math and he became a perfect student acing ALL of his classes and never acted out negatively again. We need people to support our youth, and they will thrive. Not looking at root causes for problems and exacting punitive punishment for everything, like we do in schools today with heavy policing of students, does nothing but hurt our youth, create mistrust of police (with good reason), and remove oportunity. Policing schools is wrong.
I agree with everyone who's already offered their support to this change. Please be a school board we can be proud of and do the right thing. I don't even have kids or like children, but they deserve to learn in a fair and peaceful environment.
I am in support of the BOPs initiative to eliminate Oakland School Districts Police Department. As a substitute teacher, and soon to be full time educator, I find students thrive within supportive environments and the presence of a police force in the midst of classroom education shows a lack of trust. This is just solidifying the school to prison pipeline and endangering those who we are suppose to be educating, raising, and loving.
My name is Mary Fata and I am a law student at UC Berkeley. I am writing to support Black Organizing Project's resolution to eliminate the Oakland School's Police Department. This funding should be reallocated to counselors and student services. The Black students in Oakland's community deserve more.