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 and an attorney at the ACLU of Northern California focused on race discrimination in schools, I strongly urge you to pass the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the OSPD as drafted (without amendments) and remove police from OUSD schools in accordance with the Black Organizing Project’s People’s Plan for Police-Free Schools. The data that BOP has collected over several years decisively shows that Black youth in OUSD schools (including Black students with disabilities) are discriminatorily targeted by school police for arrests and citations. Police are trained to approach conflict by arresting people, rather than with a more supportive approach that lets students know adults want them to succeed in school. The majority of police enforcement in schools is for minor offenses. We need to reinvest those millions of dollars in education money being spent on police and put it back in the classroom, focusing on supports and programs that actually help students.
I support the decriminalization of Oakland youths and a redirection of funds toward restorative practices that will help students address underlying issues and get the education they need to succeed moving forward.
I am an Oakland resident, Public Health Graduate student and an Educator. I demand for the removal of OSPD in OUSD. The OSPD creates an unsafe environment for our students, we must support and empower them. I urge you to redirect funds to support OUSD teachers, school-based health centers, restorative justice and social workers. Remove OSPD and invest in Oakland youth!
As an Oakland resident and teacher at Elmhurst United Middle School, I strongly urge you to pass the George Floyd Resolution. Our schools should not be a site for police violence and intimidation. We need to defund OPD in schools and use the funding for restorative justice programs and other PROVEN methods for improving school climate and maintaining student safety.
Hello to all board members. I am an OUSD parent and an occupational therapist practicing in mental health for 10 years. I urge you all to support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department as it currently stands, supporting police free schools and not support any hybrid models or substitutes for OSPD. As a mental health professional who has worked with many youth who have had police contact within the walls of their school, I can tell you that the contact was never useful and only furthered their experience of trauma and fractured the relationship between the student, their family and the school. From my experience, what schools need instead of police alongside their academics are: programs of restorative justice, mental health counseling, peer and adult mentors, the arts and athletics. Thank you.
I am representing the Oakland-based community organization BAY-Peace: Better Alternatives for Youth. We strongly urge you to adopt the resolution. There are so many ways to improve the OUSD--we could have better teachers, better pay for teachers and staff, increased access to technology, healthier and more nutritious foods, more invested counselors who actually care for our students, and so much MORE. But instead, you have invested millions of dollars into a police force that does nothing, but institutionalize a system of violence on CHILDREN. If you vote against this resolution, YOU will be a part of those to blame for the harm and violence that inequitably falls on our Black youth and young people of color. Please vote YES on this resolution, and do not even consider thinking about replacing OUSD’s force with OPD because that is not an option. We want justice, we want change. And we will not stop until you meet our demands and protect our young communities!
Dear School Board Directors and Superintendent Johnson-Trammell,
I am writing to ask you to pass the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland School Police Department and remove police from OUSD schools in accordance with The Black Organizing Project’s People’s Plan for Police-Free Schools. Policing in OUSD schools dehumanizes Black and brown students in our schools. Black students deserve to learn in a supportive and healthy environment safe from police abuse and criminalization. Our schools should be a place of learning for youth where we prevent conflict through school counselors, not law enforcement. The millions of dollars OUSD spends on school police every year should instead be spent on supports for students that keep them in school, This is your opportunity to take action to end discriminatory school policing. Vote yes to pass the George Floyd Resolution as written.
As a resident of Oakland who hopes to soon start a family, I want to believe that my city supports what's best for all of our youth, not just white or affluent ones. Students don't need policing and criminalization - they need support, opportunity, and resources that allow them to learn and thrive. I urge you to pass this resolution WITHOUT amendments.
I am a concerned community member in Oakland. I am writing to ask you to pass the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland School Police Department and remove police from OUSD schools in accordance with The Black Organizing Project’s People’s Plan for Police-Free Schools. Policing in OUSD schools dehumanizes Black and brown students in our schools just as it does in the streets. It pushes young people away from education and opportunity, and toward increasing contact with the criminal system. Our schools should be a place of learning for youth where we prevent conflict through school counselors, not law enforcement. This is your opportunity to take action to end discriminatory school policing and turn the District away from a long history of disproportionate harmful treatment of Black and disabled students. Vote yes to pass the George Floyd Resolution as written.
