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Students Concerned About New Grading Policies

RL Intern
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Students Concerned About New Grading Policies

By Alex Witrago, Editorial Intern

While high school students continue distance learning from their homes, many seniors are questioning how changes in grading policy will affect their college admissions.

“If I had to choose between keeping my letter grade or credit/no credit I would choose my letter grade,” said Myra Santiago, a graduating senior at Cabrillo High School in Long Beach.

Santiago was accepted into California State University, Long Beach and will start her first semester in fall 2020. She has not declared her major but plans to get into the nursing program. Santiago is not too concerned about losing her admission into CSULB but has little understanding of how her credit or no credit may affect her high school transcripts.

“Personally, for hard-working students like Myra I would have preferred that the school district give the option for students to keep their letter grades,” said Diego Castrejón, Myra’s Spanish teacher at Cabrillo High School.

COVID-19 has changed the way many educational institutions are grading students, substituting the point system for methods such as pass or fail, credit, or no credit. Seniors are the most concerned about how these new methods may impact their college admissions.

 The California Department of Education has this to say about the matter on its website:

“The decision of whether or not to require graded work from students is a local one. There are a variety of considerations for local educational agencies to weigh as they review their grading policies during the transition to distance learning. [Local educational agencies] should weigh their policies with the lens of equity and with the primary goal of first, doing no harm to students. 

Castrejón explains that the school district informed all teachers that universities will accept the credit/no credit grading system during the stay-at-home lockdown, and it should not affect a student’s admission or application into universities.

“Many students are struggling with online learning,” Castrejón said.

Some  prefer to be graded by the credit/no credit grading system, including William Sanales, a senior at Cabrillo High school. Sanales plans to attend Long Beach Community College to pursue a career in human resources.

“It’s difficult to continue my classes online,” Sanales said. “There are many distractions that take you away from doing my school work, which is why I prefer the credit/no credit grading.”

Castrejón sees both sides. He understands that many students are struggling with online learning and mental health during this time of the lockdown but also understands the frustration and confusion of some students who would rather have their letter grade on their high school transcript.

 Another area of concern for students is their ACT/SAT exams. Santiago took the SAT in October to improve her SAT score before her college applications in the fall of 2019, but the California State University will temporarily suspend the use of ACT/SAT examinations in determining the admissions for all CSU for the 2021-2022 academic year.

 Although Santiago’s SAT score was not used to determine her admission into CSULB she does not regret retaking the exam.

CSU Students React to Continued Online Courses

RL Intern
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CSU Students React to Continued Online Courses

By Dayzsha Lino, Editorial Intern

Months before the 2020 fall semester, students are bracing for what to expect as schools struggle to resume. In May, Caifornia State University Chancellor Timothy White officially announced that most classes at all 23 CSU campuses will be held online — a decision made solely out of caution due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“This crisis has shed a light on how professors are not that tech savvy and that causes a lot of issues in learning for some students because some professors don’t even know how to use Blackboard, or post a video, or use Zoom, or use any other device,” said Robert Rios, a student at California State Dominguez Hills.

At a May 12 CSU Board of Trustees meeting, White said that running classes on campuses as usual would be irresponsible due to the predictions of scientific experts that additional waves of the coronavirus might appear in the coming months.

“[In-person instruction] sadly just isn’t in the cards now,” White said.

The population of more than 500,000 students would have to interact with their professors and peers when students begin their fall semester on Aug. 24.

 While most CSU classes this semester will primarily be online, the chancellor is allowing certain areas of instruction such as biology labs, courses for clinical nursing and merchant marine training to be held in-person. They will have safety protocols in place like keeping a distance between participants, limited class sizes and constant sanitization of spaces and equipment.

As one of the largest university systems in the country, White’s decision to cancel in-person classes this fall caught national attention. However, other universities were already planning to do the same thing.

On April 21, Cal State Fullerton became one of the first universities in the country to announce it would be running classes fully online this fall.

With more than 1.83 million COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is clear that the country is still grappling with the spread of the virus. Despite this, University of California President Janet Napolitano announced on May 21 that all UC schools will be open this fall, but anticipates that most campuses will run under hybrid instruction if each of them met “system-wide thresholds” of COVID-19 testing.

While the chancellor’s decision to keep CSU classes online may seem overreaching to some, many professors believe that it is better to be safe than to risk the endangerment of students and faculty.

“Given the nature of the overall pandemic crisis, I don’t think there’s enough certainty to know, sort of, what’s going to happen in the fall,” said Brant Burkey, a journalism professor at CSUDH. “The CSU system and the chancellor in particular are just making the decision to stick with the online remote learning format out of an abundance of caution.”  

Since CSUDH officially converted to online learning on March 12, Burkey has been communicating with his students by posting announcements on Blackboard and occasionally hosting classes via Zoom, an online video meeting application. While most things worked fine, there were some minor issues with his computer that disrupted the grading of final projects for his Digital Magazine class. As the university enters the fall semester using the same format, Burkey believes that moving forward, having efficient technology is going to be an ongoing challenge.

“The unfortunate part is that the more we have to rely on technology, there is always going to be some glitch, or some issue of different programs, or something that doesn’t translate as well; and that’s unfortunately a challenge that we’re all going to have to face as [we] rely so much on the technology,” Burkey said.

