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School Police Reform Fails At Marathon LAUSD Meeting
LAUSD board member Mónica García (upper right) presents her resolution to cut school police funding during the board's June 23, 2020 meeting. (LAUSD screenshot)
After an 11-hour meeting that included hours of impassioned testimony, the board of the L.A. Unified School District could not reach a consensus three resolutions related to school police.
To recap: all three resolutions related to school police considered today by the #LAUSD Board of Education failed.
— Carla Javier (@carlamjavier) June 24, 2020
The board also decided to move discussion about the district budget to next week's meeting.
This meeting, which started at 9 am, adjourned at 8:42 pm.
Most of the public comments came out in favor of a resolution by board member Mónica García, which called for reducing funding for the school police – first by 50%, then 75%, and eventually 90% by the 2023-2024 school year, and redirecting the money to “the highest need schools in support of African American students.”
“I do believe that we have the best school department in the country,” she said. “That is not enough.”
The other resolutions were brought forward by board members Jackie Goldberg and George McKenna. McKenna’s called for a committee to look closely at school police policy and practices, and received positive comments from school police supporters.
Presenting his resolution to the board, McKenna, a former principal, largely praised the L.A. School Police and urged against a "reactionary" vote.
The student-led organizing group Students Deserve encouraged supporters of defunding school police to gather outside of LAUSD’s headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.
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We'll have more on this story here on LAist and further discussion of the board meeting today on the public affairs shows AirTalk and Take Two on 89.3 KPCC.
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