As a school-based mental health provider, I am in strong support of the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate The Oakland Schools Police Department. The Black Organizing Project has done extensive research together with communities across Oakland to develop this resolution that will allow for a community-based process of developing safe police-free schools. Police are causing harm to our students, not keeping them safe. As a social worker, I see and hear about the trauma students experience from having to face the police at schools. Investing in mental health services, teacher training, and developing youth-led restorative practices will help us to build safe school environments. It is far past time that we make this change to truly invest in the education, development and growth of youth in Oakland.
I am an Oakland resident, OUSD educator, and former Minneapolis (MPS) educator. I strongly urge you to SUPPORT the Black Organizing Project's call to APPROVE the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department when they say, "Oakland has a chance to be a model and take a step towards true sanctuary for Black and Brown youth. It is time to transform education as we know it and we are not taking no for an answer!" - from @blackorganizingproject's IG feed. I urge to to use your institutional power to stand in solidarity with our students, families, and Oakland community - POLICE FREE SCHOOLS, NOW!
Students need support not an entry into the prison system. Research show racial inequities pervade the police system with schools with students of color having school police see the students as perpetrators while in majority white schools the police protect the students from those outside the school community (e.g. shooters). Students need nurses, counselors and support. Spend the money on that.
I'm an OUSD Teacher at Yuk Yau Child Development Center that serve children 2-5. Beginning with our youngest students and up to our oldest students, Oakland youth need to be supported and nurtured and not criminalized. The George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department will address the criminalization of black and brown students. Our Oakland youth deserve better. Policing our students does not keep them safe, it targets them and does not help them. We need high quality education services, counselors, and student supports that will benefit our students in a way that policing does not do and is not designed to do.
I am a parent and teacher within OUSD, and I am in support of the George Floyd resolution. Policing has no place within the walls that are supposed to nurture and educate our youth. The money we spend on police needs to go towards restorative practices, nurses, therapists, lower class sizes...let’s show our children that we believe in them! We’re educators, it’s our job to teach, not police!
I'm an Oakland resident and strongly urge you to pass the George Floyd resolution as is, with no amendments. We need to police out of our schools and to redirect funds towards programs that we know work, such as counseling, restorative justice, and other programs designed to support students.
I am a community organizer with Youth Together, who serves students at Skyline, Castlemont, and McClymonds HS. We supports Black Organizing Project's George Floyd Resolution with no amendments ! Black and brown youth deserve to be treated with dignity and not like criminals. We MUST invest in preventative, restorative, and transformative programs and measures that honor the humanity of youth.
As a public high school teacher and Oakland resident for 15 years, I know our Oakland youth deserve better. Police have no business to be in our schools. Our students deserve resources that can help them grow, learn, and heal in schools. Police drain our school system of much needed funds, resources, and energy. When conflicts inevitably arise in schools, police are not the answer. I have witnessed and experienced dozens of conflicts in high school in which police were not called, and our school staff had the training and ability to handle these situations in a restorative process. We need counselors, social workers, and trained educators and youth workers who have real relationships with students and their families to reduce harm in a way that is humanizing and healing.
As a Bay Area native, an Oakland resident, and Health Education Supervisor at La Clinica's school based health centers, 6 of which are located in OUSD schools, I strongly support the George Floyd resolution. I urge the board to vote in favor of keeping police out of schools. Working at the intersection of the healthcare and education systems, I see racism and police violence as a public health issue and have seen repeatedly that police don't keep students safe or healthy. To the contrary, as exemplified by well documented cases of OPD abuse and racial profiling, police put students, particularly Black students and students of color, at higher risk for violations of physical and emotional safety - police in schools create worse health and educational outcomes and larger racial disparities! Please support students' health and safety by voting in support of this resolution!