Thomas Norman, an associate professor of the CSUDH Management and Marketing Department, put out a survey on May 23 that was “designed to measure students’ preference for class scheduling” and to find out which students had accessibility to devices that would allow them to continue the semester in an online format.

When asked about his thoughts on students who lack basic needs such as efficient internet, he said that he and other faculty members have been talking with the information technology department to provide internet in the parking lot for students who want to socially distance themselves.

“We’ve been asking for Wi-Fi in the parking lots so that they can approach the campus safely from the bubble of your car,” Norman said.

He also said that the faculty have been promoting the internet providers that have been offering broadband.

Rios, who is now a senior at CSUDH, said that one of his biggest concerns this semester is finding an internship. Since the coronavirus has changed so much of the workforce, it may be harder to find an internship this year than any other.

“I don’t know how I am going to fare in looking for an internship, which requires me to complete a certain amount of hours,” Rios said. “And I know many people who I’m friends with and who I’ve met who said they’ve struggled to complete those hours because they got cut, so now they’re back to square one.”

Some of the results of the survey report that 18% of students used their phones for class 100% of the time, while 70% of students used their laptops 100% of the time for class. It also reports that 38% of students felt that online learning negatively affected their learning while 23% felt that it positively affected their course grades. 

California’s Long Plague May Just Be Starting

Paul Rosenberg
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California’s Long Plague May Just Be Starting

State and local leadership is much better than most — but that’s not going to be enough

As the COVID-19 pandemic subsides substantially in New York and New Jersey, it’s rising dramatically in red states in the South and Southwest, where governors have long been in denial. As of June 22, the 14-day trend in COVID-19 cases was up 169% in Florida, and up 121% in Texas and Arizona. The increases in those three states alone since June 1 was roughly equivalent to all of the sharp drops in cases from New York and New Jersey that occurred the month before. Oklahoma, which hosted Donald Trump’s disastrous campaign reopening, saw a much more dramatic 261% increase.

Those two ongoing trends have been the most significant pandemic stories over the past month, as attention has been primarily focused on Black Lives Matter protests across the country and around the world.

But there’s another story that’s been missed in all this: The anomalous case of California, where its 14-day trend rose 36% despite an early, robust and sensitively-designed response, and the even more anomalous case of Los Angeles County, where matters are significantly worse. The county crossed the 3,000 deaths threshold on June 18 with 3,027 recorded. It also passed the 75,000 case threshold two days earlier with 75,172, and has now passed 85,000 as well.

As of June 22, almost 38% of California’s cases had occurred in June.

“We’re not into the second wave,” Gov. Gavin Newsom warned in a press conference. “We’re not out of the first wave.”

The same day, Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer warned, “This is our third day in the past week when we reported over 2,000 cases during a single day.”

It had only happened once before that.

Public exposure was a growing concern, according to Christina Ghaly, director for Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

“The model suggests that about 1 in 400 Los Angeles County residents are currently infectious,” she said.

That excludes known cases who are hospitalized or self-isolating. With that infection rate,  “It’s entirely possible, or even likely, after safer at home orders are paired back, that an average person in an average day may come in vicinity of others who are infectious,” Ghaly said.

But just the week before, both Newsom and Ferrer had seemed cautious and self-confident. At his June 15 press conference, Newsom cited a broad range of indicators showing relative stability — the positivity rate of COVID-19 tests, hospitalization rate, and intensive care unit patients as well.

He acknowledged that rates weren’t coming down, but sought to normalize what was happening.

“We have a state that is holding strong, in terms of stability in case rates,” he said. “We didn’t experience the great spikes as a number of East Coast states did, and so in consequence, we’re not experiencing a precipitous decline in the number of positive cases, but the stability remains and is holding strong.”

But part of what was stable was an increase in cases, from a seven-day average of 2,635 on June 1 to 2,876 on June 15, with eight all-time highs in 14 days.

At the same time, the reopening process had advanced significantly, with county health departments setting the pace, subject to state oversight and guidance.

When asked whether the state was prioritizing the economy ahead of health concerns, Newsom pushed back.

“This is not an economic question — it’s a health question, broadly defined,” Newsom said, citing poverty rates, unemployment rates, people lacking access to preventative health care and those suffering with mental health issues.

“There’s a certain point where you have to recognize, you can’t be in a permanent state where people are locked away for months, and months, and months, and months on end … to see lives and livelihoods completely destroyed, without considering the health impact of those decisions as well,” he said.

Despite an outsized role in contributing to statewide cases and deaths, Los Angeles County’s reopening process has been fairly rapid. On May 29, the health department issued protocols for re-opening restaurants for on-site dining, along with hair salons and barbershops. Then on June 12, it provided for the opening of multiple sectors, subject to protocols for infection control and distancing. These included:

• Gyms and fitness facilities

• Pro-league arenas without live audiences

• Day camps

• Museums, galleries, zoos and aquariums

• Campgrounds, recreational vehicle parks and outdoor recreation

• Music, film and television production

• Hotels for leisure travel

The consequences of these last two phases of reopening will only start to register in terms of case rates around June 27 through July 1.

In that same June 15 press conference, Newsom also stressed the strength of the state’s contact tracing program, saying the state aims to reach 10,000 contact tracers by July 1. Ferrer addressed the subject that same day.

“Contact tracing is a confidential and simple process that has been used by public health departments for decades to slow the spread of infectious diseases and avoid outbreaks,” Ferrer said.

