SJUSD has a school board meeting this tonight at 6 pm. At the most recent board meeting, the public comments portion was short and we had only 10 comments in support of the Derrick Sanderlin Resolution, so we would love to have comments from the community, whether via email or as a meeting participant. Below is the board meeting link and 3 suggested scripts, as well as instructions for commenting via email and live.
Here's the meeting link:
https://sjusd.webex.com/sjusd/onstage/g.php?MTID=e4fccc9cc7f656253bb6d2223190d7d14.
All comments should be one minute long, and following are 3 sample scripts on different aspects of our work. Please choose one, or make a combo, and as always personalizing it is great.
1) "My name is ________ and I am (role in the community/member of _______). I am calling/writing to ask all board members to attend the community forum on police-free schools in San José which is being held on Sunday, November 15th, from 2-4 pm. This forum is being convened as a response to the special session on August 25th, which was a presentation by the superintendent's office in favor of keeping SROs. On November 15th, the board and community will have the chance to hear from Tank Organizers, a collaboration of DeBug Youth, Young Women's Freedom Center, and YouthHype, as well as experts on the school-to-prison pipeline from the Burns Institute, and finally the authors of the Derrick Sanderlin Resolution. We ask board members and community members to please mark your calendars for this important event on Sunday, November 15th. Thank you."
2) "My name is ________ and I am (role in the community/member of _______). I am calling/writing to ask the board to commit to voting on the Derrick Sanderlin Resolution. This is an all-encompassing resolution that addresses the racist history of school policing. The resolution also calls for replacing punitive discipline with restorative justice practices, implementing an ethnic studies curriculum, providing holistic student health services, and investing in a community-created district safety plan. These important changes will take time and thoughtful collaboration, which is why the discussion and planning needs to begin now. The Derrick Sanderlin Resolution is so much more than eliminating the contract with SROs, and we hope you will agendize it as soon as possible. Thank you."
3) "My name is ________ and I am (role in the community/member of _______). I am calling/writing to ask the board to update the MOU with SJPD to reflect Senate Bill 203, which guarantees that any youth age 17 or younger who is being questioned by police must have access to an attorney. We have also heard from a number of youth advocates that it is not advisable to request parents to be present during a potential questioning, as they may affect the voluntariness of a confession. Instead, we recommend sending know your rights materials to students and families, notifying parents when a student is being questioned, requiring police and school officials to clearly let students know if they are free to go or are being detained. We also ask that the board listen to the concerns of young organizers as they give you additional feedback on the MOU with SJPD. Thank you."
If you are emailing your comment to be read aloud, send it by noon Today 11/05/20 to: superintendent@sjusd.org with the subject line "Public Comment for 11/05/20 Governing Board Meeting". Please also cc all board members, so that they also get the comment in their inbox. The board member emails are:
tcastellanos@sjusd.org,
bwheatley@sjusd.org,
jmagana@sjusd.org,
ccollins@sjusd.org,
kmeek@sjusd.org.
If you are calling in to give your comment live, do so during the public comments period right after 6:00 pm. Join the meeting at the link above with your email and your name/alias, and then click on the Q&A box and type “public comment + your name/alias”. Unfortunately using the raised hand feature does not work for public comment, so be sure to use Q&A.