Last week, lots on getting rid of the OUSD police, a grand jury report on the Castlemont grading issue, equity in sports for girls, a great story on support for transitional youth, broader looks at how the State responds to racial injustice, how you can advocate for Mack and more, please, read, share and get involved
Oakland:
- Breathing A Sigh of Relief Alongside Dreamers-Connecting with Kyla
- Oakland Unified School District settles legal dispute over gender inequity in its girls’ athletic programs
- Grand jury: Castlemont High and district ‘are failing its students,’ report finds
- Oakland educators, parents explain why they want district police department eliminated
- How Oakland Unified School District got its own police force
- Reforming School Policing to Interrupt White Supremacy: How to truly value Black Lives
- Homeless Youth Build TIny House Village
- Schools Without a Police Force, What OUSD Should Learn from the Charters
- Oakland Unified school board votes to eliminate district’s police department
- Girls in Oakland Unified promised equal access to sports in new Title IX agreement
- Lodestar mural celebrates the beauty and imagination of Oakland Black and Brown students
- Oakland School Board Votes Unanimously to Disband the OUSD Police Dept. Oakland School Board Votes Unanimously to Disband the OUSD Police Dept.
California:
- California lawmakers use protest momentum to push state racial reforms
- CA schools superintendent Tony Thurmond outlines plan to tackle racial bias in education
- Newsom Agrees to Rethink California Coronavirus Budget Cuts
- California school districts should spend less on police, more on counselors, state leaders say
- Camp EDMO goes virtual, with equitable pricing
- California will use surplus cash, delay school funds in budget
- Regional: Special Education Would Get A Boost Under Biden Proposal
Other Stories:
- America’s segregated schools: We can’t live together until we learn together
- Elijah McClain played violin for lonely kittens. His last words to police are devastating.
Resources:
How You Can Help:
Oakland:
- Breathing A Sigh of Relief Alongside Dreamers-Connecting with Kyla
- I write because of the significant ruling the United States Supreme Court handed down today on the issue of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. While it is not a final ruling on the matter, for the time being, Dreamers can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the effort by the administration to end DACA is on hold.
- Oakland Unified School District settles legal dispute over gender inequity in its girls’ athletic programs
- The Oakland Unified School District and the Fair Play for Girls in Sports Project of Legal Aid at Work entered a settlement agreement addressing gender inequity in the districts interscholastic sports program.
- Grand jury: Castlemont High and district ‘are failing its students,’ report finds
- A civil grand jury report found that Castlemont High School educators misused a grading system in order to pass students who didn’t qualify and misled the public about it.
- Oakland educators, parents explain why they want district police department eliminated
- Wednesday the Oakland Unified School Board will vote on a measure that would eliminate the school’s police department. Monday more than 200 people rallied outside the Oakland Unified School District Headquarters.
- How Oakland Unified School District got its own police force
- On Wednesday, school board directors for the Oakland Unified School District will decide whether or not to disband OUSD’s special school police department. Of the roughly 1,000 school districts in California, Oakland is one of just 23 across the state—and the only one in Alameda County—with its own school police force.
- Reforming School Policing to Interrupt White Supremacy: How to truly value Black Lives
- We are experiencing Uprisings in the spirit of Brianna Taylor, George Floyd, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Yvette Henderson, Rayshard Brooks, Andreas Guardado and Oscar Grant and demanding an end to police brutality and the minimizing and destroying Black Bodies and Minds. In light of this current situation, I want to add my support to the movement within OUSD to interrupt white supremacy and the structures we support inside of OUSD that diminish black lives.
- Homeless Youth Build TIny House Village
- Peek over the fence of one narrow building on Alcatraz Avenue in Oakland and you’ll see a handful of people buzzing around half a dozen tiny, multicolored houses. They are homeless youth and volunteers, building what organizers say is the East Bay’s first tiny home village for homeless young people.
- Schools Without a Police Force, What OUSD Should Learn from the Charters
- While the battle has raged over the OUSD school police and what happens if we get rid of them, a third of our public school students already exist without a district force, the charter public schools. They have some mixed and important lessons that OUSD should learn from, and plan for.
- Oakland Unified school board votes to eliminate district’s police department
- The Oakland Unified School District Board has approved a measure that will eliminate the district’s police department at the end of the year.