“Currently, Public Health has over 1,500 persons working as contact tracers for the COVID-19 response,” a department press release explained. “Public Health interviews persons who have tested positive for COVID-19…. This involves identifying and interviewing every person who has been in close contact with someone who is suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19 in order to quarantine those exposed (contacts) and monitor them for signs and symptoms of the disease.”

But the inadequacy of contract tracing with such high case rates was highlighted by Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch.

“Countries that have had great success with contact tracing didn’t reopen with 100s or 1,000s of new known cases a day,” Lipsitch tweeted on June 23. “Korea reopened with 5 [cases]/day in 50m[illion] population. Europe reopened around 2 [cases]/100K [population]/day or less.”

In contrast, he noted multi-stage data analysis from New York City showed that “at most (approx) 22% of transmissions could be captured with present performance.” 

Even if Los Angeles County did twice as well, less than half of transmissions would be traced.

And the county remains a significant hot-spot. On June 17, the county’s seven-day average death rate accounted for 4.84% of the nationwide total, after a week at over 5%, with just 3.02 percent of the national population. That made our seven-day death rate 60% higher than the national average. And it’s since risen to over 5% once again.  It’s outpaced the national average every day since May 19, but exceeded it just once before that.

Our seven-day case rate looks even worse in this comparison: On June 18, it dropped below twice the national average for the first time since George Floyd was murdered on May 29.

In short, while California and Los Angeles County are much more serious in dealing with COVID-19 than Republican governors in Florida, Texas, Arizona and elsewhere, they appear to be calibrating their actions against questionable background assumptions. Being smart compared to Trump or Republican governors following his lead is not being smart enough.

This was evident in Newsom’s June 15 press conference, where he stressed the need for vigilance, and measures like mask-wearing and presented a slide of the case-rate trajectory of 1918-19 pandemic, with its three distinct peaks.

“Let us be cognizant of our past and let us be mindful of our present,” Newsom said. “We don’t want to experience a second wave, as they did in 1918, in the fall, and even in the early part of spring, 1919, that third wave, without the kind of preparation that is required of this moment…. The future’s not just something you experience. It’s not just in front of you, it’s inside of you. It’s our decisions that determine our fate and future. We have agency. We can manifest the future we want, as long as we’re smart.”

Newsom was showing a clear grasp of history, and what the last comparable respiratory pandemic has to teach us. He was far more reality-oriented than Donald Trump or any of the Republican governors who’ve followed his exhortations and rushed to open without carefully monitoring the pandemic’s response. But he was not oriented toward the substantial gains that have been made since then—gains that have informed the far more robust responses of countries that didn’t simply aim to flatten the curve, and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, but to crush the curve, so that containment strategies: testing, contact tracing and isolation — could be employed to reduce infections to  virtually zero, as Lipsitch noted.

What all this means for Harbor Area residents varies greatly depending on where one lives. Case rates vary widely across communities, while generally reflecting the racial and wealth disparities seen nationwide, based on geographic distribution. (The county’s racial case data is woefully inadequate with almost half listed as “Other” or “Under Investigation.”) Case rates ranged from zero in unincorporated portions of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Harbor Gateway and 103 per 100,000 in Rolling Hills as of June 21, to 2265 in La Rambla, the ninth highest rate of any community in Los Angeles County. Castaic had the highest rate countywide at 6366.  There were 22 communities with no cases at all, including the City of Avalon.

The rate was 1379 in San Pedro (including the Terminal Island federal prison), 816 in Wilmington, 613 in Carson, 495 in Harbor City, 440 in Harbor Gateway, 355 in Palos Verdes Estates,  318 in Lomita, 285 in Rancho Palos Verdes, and 222 in Rolling Hills Estates. La Rambla, San Pedro and Wilmington were all above the national rate, which was 677 on June 20.

Recent case rate increases also varied widely. In the four weeks from May 31 to June 20, there was no change in Rolling Hills, while the rate in La Rambla increased 370%. Wilmington increased 65%, Harbor City 42%, Carson 40%, Harbor Gateway and Rolling Hills Estates 29%, Lomita and Rancho Palos Verdes 27%, San Pedro 18%, Palos Verdes Estates 14%.

In the next two weeks, we’ll begin to see the impacts of the latest reopening waves.

“The number of cases will increase as the number of people are out of their homes,” Ghaly said. “It’s going to be very important to watch how this increase in cases translates into our daily hospitalizations over the next few weeks.”

Let’s hope we don’t look back at where we are now and call it “the good old days.”

SPHS Restorative Justice Program Teaches Growth and Resilience

Melina Paris
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SPHS Restorative Justice Program Teaches Growth and Resilience

Editor’s Note: This article was originally intended to be a small part of Paul Rosenberg’s larger June 11 cover story, Remaking Justice. That story discussed defunding and abolition of the police on a national scale. This narrative continues to develop those ideas and what they look like through restorative justice in the local community.

The Center For Justice and Reconciliation defines Restorative Justice as a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior. Through cooperative processes that allow all willing stakeholders to meet, this can lead to transformation of people, relationships and communities. When meeting is impossible, other approaches are available.

San Pedro High School established its Restorative Justice program in 2016. Lauren Toledo was the 2020 graduating club president, the third in the life of the program. John Guldseth, teacher sponsor of the RJ program, as it is called, exchanged email with Random Lengths News to lay out the impact of restorative justice on a high school campus and its effectiveness on a larger society level.