As an OUSD parent and an attorney at the ACLU of Northern California focused on race discrimination in schools, I strongly urge you to pass the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the OSPD as drafted (without amendments) and remove police from OUSD schools in accordance with the Black Organizing Project’s People’s Plan for Police-Free Schools. The data that BOP has collected over several years decisively shows that Black youth in OUSD schools (including Black students with disabilities) are discriminatorily targeted by school police for arrests and citations. Police are trained to approach conflict by arresting people, rather than with a more supportive approach that lets students know adults want them to succeed in school. The majority of police enforcement in schools is for minor offenses. We need to reinvest those millions of dollars in education money being spent on police and put it back in the classroom, focusing on supports and programs that actually help students.
I support the decriminalization of Oakland youths and a redirection of funds toward restorative practices that will help students address underlying issues and get the education they need to succeed moving forward.
I am an Oakland resident, Public Health Graduate student and an Educator. I demand for the removal of OSPD in OUSD. The OSPD creates an unsafe environment for our students, we must support and empower them. I urge you to redirect funds to support OUSD teachers, school-based health centers, restorative justice and social workers. Remove OSPD and invest in Oakland youth!
As an Oakland resident and teacher at Elmhurst United Middle School, I strongly urge you to pass the George Floyd Resolution. Our schools should not be a site for police violence and intimidation. We need to defund OPD in schools and use the funding for restorative justice programs and other PROVEN methods for improving school climate and maintaining student safety.
Hello to all board members. I am an OUSD parent and an occupational therapist practicing in mental health for 10 years. I urge you all to support the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department as it currently stands, supporting police free schools and not support any hybrid models or substitutes for OSPD. As a mental health professional who has worked with many youth who have had police contact within the walls of their school, I can tell you that the contact was never useful and only furthered their experience of trauma and fractured the relationship between the student, their family and the school. From my experience, what schools need instead of police alongside their academics are: programs of restorative justice, mental health counseling, peer and adult mentors, the arts and athletics. Thank you.
I am representing the Oakland-based community organization BAY-Peace: Better Alternatives for Youth. We strongly urge you to adopt the resolution. There are so many ways to improve the OUSD--we could have better teachers, better pay for teachers and staff, increased access to technology, healthier and more nutritious foods, more invested counselors who actually care for our students, and so much MORE. But instead, you have invested millions of dollars into a police force that does nothing, but institutionalize a system of violence on CHILDREN. If you vote against this resolution, YOU will be a part of those to blame for the harm and violence that inequitably falls on our Black youth and young people of color. Please vote YES on this resolution, and do not even consider thinking about replacing OUSD’s force with OPD because that is not an option. We want justice, we want change. And we will not stop until you meet our demands and protect our young communities!
Dear School Board Directors and Superintendent Johnson-Trammell,
I am writing to ask you to pass the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland School Police Department and remove police from OUSD schools in accordance with The Black Organizing Project’s People’s Plan for Police-Free Schools. Policing in OUSD schools dehumanizes Black and brown students in our schools. Black students deserve to learn in a supportive and healthy environment safe from police abuse and criminalization. Our schools should be a place of learning for youth where we prevent conflict through school counselors, not law enforcement. The millions of dollars OUSD spends on school police every year should instead be spent on supports for students that keep them in school, This is your opportunity to take action to end discriminatory school policing. Vote yes to pass the George Floyd Resolution as written.
Sincerely,
Pablo Cuadros
Police don’t keep young people safer. Schools schools be a place to learn not to be criminalized.
As a resident of Oakland who hopes to soon start a family, I want to believe that my city supports what's best for all of our youth, not just white or affluent ones. Students don't need policing and criminalization - they need support, opportunity, and resources that allow them to learn and thrive. I urge you to pass this resolution WITHOUT amendments.
I am a concerned community member in Oakland. I am writing to ask you to pass the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland School Police Department and remove police from OUSD schools in accordance with The Black Organizing Project’s People’s Plan for Police-Free Schools. Policing in OUSD schools dehumanizes Black and brown students in our schools just as it does in the streets. It pushes young people away from education and opportunity, and toward increasing contact with the criminal system. Our schools should be a place of learning for youth where we prevent conflict through school counselors, not law enforcement. This is your opportunity to take action to end discriminatory school policing and turn the District away from a long history of disproportionate harmful treatment of Black and disabled students. Vote yes to pass the George Floyd Resolution as written.
