Meeting Time: June 24, 2020 at 4:00pm PDT
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Agenda Item

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.

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    Pete Woiwode over 4 years ago

    I support the full passage of the George Floyd Resolution, without amendments, watering down, or shifts. Follow the Black Organizing Project's lead and give us #PoliceFreeSchools!

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    Paul Igaz over 4 years ago

    As an Oakland resident and a high school teacher, I strongly support this resolution to remove police from OUSD schools. Our children and community would be better served by investing in implementing restorative justice and trauma-informed teaching practices.

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    Jennifer Miller over 4 years ago

    A militarized police system has no place near our students. It continues upon the trauma-built history of police and people of color and does not go towards creating a safe environment for our students. Instead investment should be allocated towards mental-health workers, community-based crisis workers, and trained staff in de-escalation techniques.

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    Ona Keller over 4 years ago

    I support the work of the Black Organizing Project and their call for police free schools and for transformative justice for our students.

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    Rupa Shankar over 4 years ago

    I am an Oakland resident, and I strongly support the George Floyd resolution to to eliminate the Oakland schools police department. Growing up, I had the privilege of never experiencing police in my schools. But that should be a right, not a privilege. Every student deserves a safe and healthy school environment where they can put their energy towards learning. The idea of police in a school sounds, frankly, terrifying. Please listen to the educators, mental health counselors, etc and redirect this money to other initiatives that will actually help our students. Thank you.

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    Daniel MaxwellRoss over 4 years ago

    As a district 6 resident and soon-to-be parent, I strongly support the resolution to remove police from our schools. There is no place for armed personnel in our schools. There is no legitimate purpose to be served by criminalizing the day-to-day struggles of our children.

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    Andrew Foy over 4 years ago

    As a Service Learning Program Coordinator and youth mentor who's worked in after school programs in OUSD high schools for the past two years, I strongly support this resolution to eliminate OUSD's contract with OPD. This money & funding could be more effectively invested in increased mental health, social service, and restorative justice personnel in the schools.

    Police presence in schools focus on intimidation, punishment, and surface level / Band-Aid tactics to try to keep schools "safe." (And often disproportionately target & harm our youth of color). Alternatively, mental health, social service, and restorative justice practices address the deeper, root causes of why youth act out in the first place. And they facilitate healing and individual & community transformation.

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    Ariel Bott over 4 years ago

    I am a resident of district 3, born and raised in both San Francisco and Oakland and have called The Bay my home for my whole life. I firmly believe OUSD needs to follow SFUSD and remove the police from our schools.

    I dont believe that the police presence in school fosters a community or feeling is safety. I know for myself growing up school sometimes felt like the only place I had to escape to. How are our Black and Brown youth supposed to feel safe if the very people that are killing them in the streets are in the hallways?

    A bigger budget to our schools could mean more conflict training for our teachers or specialized positions geared toward putting our children first.

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    Katherine Falk over 4 years ago

    Hello, I am a resident in zip code 94611, with a child who is a middle school student. I want all our children to feel safe, and having police in schools is not accomplishing that - in fact it's doing the opposite - so I support removing police from our schools. Thank you!

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    Sylvie Stein over 4 years ago

    Get cops out of Oakland schools, and invest in education, support, and community! Our city is watching and demanding community safety for our youth. Please support this resolution, and thank you for your time.

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    Mallorie Lynch over 4 years ago

    This has been an effort 10 years in the making. Your community and your students have spoken. It is past due to remove all police from our schools. Protect our young people and dismantle to school to prison pipeline.

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    Elizabeth Powers over 4 years ago

    I support eliminating the Oakland Schools Police Department because according to police data, 26% of OUSD's students are Black, but they make up 73% of those arrested by Oakland school police. This disproportionate targeting of students must end; these are students who are already facing institutional racism in their schools and in other institutions they interact with on a daily basis.

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    lorenzo reynoso over 4 years ago

    I strongly support this resolution to eliminate the Oakland schools police department and reinvest those funds into programs and services that support the well-being of Oakland students.

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    Katie KellyHankin over 4 years ago

    Hello, I am a TSA for Sexual Health Education at OUSD, a member of OEA, and a 10 year veteran teacher of Oakland public schools. I strongly support the passage of the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the OUSD Police Department. Furthermore, I would like to see a district-wide safety plan that explicitly prohibits the involvement of any outside police departments in all school and student disciplinary matters. Cops should not be interacting with our students. Period.

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    Dilshanie Perera over 4 years ago

    I am a resident of District 3 in Oakland and I am writing to support the passage of the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. I am absolutely horrified that our students are policed within their own schools and that the district spends $6.5 million on policing and surveillance of Oakland's children. The police are well known to target and criminalize the actions of students of color, especially Black and Latinx students. There is simply no place for police in OUSD; they only endanger our youth. Our students, our children, and our communities deserve much better than that. I demand that you eliminate school police by passing the George Floyd Resolution and that you reinvest the money that you're saving into programs and services that support the well-being of Oakland students.

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    Jess Banks over 4 years ago

    I am an Oakland resident, and I am writing to register my strong support for the immediate approval, with no further amendments, of the George Floyd Resolution. Armed police have no place in schools—let's invest instead in teachers, counselors, nonviolent deescalation, and restorative justice.

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    Krystl Johnson over 4 years ago

    When I was a high school student it was difficult to see the volunteer talk therapists, my guidance counselor, the librarian or the school registrar office. Without effort and without fail I saw the campus officer every single day. Why can’t we get rid of campus police and supplement those funds to let students interact with people who actually have an influence on the outcome of student learning? Get police out of our school, please pass this resolution!

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    Kaitlin McDanielKeith over 4 years ago

    I am heading into my sixth year as a second-grade teacher at Greenleaf in East Oakland, and I stand in full support of this resolution. It is past time for our district to move away from policies that criminalize black and brown children kids and invest all our resources into supporting them as full human beings. A watered down version would be an insult to the students, school workers, families, and community that have rallied behind THIS resolution. The district envisioned in this resolution is the district we should want to be. I urge you to vote YES on the proposal with no amendments.

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    Erica Gomes over 4 years ago

    I support and strongly urge the Board to support the George Floyd Resolution to eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department. I am a licensed social worker and supervisor at La Clinica, an agency that provides behavioral health support to several of Oakland public school campuses. And I am a mother to a student in an Oakland public school. In my current position, I have witnessed multiple incidents where school-funded officers respond to on campus behavioral health crises in a way that escalates and retraumatizes the youth they are being called to support and protect through their interventions. These funds can and should be redirected to bring real support to youth in schools in the form of additional social workers, restorative justice programming, teacher-initiated classroom supports, etc .

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    Meridith Burchiel over 4 years ago

    As a teacher and Oakland resident I fully support passing this resolution with no further amendments. Police in schools do not make them safer spaces and they never have. Now is the time to reinvest in supporting our students and families with services that facilitate social emotional health. Funding needs to be reallocated to case managers, transformative justice practitioners, academic mentors and advisors, culture and climate leads, and mental or behavioral health professionals. I stand with the Black Organizing Project's work and the approval of the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Dept.