“Whenever I share what RJ is with a student, I ask them, ‘If you do something wrong, say at work or school, and you are in trouble for it, do you want to be punished or restored?’” Guldseth said.

Guldseth said no student has ever expressed a preference for punishment if they were already concerned that they did something wrong. He posited that when people need to correct an attitude or an action, a mentor who believes in them always provides more incentive to do right, and to do good than any law or statute.

At the high school level, the first goal of restorative justice is to build relationships and trust.

People protect each other when they are connected, Guldseth explained. Likewise, people are protected when they view one another with trust. The meeting circle is a structure that begins this process in schools, organizations, institutions and even prisons, where inmates begin to learn what it means to empathize with others.

“This process moves minds beyond the fixed mindset of victim/victimizer,” he said. “The beauty of RJ is in its simplicity.”

What Happens in RJ

SPHS classroom practices for restorative justice include specific check-in circles once per week to start and finish the week and discuss student led topics.

All teachers send around a talking piece, weekly to share or check-in once for each period. They will ask an empathy question or conduct SEAD; Stop Everything and Dialogue All School Practice, among other practices.

Within the first six weeks of school, students have learned the circle process, talking piece, center-piece and how to facilitate opening and closing discussions. They shared their values in the classroom and developed common agreements and values, which they have voted on. And they have chosen up to 10 school-wide values and agreements, displaying them throughout the campus.

Teachers and administrators instruct students in restorative questions and how to make amends.

Guldseth described how these practices look in the classroom as students draw a question and use a talking piece to discuss the idea or topic. If someone wants to pass, they can. Anyone sharing does not need to make eye contact with others in the group [an object on which the students can focus their attention, is placed in the middle of the circle]. Students who do not usually talk with groups of people know they won’t be interrupted and that they own that time with the talking piece.

“Many different reactions begin to emerge,” Guldseth said. “Some students will express an alternate opinion, or they will reinforce an idea shared. But the unique aspect of a circle is that [during the] past four years, no student has ever felt disrespected for what they shared. Very often, the opposite is expressed, that they had never shared before and it felt good.”

For Guldseth, restorative justice is not a means to universal consensus about ideas, but a process that supports students understanding each other. The sense of community is a first step in the many other positive aspects of collaborative effort.

Imagining New Ways to Structure Our System

In the past four years, SPHS has seen a reduction in suspensions. It allows students to express an apology when they are alone [with the person they have hurt] and a moderator. Moderators are able to play a supportive role to both while they share and attempt to build a bridge or meaningful basis for a common understanding. It’s not about who was wrong or right, but about how both can feel connected, functional, respected and part of the community.

“In terms of public policy, imagine how we would change and grow as a society if there were a process for making amends instead of serving time,” Guldseth said. “Both parties can heal where there is understanding and a willingness to grow. As a society, we need to grow beyond cause and effect, action/reaction.”

Guldseth believes in justice that is restorative because young people who are growing up with it as an option in school respond with real deference, empathy and leadership ability that is not often seen in society.

“When confronted with hurt, their attitude is not, ‘They got what they deserved!’ Instead they are asking, ‘Can we give someone what they need?’” Guldseth said. “How can we move beyond this pain for the benefit of both? We do not ignore the hurt, but with the restorative justice mindset, the hurt can transform to understanding and resolve, to growth and resilience for both parties.”

In Conclusion

The three big ideas of restorative justice are: to repair: crime causes harm and justice requires repairing that harm; to encounter: this calls on the parties involved to decide together how to best facilitate their encounter and lastly, transformation: this can cause fundamental changes in people, relationships and communities.

The foundational principles of restorative justice have been summarized as follows:

• Crime causes harm and justice should focus on repairing that harm.

• The people most affected by the crime should be able to participate in its resolution.

• The responsibility of the government is to maintain order and of the community to build peace.

Details: http://www.pficjr.org/

“LET’S HAVE OUR VOICES COUNT!”

David Bacon
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“LET’S HAVE OUR VOICES COUNT!”

Black education unionists call for an avalanche of protests for racial justice


CFT United, June 10, 2020
https://www.cft.org/article/lets-have-our-voices-count-urge-cft-black-lead
https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2020/06/lets-have-our-voices-count.html

For weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have filled the streets of 160 cities across the country, even during the coronavirus pandemic, expressing their outrage and grief at the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Two Black leaders of the CFT, with long histories of fighting for racial equity, say they could not help being profoundly moved by the murder itself, and the outpouring of rage in response.

“We have a basic expectation that we won’t be murdered by the police, that we have due process,” says Angelo Williams, who’s taught sociology at Sacramento City College for 13 years. “But when it comes to Black and Brown people, that’s not what we get. Every student knows this. We can’t continue this way one more day.”

Carl Williams (no relation to Angelo Williams), a Lawndale elementary school custodian and president of the CFT Council of Classified Employees, was so deeply moved that “I haven’t watched the whole recording of George Floyd to the end. I can’t do it. As a Black man, I’m shocked but not shocked. It’s not something we should be used to, but we are. So when people say, ‘Not one more time!’ I say, ‘Absolutely!'”