- Girls in Oakland Unified promised equal access to sports in new Title IX agreement
- Two years ago, the Oakland schools eliminated several sports programs in budget cutting move that disproportionately affected girls. Now, in response to the threat of a lawsuit, the district has agreed to ensure that girls get equal access to school sports.
- Lodestar mural celebrates the beauty and imagination of Oakland Black and Brown students
- Block by block, up and down Broadway and Telegraph and their cross streets, there are more than 1,000 beautiful and powerful murals that cover storefronts that reflect the values of our Oakland community. They support Black Lives Matter and condemn police brutality, but the messages are too nuanced, different and thought-provoking to capture in a paragraph. The murals must be viewed in person.
- Oakland School Board Votes Unanimously to Disband the OUSD Police Dept. Oakland School Board Votes Unanimously to Disband the OUSD Police Dept.
- In a win for anti-police violence activists in Oakland, the Oakland School Board voted unanimously Wednesday to disband the OUSD Police Dept., committing to eliminate the department that has 20 sworn officers and 120 school resource officers.
California:
- California lawmakers use protest momentum to push state racial reforms
- The racial reckoning sweeping the country after the killing of George Floyd in police custody has generated momentum at state capitols for widespread reforms addressing a range of inequities. Lawmakers have floated proposals to address affirmative action, racial disparities in school funding and health care, criminal justice reforms and even study reparations for slavery.
- CA schools superintendent Tony Thurmond outlines plan to tackle racial bias in education
- The Juneteenth holiday this year took on special significance as it came in the middle of a social justice movement. And the state’s schools in particular have had a turbulent year with campuses closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Newsom Agrees to Rethink California Coronavirus Budget Cuts
- Gov. Gavin Newsom, seen discussing his state budget proposal May 14, agreed to scrap many of his spending cuts in the final budget agreement
- California school districts should spend less on police, more on counselors, state leaders say
- As some school districts in California move to dismantle their police departments, the state took a stand this week: All school districts should spend less money on police and more on counseling and other services to support students.
- Camp EDMO goes virtual, with equitable pricing
- Summer camp, like seemingly every other activity available for children in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, has gone virtual. By moving online, leaders at Camp EDMO found they could also provide the camp experience to more young people, while doing so more equitably.
- California will use surplus cash, delay school funds in budget
- California lawmakers sent a $202.1-billion state budget to Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday, a spending plan crafted to erase a historic deficit triggered by the coronavirus crisis that relies heavily on cash reserves and a multiyear payment plan to meet funding obligations to public schools
- Regional: Special Education Would Get A Boost Under Biden Proposal
- In a rare move by a presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden detailed his plans this month calling for full federal funding of special education – something that hasn’t happened since Congress first passed sweeping legislation for students with disabilities 45 years ago.
Other Stories:
- America’s segregated schools: We can’t live together until we learn together
- Would George Floyd be alive today had he and Derek Chauvin grown up together and attended the same schools? It’s an impossible question to answer, but it’s an important one to ask — in part because it’s about more than George Floyd and Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as he pleaded for his life, or even the criminal justice system.
- Elijah McClain played violin for lonely kittens. His last words to police are devastating.
- Elijah McCain was a massage therapist who played violin for shelter kittens on his lunch break in his hometown of Aurora, Colorado, because he thought the animals were lonely. If that detail alone doesn’t conjure up a picture of a gentle soul, Colorado Music described McClain as a young man who was “quirky, a pacifist, a vegetarian, enjoyed running, and known to put a smile on everyone’s face.”
Resources:
- Raising White Kids with Jennifer Harvey
- What is a healthy racial identity for a White person, and how do we help our White children develop one? We’re joined by Dr. Jennifer Harvey to discuss her book, Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America, as well her personal journey towards anti-racist organizing, educating, and child rearing.
How You Can Help:
- The Debt Oakland Owes McClymonds and How We Can Start Paying it Off
- Where we put out money is a statement of our priorities. And no community in the East Bay has paid a higher cost of progress than West Oakland. While the region and State’s commerce flows over and through it, from the Port, to BART, to the highways that connect the suburbs with jobs. West Oakland has been left largely with the by-products of progress and not the benefits, 38 Hazmat sites near Mack, air that smells funny from all the industry and trucks going to the port, asthma rates to match, and all the other historical markers of racism and redlining. Please demand that OUSD prioritize fixing Mack, and pay part of the debt West Oakland is owed.
What do you think?