Stop Senate Bill 1317 from further Criminalizing Black & Latino Public School Families!

On Tuesday, August 3rd, the Community Rights Campaign held a press conference at the Southern California Library, to urge California State Senator Mark Leno and Assemblymembers Felipe Fuentes, Kevin de León and Isadore Hall to stop the movement of Senate Bill 1317. (Check out the La Opinión article about our press conference).

Senator Mark Leno, is the Author of CA SB 1317, a bill that will impose unnecessary and severely punitive consequences for families in the public school system by allowing the schools to fine and/or jail parents/guardians of students that are “chronically truant” with a newly created misdemeanor.

Southern California Assemblymembers Felipe Fuertes, Kevin de Leon and Isadore Hall are part of the Assembly Committee on Appropriations that made their vote on Senate Bill 1317 last Wednesday, determining whether the Bill would move forward to the Full State Assembly.  On Wednesday, August 4th, the Democrats in the Appropriations Committee unanimously voted YES to move SB 1317 into the Full State Assembly, while two Republican Assemblymembers, Diane Harkey and Chris Norby, raised the issue of the bill criminalizing more individuals.

Our fight is not over and nor are we backing down! We called on Senator Leno and District Attorney Kamala Harris to withdraw Senate Bill 1317 and work with communities to build family support services to improve student attendance rather than criminalizing students and their families. We were hoping for three key liberal elected officials of color, Assemblymembers Felipe Fuentes, Kevin de Leon, and Isadore Hall, to not remain silent and march with their party line but instead look to the hard facts of the bill and raise the critical questions of the actual costs to both institutions and the families that will be most impacted.

Take five minutes this morning and call State Senator Mark Leno and Speaker of the Assembly John Perez to tell them to protect our civil and educational rights and not support policies that further criminalize of our communities by withdrawing Senate Bill 1317!

Senator Mark Leno: 916-651-4003 or email at SenatorLeno@Senate.ca.gov 

Speaker of the Assembly John Perez: 916-319-2046 or email at info@perezforassembly.com 

We are seeking allies to not only defeat SB 1317 but to move in a new direction that will stimulate real school reform.  Our vision of healthy and successful schools begins with decriminalizing school discipline and creating social justice and culturally based education academies, parent and student involvement and massive school funding to implement family support services and health centers at every school.

We fight to win!