While deeply disturbed by Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, in interviews both respond immediately that the deaths of Black men at the hands of the police are a fact of life much closer than Minnesota. “I lived in L.A. when we went into the streets after Rodney King was beaten,” Carl Williams recalls. “I’m a lot wiser now than I was then, but some things don’t change.”

In the national avalanche of people into the streets, people hold signs remembering the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmad Arbery, Tony McDade and others in a plague of violence visited on Blacks, not just recently, but since slavery.

Angelo Williams remembers the community grief and rage that met the murder of Stephon Clark two years ago, by Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, two officers of the Sacramento Police Department. He was shot eight times, six in the back, standing in the backyard of his grandmother’s house with a phone in his hand.

“We don’t have to look at far off places,” he reminds us. “We should focus on cases here in California, starting with Stephon Clark. The police officers who murdered him must be fired and tried. We must make them face the music. This was a police murder here, in our state capital.”

He also emphasizes that while Black men suffer this violence more than any others, people of color and women in general are targeted. “Latinos are murdered too, like Andy Lopez in Santa Rosa.” Lopez, a 13-year old boy, was shot as he was walking with a BB gun, by a deputy sheriff who was never charged.

Both men, however, believe that the massive protests, going on for 14 days;at the time of this writing, show clearly that something has changed, and that stopping police murder is possible. And they also believe that the union has a role to play in making that happen.

Four years ago the two participated with over a dozen other CFT members in the Racial Equity Task Force, set up in response to a resolution passed at the CFT Convention in 2016. The task force hammered out, over the course of a year, “Reclaiming the Promise of Racial Equity for Black Males in California,” a pioneering report setting goals for moving towards racial justice in the state educational system, and in the union.

The report warned that while “we can celebrate the progress made toward racial equity by the various historical and new movements for civil rights and racial equity… each key moment of progress was followed by backlash aimed at maintaining the status quo of structural racism.”

Key to the report, Angelo Williams explains, is that “we used an equity framework, instead of one seeing Black men as a problem. We have value and knowledge. Black teachers can change the trajectory of students because of their perspective on American culture. We should welcome African American men as teachers. I became a teacher because my father and grandfather were teachers. Black men are valuable to the union.”

For Carl Williams, working as a custodian at an elementary school gave him an important presence. “The role of any classified worker is unique,” he explains. “We interact with students when they’re not in the classroom and governed by classroom rules. We have a connection to African American boys, because they feel comfortable with people who look like them. When they see us, they recognize us as family. Maybe their dad works in a uniform, or they have a mother in food service, who looks like us. Plus, they see us out in the community, because most classified workers live in the district where they work.”

How then does the work of Black classified workers and teachers translate into political power that can stop police violence? Both men caution that there are no easy answers. “I don’t know if the work we do at school can change police brutality,” Carl Williams warns. “We wind up preparing kids for interactions with police, because it’s their survival. We shouldn’t have to do that, but it’s where we are.”

Still, he believes in the power of the union to create change. “First, we need to recognize who’s being murdered,” he says. “I look at what happened to George Floyd and think, how would I feel if he was one of my students? George Floyd was somebody’s student. Then we have to let our voices be heard. Let us create opposition. And let us lift up those in our organization who should be heard, and not be afraid to stand up for what’s right. We must stand up and be vocal.”

Angelo Williams thinks that the power of the union comes from solidarity. “It’s built into our DNA. It’s the core architecture of the union. From the locals to the national, we need to speak with one voice, and say that this cannot be tolerated. We must hold people accountable, from police officers to the president of the United States.”

Getting into the streets is part of it, he says, participating in peaceful protests wherever they are. “We can be the example,” he emphasizes. ” We need to be there, so these protests are not seen just as fights between protesters and the police. Unions are organized to bring people together. Our union has power, a history of solidarity. We understand how to change laws, how to organize.”

Both credit CFT President Jeff Freitas for reaching out in the process of writing the union’s first statement about the Minneapolis events. “The murder of George Floyd by a police officer was an unspeakable act of violence, and our communities across the country are responding to his murder with understandable grief and rage,” the statement says.

“But we know this is not an isolated incident. Black communities, and especially Black men, are exhausted and terrified because of the omnipresent structural and institutional racism they experience every day that often leads to violence against them. As a union of educators and classified professionals, our work includes taking action to dismantle the systems and structures that uphold anti-Black racism in our schools and our communities.”

Carl and Angelo Williams are both thinking about how the union should continue to speak, and beyond speaking, to organize. Carl Williams has been drafted onto an AFT committee, where he’ll meet with AFT President Randi Weingarten and several others to consider next steps.

“I’m bringing to it my experience as a Black man living in L.A.,” he says, “which has a history of these acts, and Black men and Black students know this. Today social media is bringing tools and knowledge to the fingertips of young people. We should encourage them, while we speak to their fears and tell them how it is for us. Social and racial justice are at the core of what our union is all about. We would be remiss if we stood aside. We can’t stand aside or be silent.”

Both men look toward November, as well as at the immediate protests. Angelo Williams says that during the period before the election, the country still needs a president who can “demonstrate some heart and soul and human empathy, who can understand that the right to protest is an American right, and allow the voice of the people to be heard. And then the youth in the streets – putting their lives on the line – should bring their ballots with them and put them in the mail. A referendum on this president is coming no matter what.”

The most important thing, they believe, is that the union and its members must act, and do so in accord with its history and principles. “Labor unions are social justice organizations,” Carl Williams emphasizes. “It’s what unions are all about. And that makes it very appropriate for us to take part in protesting. So let our voice be heard.”