As a school-based mental health provider, I am in strong support of the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate The Oakland Schools Police Department. The Black Organizing Project has done extensive research together with communities across Oakland to develop this resolution that will allow for a community-based process of developing safe police-free schools. Police are causing harm to our students, not keeping them safe. As a social worker, I see and hear about the trauma students experience from having to face the police at schools. Investing in mental health services, teacher training, and developing youth-led restorative practices will help us to build safe school environments. It is far past time that we make this change to truly invest in the education, development and growth of youth in Oakland.
I am an Oakland resident, OUSD educator, and former Minneapolis (MPS) educator. I strongly urge you to SUPPORT the Black Organizing Project's call to APPROVE the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department when they say, "Oakland has a chance to be a model and take a step towards true sanctuary for Black and Brown youth. It is time to transform education as we know it and we are not taking no for an answer!" - from @blackorganizingproject's IG feed. I urge to to use your institutional power to stand in solidarity with our students, families, and Oakland community - POLICE FREE SCHOOLS, NOW!
Students need support not an entry into the prison system. Research show racial inequities pervade the police system with schools with students of color having school police see the students as perpetrators while in majority white schools the police protect the students from those outside the school community (e.g. shooters). Students need nurses, counselors and support. Spend the money on that.
I'm an OUSD Teacher at Yuk Yau Child Development Center that serve children 2-5. Beginning with our youngest students and up to our oldest students, Oakland youth need to be supported and nurtured and not criminalized. The George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department will address the criminalization of black and brown students. Our Oakland youth deserve better. Policing our students does not keep them safe, it targets them and does not help them. We need high quality education services, counselors, and student supports that will benefit our students in a way that policing does not do and is not designed to do.
This is a transformational demand - to reimagine a school system not built on anti-Blackness!!!
I am a parent and teacher within OUSD, and I am in support of the George Floyd resolution. Policing has no place within the walls that are supposed to nurture and educate our youth. The money we spend on police needs to go towards restorative practices, nurses, therapists, lower class sizes...let’s show our children that we believe in them! We’re educators, it’s our job to teach, not police!
I'm an Oakland resident and strongly urge you to pass the George Floyd resolution as is, with no amendments. We need to police out of our schools and to redirect funds towards programs that we know work, such as counseling, restorative justice, and other programs designed to support students.
I am a community organizer with Youth Together, who serves students at Skyline, Castlemont, and McClymonds HS. We supports Black Organizing Project's George Floyd Resolution with no amendments ! Black and brown youth deserve to be treated with dignity and not like criminals. We MUST invest in preventative, restorative, and transformative programs and measures that honor the humanity of youth.
As a public high school teacher and Oakland resident for 15 years, I know our Oakland youth deserve better. Police have no business to be in our schools. Our students deserve resources that can help them grow, learn, and heal in schools. Police drain our school system of much needed funds, resources, and energy. When conflicts inevitably arise in schools, police are not the answer. I have witnessed and experienced dozens of conflicts in high school in which police were not called, and our school staff had the training and ability to handle these situations in a restorative process. We need counselors, social workers, and trained educators and youth workers who have real relationships with students and their families to reduce harm in a way that is humanizing and healing.
As a Bay Area native, an Oakland resident, and Health Education Supervisor at La Clinica's school based health centers, 6 of which are located in OUSD schools, I strongly support the George Floyd resolution. I urge the board to vote in favor of keeping police out of schools. Working at the intersection of the healthcare and education systems, I see racism and police violence as a public health issue and have seen repeatedly that police don't keep students safe or healthy. To the contrary, as exemplified by well documented cases of OPD abuse and racial profiling, police put students, particularly Black students and students of color, at higher risk for violations of physical and emotional safety - police in schools create worse health and educational outcomes and larger racial disparities! Please support students' health and safety by voting in support of this resolution!