Walk around Downtown Oakland these days and you will witness an open-air art museum. 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…
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. Camp EDMO, for 17 previous years, was an in-person camp. Last…
Reimagining School Safety: OUSD moving forward with plans to disband OUSD Police Department-Connecting with Kyla
Thursday, June 25, 2020 Dear Oakland Community, On Wednesday night, OUSD’s Board of Education unanimously voted to adopt the George Floyd Resolution. As a result, I have directed my staff to move forward to implement disbanding the OUSD Police Department by the end of 2020 and to start the process to develop an alternative plan…
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. Charters do not have…
Reforming School Policing to Interrupt White Supremacy: How to truly value Black Lives
Jumoke Hinton Hodge, OUSD Board of Education Director, reflects on Resolution No. 1920 – 0260 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…