“Let’s get up and get active,” Angelo Williams urges. “It’s not too late for us to have our voices count.”

LABOR MARCH PROTESTS THE POLICE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD

BERKELEY, CA – 13JUNE20 – Hundreds of union members and outraged people march through the streets of Berkeley to protest the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and other African American and people of color killed by police.  The march was organized by the labor councils of Alameda, San Francisco, Contra Costa and San Mateo Counties, and Service Employees International Union Local 1021.

To see a full set of photos, click here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/56646659@N05/albums/72157714734338062

STUDENTS MARCH TO PROTEST THE POLICE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD

BERKELEY, CA – 09JUNE20 – Hundreds of students, teachers and outraged people march through the streets of Berkeley to protest the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and other African Americian and other people of color killed by police. 

To see a full set of photos, click here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/56646659@N05/albums/72157714656895057

HUGE CAR CARAVAN PROTESTS THE POLICE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD

OAKLAND, CA – 31MAY20 – Thousands of people participate in a caravan of over 2000 cars from the Port of Oakland, to protest the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and African American and people of color killed by police.

To see a full set of photos, click here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/56646659@N05/albums/72157714533842187

Hahn Wants County to Strengthen Non-Law Enforcement Crisis Response

Reporters Desk
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Hahn Wants County to Strengthen Non-Law Enforcement Crisis Response

LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, June 23, passed a motion by Supervisor Janice Hahn aimed at improving the public’s access to alternative crisis response teams when armed law enforcement may not be appropriate.

“We are asking our law enforcement officers to take on too many challenges that they are not necessarily trained for whether that be mental health crises, homelessness, or substance abuse,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “There are situations where an unarmed trained professional would be a more appropriate response in a crisis than a law enforcement officer and we need to make sure LA County residents can call these expert teams when they need help.”

While there are instances when law enforcement officers are the most appropriate response to a call for help, there are also many scenarios when they are not. For example, calls for health and human services crises related to mental health, substance abuse, physical health, or homelessness would be better served in most cases by a non-law enforcement response team with appropriate training and expertise. These would include the County’s Psychiatric Mobile Response Team (PMRT) or the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Emergency Outreach Team. When people call for help during a crisis, they often call 911 and receive a law enforcement response that could be ineffective at best and harmful at worst.

In March, the Board of Supervisors approved a motion by Supervisors Hahn and Barger to have a Human Services Crisis Response Coordination Steering Committee, composed of various health, fire, and law enforcement agencies to advise the Department of Mental Health on the development, expansion, coordination, and utilization of health and human services crisis response resources throughout Los Angeles County.

Hahn’s motion instructs the Human Services Crisis Response Coordination Steering Committee to report back to the board in three months on the feasibility of:

  1. Establishing a unique number for non-law enforcement health and human services crisis responses;
  2. Reconfiguring 911 to more effectively triage calls involving health and human services crises to non-law enforcement first responders by default.

Reconciling Racism, Environmental Justice and Climate Change

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Reconciling Racism, Environmental Justice and Climate Change

LONG BEACH – Long Beach Councilwoman Jeannine Pearce, Chair of the Environmental Committee has called a joint meeting with the Sustainable City Commission to discuss how to close the environmental disparities in our communities of color by taking climate action.

For years, climate change has disproportionately affected underserved communities and communities of color. Climate change is not only an environmental issue. It also has human rights, public health, and social equity dimensions.

Agenda items: Framework for reconciliation presented by the Office of Equity

Draft Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP)

The public will have the option to use e-comment to provide comments on agenda items. E-comment will close at 3:45 p.m. June 25. Or, email sustainability@longbeach.gov

Time: 4 p.m. June 25

Details: http://www.lbtv3.com/

Councilman Huizar Arrested on RICO Charges, Alleging He Agreed to Accept At Least $1.5 Million in Illicit Benefits

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Councilman Huizar Arrested on RICO Charges, Alleging He Agreed to Accept At Least $1.5 Million in Illicit Benefits

FBI agents took 14th District city councilman Jose Huizar into custody on June 23, one year and seven months from when more than a dozen FBI agents descended on Huizar’s City Hall suite, one of his field offices and his Spanish Colonial Revival residence in Boyle Heights, carrying boxes of materials from each location.

Huizar, 51, was arrested pursuant to a federal criminal complaint filed on June 22 and unsealed on June 23. The city councilman was arrested on a federal racketeering charge that alleges he led a criminal enterprise using his position on the city’s Planning Commission to solicit and accept lucrative bribes and other financial benefits to enrich himself and his close associates in exchange for Huizar taking official actions favorable to the developers and others who financed and facilitated the bribes.

United States Attorney Nick Hanna said the case pulled back the curtain on rampant corruption at City Hall.

Hanna said Huizar used the power of his office to approve or stall large building projects through a web of other corrupt city officials, lobbyists, consultants and developers…. And did it all in order to line his pockets and maintain his hold on Council District 14, which he turned into a money-making criminal enterprise that shaped the development landscape in Los Angeles.

In similar old school, gumshoe lingo, Paul Delacourt, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office said,  “Mr. Huizar was busy enjoying the fruits of his alleged corruption while his criminal enterprise sold the city to the highest bidder behind the backs of taxpayers.” 

