Education Justice

 

CTCAV’s primary demand focuses on Education Justice, starting with canceling the contract for school security with the LA Sheriff’s Department (LASD), which provides School Resource Deputies (SRDs) on every AV high school campus (as well as  most middle and elementary schools), who often threaten, harass, and arrest students. The SRD program has proven to be a fast track for the school to prison pipeline, especially targeting our students of color and students with disabilities. This recent report from the County Office of Inspector General shows that 88% of the time an SRD contacts a Black student it results in an arrest.

Taking Legal Actions for Our Students

Discipline Discrimination Lawsuit

On May 24, 2023, Neighborhood Legal Services of LA County and the Equal Justice Society filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court by Cancel the Contract-Antelope Valley along with several students and their parents and guardians for the discriminatory practices of AVUHSD. The lawsuit demonstrates how AVUHSD violates a number of federal and California laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1973, and numerous California Government and Education Codes. 

The Antelope Valley Union High School District (“AVUHSD”) has demonstrated a pattern of discriminating against Black students and students with disabilities by disciplining them out of proportion to the general school population.  AVUHSD’s own data confirms that, for years, it has disproportionately suspended and expelled Black students and students with disabilities, disproportionately excluded them from proper learning environments, and disproportionately encouraged unnecessary and harmful contacts between them and school-based law enforcement. 

The lawsuit followed several attempts to engage with AVUHSD over these issues, including filing an administrative complaint with the California Department of Education and sending a letter outlining these concerns to the Board of Trustees of AVUHSD and the District Superintendent, as detailed below. 

In 2022, represented by Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County (NLSLA) and other legal partners, CTCAV filed two legal complaints against AVUHSD with the California Department of Education (CDE), for misuse of state Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) funds meant for high needs students to instead fund SRDs, and for its Special Education Program which is racist, segregated, and ableist.

March 28, 2022 Complaint: Various Compliance Complaint and Request for Direct State Intervention to Investigate Disability Discrimination against Antelope Valley Union High School District. This Complaint alleges the District violates Title II of the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), by among other policies, using threat assessments that fail to consider disability, reporting students to Probation for disability-related behaviors and for using their accommodations, denying students with disabilities an opportunity to participate in and benefit from educational services and nonacademic and extracurricular activities, including meals, passing periods, athletics, rallies and clubs. The District also violates multiple provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal law that guarantees special education and related services to children with disabilities, as well as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, along with multiple California Education Codes (California Education Code Sections 56000 et seq., 200 and 220, and 11135).  

February 9, 2022 Uniform Complaint Related to Violation of Legal Requirements for LCAP (Local Control and Accountability Plan) Spending – Filed an administrative complaint with the district superintendent detailing the district’s failure to comply with legal requirements governing school spending plans and demanding the district investigate budget discrepancies, adhere to state-mandated reporting requirements, and require each school to clearly demonstrate how these special funds are used to serve the high-needs students for whom they were allocated. 

CTC has also supported directly impacted families by helping secure legal representation and linkage to other resources.

Demanding Oversight and Accountability

Since Fall of 2020, CTC regularly attends Antelope Valley Union High School District (AVUHSD) School Board Meetings and provides public comment. When the AVUHSD School Board refused to cancel their contract with LASD in 2021, CTC took our concerns around lack of oversight or accountability for on-campus deputies to the LA County Board of Supervisors, who have authority over the LASD budget. Working with Supervisor Holly Mitchell, CTC helped pass two important motions:

 June 28, 2022: Improving School Climate and Safety – asserting that “all students have the right to learn in a safe and supportive school environment,” this motion established school climate funding to pilot a program in two districts. CTC continues to advocate that the AV be included as one of the pilot programs.  

 June 8, 2021: Strengthening Oversight of School Law Enforcement Services – this motion gave some authority to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to oversee deputy conduct on school campuses, and required the County to develop criteria and other accountability standards for SRDs. 

Based on CTC advocacy, our data, and identified concerns about discriminatory contacts, KPCC/LAist undertook a massive investigative report titled, Video Captured A Deputy Body Slamming A Black Student At Lancaster High. Now, Community Groups Want Sheriffs Off Campus | LAist.

Following this report and CTC’s presentation to the County’s Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, the County’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) produced two key reports that shed light on what is going wrong in our schools and why anyone who cares about fair education and basic civil rights should be alarmed.

Research: What Do we Know about Law Enforcement in Schools

Schools throughout the country contract with or have their own law enforcement agencies for on campus services to improve school safety, and many use law enforcement strategies specifically to prevent school shootings. However, researchers find little to no evidence that armed guards and law enforcement in schools prevents on campus shootings. Studies show that law enforcement services have, at best, a limited impact and are not enough on their own to adequately make schools safe. But researchers have found evidence that a law enforcement presence on school campuses can have a negative impact on students. The risk of over-criminalization cannot be taken lightly: the probability of negative outcomes for a young person increases, even with a first-time arrest, including a decrease in the likelihood of staying in high school, among other concerning indications of educational achievement, health and well-being.

Resources