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-PC Follies
Los Angeles School Board to Fire 133 Police Officers in Favor of ‘Climate Coach' Program
2021-02-19
[California Globe] Pepper spray ban against students, $25 million achievement plan also passed during Tuesday's board meeting

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education announced a sweeping overhaul of school security, voting to fire 133 Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD) members in favor of school "climate coaches".

The decision to cut a third of the LASPD force will leave the school district with 211 LASPD officers to keep the peace at schools. The defunded LASPD funds will instead finance "climate coaches", community members who will work with students to improve school receptivity and address racial bias. For LASPD officers who do stay on the force, the board also ruled that pepper spray could no longer be used against students.

In addition, the $25 million slashed from the LASPD budget last year will go to the Black Student Achievement Plan, a program that will hire more social workers, counselors, and professional development workers, introduce social justice and diversity into class curriculum, and bring a focus on math classes.

The plan for the overhaul has been in the works since last year following the growth of movements wanting to defund the police and bring social justice changes following the death of George Floyd in May 2020. The subsequent protests and riots culminated in many lawmakers and community leaders bringing about significant changes to local law enforcement, such as Los Angeles cutting $150 million from the LAPD budget in November 2020.

But calls for Los Angeles schools to follow suit, led by community and student activists, never materialized last year, partially due to continued COVID-19 related issues. Many were frustrated after other school districts in California, such as Oakland, voted to completely eliminate their school police force. But constant campaigning by the groups finally brought the plan to a vote on Tuesday, with board members overwhelming to vote in favor of the changes after nearly an hour of comments by students and parents.

"We would not be at this point, though it is delayed admittedly, without the community's leadership," LAUSD board President Kelly Gonez said on Tuesday. "I'm glad that the plans development also provided an opportunity for more engagement with our students, families and the broader community."

Over half of LA public school students, parents in favor of police presence in schools
Posted by:Coining Clones2181

#3  Words fail, you really cant fix some forms of stupid!
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2021-02-19 11:42  

#2  I can understand letting the cops go if they're not gonna reopen the schools. Then they should fire the teachers too. But it would seem the teachers have a better union. Personally, I think the kids in LA would be better off if they just closed all the schools. Parents who wanted their kids educated could see to it themselves and probably pay a lot less than the taxes they have to pay to keep LAUSD teaching kids that the climate is changing because they're all racists, homophobic, xenophobic and deplorable. That would certainly diminish the influence of the California Teachers' Association and that would pay huge dividends for all of us.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2021-02-19 11:40  

#1  the board also ruled that pepper spray could no longer be used against students.

Adopting lead spray?
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Jing9108   2021-02-19 09:57  

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