Huizar has represented Council District 14, which includes downtown Los Angeles and its surrounding communities, since 2005. In addition to representing an area that has experienced a commercial real estate boom in recent years, Huizar for several years was chair of the city’s influential Planning and Land Use Management Committee, a position he lost after the FBI executed search warrants at his city offices and personal residence in November 2018. During the search of Huizar’s home, agents seized approximately $129,000 cash that was stashed in his closet.

The 116-page affidavit alleges that Huizar operated the “CD-14 Enterprise,”with co-conspirator members that the FBI named“Individual 1,” a former general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety and former deputy mayor; George Esparza, Huizar’s former special assistant; and real estate development consultant George Chiang. 

Members and associates of the criminal enterprise referred to Huizar as their “boss,” operated as a criminal organization, and worked together for common purposes, the complaint alleges. The CD-14 Enterprise allegedly had several objectives, including:

  1. enriching its members and associates through means that included bribery, extortion, and honest services fraud,
  2. advancing its political goals and maintaining its control and authority,
  3. concealing the enterprise’s financial activities, and
  4. protecting the enterprise by concealing its activities and shielding the enterprise from detection by law enforcement, the city, and the public.

In recent weeks, both Esparza and Chiang agreed to plead guilty to the same RICO charge that Huizar now faces.

The CD-14 Enterprise was created in early 2013 by Huizar and Individual 1 “at a time when each of them faced significant threats to their political and professional careers,” according to the affidavit. Individual 1, who maintained close relationships with Chinese developers, introduced Huizar to whom the FBI named, “Chairman E,” a Chinese billionaire who runs a multinational development firm and who owns a hotel in Huizar’s district.

In 2014, Individual 1 facilitated an arrangement whereby Chairman E provided $600,000 in collateral to fund a settlement of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Huizar by a former CD-14 staffer, allegations that threatened his 2015 re-election campaign.

In addition, Huizar directly and indirectly accepted cash and casino gambling chips on more than a dozen lavish trips to Las Vegas – trips that included rides on private jets and stays at luxurious casino villas, one of which cost over $38,000 per night. 

The complaint also alleges Huizar accepted a trip to Australia and other benefits from Chairman E. In exchange, Chairman E asked for a series of favors from Huizar over time.

Ultimately, Chairman E provided over $800,000 in benefits to Huizar so that Huizar would assist Chairman E’s ambitious plans to redevelop his property in CD-14 and build the tallest building west of the Mississippi River, according to the affidavit.

In a second scheme, “Developer C” agreed to pay a $500,000 cash bribe to secure Huizar’s help in resolving a labor organization’s appeal of a major real estate development which, when resolved, would save the developer millions of dollars. After a middleman, Justin Jangwoo Kim, collected $500,000 cash from Developer C, Kim and Esparza decided to keep some of the money for themselves. Kim pleaded guilty on June 3 to bribery charges and admitted facilitating the bribe from Developer C.

A third major bribery scheme outlined in the affidavit involves “Company D,” another Chinese real estate firm that wanted to develop a large mixed-use project in CD-14. In exchange for Huizar’s support of the project, Company D agreed to hire Huizar “Associate 1” as a consultant to perform work – real estate reports that discussed development opportunities – that actually was completed by Chiang. The affidavit alleges that Company D also financed part of a Huizar family trip to China and agreed to contribute $100,000 to a political action committee that would benefit the campaign of Huizar’s close relative, who Huizar intended to replace him on the City Council after he was termed out in 2020.

Other developers made donations to two PACs that would benefit “Relative A-1’s” campaign in exchange for Huizar taking official action to support their projects, the complaint alleges. One series of donations was made by “Company M” and facilitated by “Executive M,” who allegedly furnished Huizar with opposition research against two female staffers who had sued Huizar for sexual harassment in 2018. With Huizar’s help, Company M was able to get final approval in the fall of 2018 to construct a 35-story project in the Arts District with “minimal” affordable housing units and union labor requirements that saved the company an estimated $14 million, the affidavit alleges. Company M later bragged to its employees that this was a “truly amazing” feat “in a wealthy opinionated hipster community,” according to the affidavit.

The complaint alleges a series of additional corrupt acts, including bribes to Huizar from “Businessperson A,” who wanted to develop business opportunities with Huizar’s help. Businessperson A allegedly provided Huizar a $10,000 monthly cash retainer, $10,000 worth of hotel accommodations on 21 separate occasions, and approximately $18,000 in lavish gifts that included suits, shoes and meals.

Huizar allegedly leveraged his official position to pressure developers to make donations to Relative A-1’s campaign to ensure Huizar’s continued influence in the city and to steer work towards companies linked to his associates, including the law firm that employed Relative A-1, regardless of any legitimate business need.

The complaint affidavit concludes by outlining Huizar’s concealment of illicit benefits, including by instructing his special assistant on how to avoid bank reporting requirements, using his family members to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, making false statements on a bank loan application and failing to report his illicit benefits on tax returns and ethics disclosure forms. The complaint also alleges that Huizar engaged in obstructionist conduct, including attempting to influence other witnesses and lying to federal prosecutors and the FBI.

Huizar is the fifth person to be charged in the ongoing corruption investigation being conducted by the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office. The other four defendants have agreed to plead guilty.

Chiang is scheduled to plead guilty on June 26 before United States District Judge John F. Walter.

