School administrators to address discipline policies
More than 200 mothers and their children marched Thursday to protest against how their kids are disciplined by Santa Monica-Malibu Unified administrators.
The newly formed group, “Mothers for Justice,” organized because they feel the district’s discipline policies unfairly target minority children. The school district’s annual discipline report to the state showed that Hispanic and black children were suspended from its schools far more than white students.
Members of the group are asking school district administrators to re-examine their disciplinary policies in order to balance how they are carried out along racial lines, and to involve the parents more — particularly before calling the police.
“We’re here today because we are tired of having our kids sent to prison instead of college,” said Maria Loyola, one of the group’s organizers. “We’re tired of having our kids placed into police custody instead of being placed into classrooms.”
The group marched across the Pico neighborhood on the city’s east side to the school board meeting chanting, “Not probation, education.”
Once in front of the school district’s offices on 16th Street and Olympic Boulevard, two mothers of children who were recently arrested by Santa Monica police while they were at school spoke about their frustration with the school district’s policies.
“Our children are being pushed into prison and withheld education,” said Toyka Harris, mother of a 13-year-old John Adams Middle School student. “Administrators call the police on our children.
“They took my son to jail,” she said. “I can’t live like that.”
It is unclear what Harris’ child was taken into police custody for.
The group also released a report on institutionalized racism and its impact on students of color, which they say reveals that African-American and Latino students are suspended and expelled in disproportionate numbers. They also say the report shows how officials are more likely to involve police in school disciplinary matters if the student is of color.
“It’s a culmination of abuse of authority and disrespect toward a community that has suffered enormously for poverty, social neglect and violence,” said Oscar de la Torre, a Pico neighborhood activist and former Santa Monica High School counselor. “We need to make a real push for reform.”
School board and district officials declined to comment as they prepared themselves for the night’s meeting, which included adopting its budget and approving a ballot initiative that would increase property assessments in Santa Monica and Malibu to $300 per parcel. Administrators have not avoided the issue in the past and have previously told the media they are working to address the issue.
Samohi students testified before the large crowd saying the feel they are targeted because of their race.
“I have witnessed on a daily basis the discrimination and racism at the high school,” said Moises Castillo, a newly elected Samohi student representative to the school board. “They may not be forcibly pushing us away, but they are not making us feel welcome either.”
Sophomore Miguel Rosas described walking down the hallway between classes and being stopped repeatedly by teachers and administrators.
“And even if I have a pass, they always have to ask me like a hundred questions,” he said.
“They’re always targeting minorities for things they don’t even do,” Rosas said. “It’s always complete disrespect from them.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 28, 2002. Read the original PDF.