Drop All Charges! Rescind All Fines!
No Lockdowns!
Stop the Harassment of Los Angeles High School Students Who are Against the Bush
Regime!
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pdf]
This
petition demands that the LAUSD Board of Education and Superintendent Roy Romer
use their authority to immediately stop the harassment, repression, and
punitive measures used against high school students who heroically stepped up
and resisted authority to walk out of school on November 2nd, and united with
church leaders, war veterans, educators, workers, intellectuals, politicians,
and many others in over seventy cities across the nation. This was a spirited
and determined first step in a rapidly growing mass movement, The World Can't
Wait!–Drive Out the Bush Regime, that now demands that Bush Step Down.
This
is deadly serious business we bring before the LAUSD Board of Education and
Superintendent Romer. Students have been threatened with fines, expulsion and
suspension for passing out flyers pertaining to the November 2, 2005 work and
school walkout. They have been forbidden to have anti-Bush political literature
in their possession. Student Geovany Serrano was pepper-sprayed, arrested, has
had criminal charges filed against him, and is under house arrest because he
was passing out anti -Bush political literature and stickers at Belmont High
School prior to November 2. Other students were physically restrained by school
officials as they attempted to leave campus to participate in the walkout on
November 2nd. Some school officials
locked students inside to prevent their leaving. Students have been ticketed,
fined, suspended, or transferred out of their schools as punishment. All this
in spite of guidelines issued to principals by LAUSD Chief Operating Officer
Dan Isaacs in an October 26, 2005 memo, which include: “Do not attempt to
prevent students from leaving the campus.” (bullet point 2)
Military
recruiters appear regularly on campuses, signing young people up to become
soldiers in what has been described by Dick Cheney as a war that will last for
a generation. It has been reported that non-student Christian Fundamentalists
have preached and passed out their literature on campuses without a hint of an
administrative challenge.
But,
this goes beyond matters of constitutional law, or selective enforcement of
policy or law, which is already cause enough for grave concern. School
lockdowns chillingly reflect a lockdown of our society that the Bush regime
pushes: waging illegitimate war, legalizing torture, justifying
institutionalized racism (illustrated in the monstrous criminalization and
callous treatment of Katrina victims), replacing science with religious
creationism in public school science curriculums, indefinite imprisonment of
anyone without charges or benefit of legal recourse under the singular
authority of the President.
Students
understand the urgency of the situation and feel the weight of the future
hanging in the balance. We applaud them for their heroic, spirited and defiant
actions, and their example must and will be followed by others. Reflect on Rosa
Parks, who through her brave act of defiance inspired others to unite with her
in mass resistance against an unjust society with unjust laws. There were those
who arrested her and jailed her. Others joined her, because they knew she was
right. She was right. The students are right!
It
is imperative that Superintendent Roy Romer and the LAUSD Board of Education
understand that their role in these matters is of historical importance and it
is time to step forward. The hour is getting late. We are at a critical
juncture in history. Support students and others in opposition to a grim and
brutal future. Reverse the direction that the Bush Regime is leading us. Begin
now.
"That
which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn or be forced to
accept."
from
The World Can’t Wait–Drive Out the Bush Regime Call
We, the undersigned demand that Superintendent Roy Romer
and the LAUSD Board of education put an immediate stop to:
1. Repressive
treatment and harassment of students who participated in political action(s) to
Drive Out the Bush Regime!
2. Truancy
fines, suspensions, expulsions, detentions, and any and all punitive measures
brought to bear on students in these matters
We further demand:
1. All
charges be dropped against Geovany Serrano
2. All
truancy fines be rescinded and reimbursed to students and their families
We also call on students on high
school and university campuses, educators at all levels, and any people who are
sickened by all of this to send statements of support, make phone calls, and to
join, strengthen and support the movement to Drive Out the Bush Regime, because
The World Can’t Wait!
Superintendent Roy Romer
Belmont High School
Los Angeles Unified School District
Principal Gary Yoshinobu
333 S. Beaudry Ave. • Los Angeles CA 90017
1575 W. 2nd St. • Los Angeles CA 90026
Phone: 213.241.7000 • fax: 213.241.8442
Phone: 213.250.0244 • fax: 213.250.9706
email: gary.yoshinobu@lausd.net
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