The court has yet to schedule a hearing for Esparza to plead guilty.

Kim is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Walter on August 17.

Former Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander is scheduled to plead guilty on July 7 to charges of scheming to falsify material facts related to trips he took to Las Vegas and Palm Springs that were funded by Businessperson A.

FBI criminal division special agent, Flavia Morgan stated in the press conference that the members involved in this scheme built and carried out a lucrative criminal enterprise at the expense of Angelenos. It was one of the most significant public corruption cases in the history of this city, and the first to involve a political representative of Los Angeles

The press conference concluded by asking anyone with information related to this case to please provide it to, pctips-losangeles@FBI.gov . 

LA County Considers Reallocating Funding from Jails to Diversion, Treatment Programs

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LA County Considers Reallocating Funding from Jails to Diversion, Treatment Programs

Los Angeles, CA—Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors backed a proposal by Supervisor Janice Hahn and coauthored by Supervisor Hilda Solis to consider reallocating funding provided to the county through AB109 from the jail system to alternatives to incarceration.

“This moment is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get away from our over-reliance on incarceration and invest in treatment and services,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn, who authored the motion. “We cannot police our way out of all of our problems—whether that be mental illness, or poverty, or addiction. I want to look critically at the State funding that we currently give to our jail system and see if there is a smarter way to spend this money.”

The Hahn-Solis motion passed June 23, instructs the county’s CEO to report back to the Board with options for how to reallocate the County’s future AB 109 community corrections funding toward alternatives to incarceration. This could include funding diversion programs, substance abuse programs, mental health treatment, housing, restorative justice programs, and community-based services. The recommendations should be based on and build off of the recently passed recommendations in the Alternatives to Incarceration Workgroup’s “Care First, Jail Last” March 2020 report.

“Today’s vote in support of this Board motion demonstrates LA County’s commitment to meaningful changes to the criminal justice system. Investing in community-based treatment and services, instead of incarceration, is not only humane, but is cost effective in the long run. It allows people to remain with their families and stay at their jobs, as they get treatment and help and that benefits all of us in the long run,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, who coauthored the motion. “As we consider how to align our spending with the priorities of the ‘Care First, Jail Last’ approach, we must continue to invite community voices to the table to not only participate in this conversation, but to also be part of the solution in how we can uplift and empower our justice-involved communities.”

The California Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011 (AB 109) shifted the responsibility for certain low-level offenders from the state to the counties. To help the counties implement their new responsibilities, the state provided an annual permanent funding stream to be used for criminal justice and rehabilitative services.  Since 2011, LA county has allocated most of its AB109 community corrections funding to the LA County Sheriff’s Department to manage the jail system and the Probation Department. AB109 was responsible for a jump in LA County’s daily jail population which went from 15,000 to 18,000 in the first year after realignment.  

In the nine years since AB 109 was passed, the county has begun to reimagine its criminal justice system away from incarceration and punishment, and instead towards diversion and rehabilitation. In 2015, the Board of Supervisors created the Office of Diversion and Reentry with the goal of implementing criminal justice diversion for individuals with mental illness. In 2019, the Board created the Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) Workgroup that was composed of representatives from county departments and the community. The ATI Workgroup spent almost a year compiling 144 recommendations for a comprehensive county-wide system of care that reduces the role of incarceration and instead uplifts the role of care and community.

In addition, the COVID-19 epidemic has meant the Sheriff’s Department has dramatically reduced the population of the LA County jail system to around 12,000 today – well below what it was at when AB109 passed.

This year, the county is facing a projected decrease in AB 109 Community Corrections base allocation funds because of lost sales tax revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The motion states “this gives us the opportunity to revisit the way the county has spent AB 109 Community Corrections funding in the past and to reassess ways we could spend AB 109 revenue in the future to support the visions put forward by the ATI Workgroup.”

WRD Directors Unanimously Support $500 Billion Federal Infrastructure Legislation

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WRD Directors Unanimously Support $500 Billion Federal Infrastructure Legislation

Lakewood – The Board of Directors of the Water Replenishment District, June 19, voted unanimously to support federal legislation to invest $500 billion over five years to repair, maintain and build urgent infrastructure projects nationwide. On a 5-0 vote, the Board endorsed the INVEST in America Act.

“This Board is throwing its support behind this legislation because we recognize how important it is to modernize our existing public infrastructure so our nation can realize its full economic potential,” said Board President Vera Robles DeWitt.

“This legislation will also improve our highways and bridges so they can survive the challenges of climate change and reduce gridlock – those are pressing needs,” said DeWitt. “It will incentivize the development of a national transportation system that places a premium on reducing carbon emissions and investments in public transit and passenger rail projects.”

Board director John Allen applauded the INVEST plan as a much-needed job stimulus package as well.  “After all the economic havoc caused by the pandemic, we need to jump-start the economy and put people back to work sooner, not later,” Allen said. “This legislation front-ends much of the spending to accomplish just that.”

“Investments in critical infrastructure ensure agencies like WRD can continue work on forward-thinking and innovative projects that increase our resiliency,” said WRD Board Treasurer Rob Katherman.

In February DeWitt and Allen met with U.S. Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Oregon), chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Sam Graves (R-Missouri).

“It was a terrific meeting,” DeWitt said. “I think WRD is increasingly being seen in the nation’s capital as a thought-leader in the arena of public investment in infrastructure.600

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