DID YOU KNOW? Bonnie Donovan
Our local Black Lives Matter/Healing Justice group has accused the Santa Barbara Unified School District of covering up 12 racially motivated cases.
Just as school authorities in many states have been covering up the teaching of critical race theory.
Did You Know? must ask: Where else in America is student violence happening, then reported only to the involved parties?
DYK read a news report dated March 11, 2022, about the arrest of five black and Hispanic students ages 11 to 15 for their racist attack on four white students, ages 11 to 12, shouting “Brown Power” and racial slurs, while they punched and kicked their victims with sticks and cable cords, as well. The attack occurred at the Coconut Creek Recreation Center in Broward County, Fla., where the middle school students gather before going to school.
One victim claimed, “After they jumped me, they were saying this is like revenge for what happened … in the 1700s for slavery.” The five attackers were reportedly charged with battery and prejudice, which elevates the charges to felonies.
During last Tuesday’s Santa Barbara Unified board meeting, members discussed the idea of reassigning the current school resources deputy at Dos Pueblos High School and hiring a full-time officer to patrol outside the campuses of Dos Pueblos and San Marcos high schools and Goleta Valley Junior High.
The district removed the school resource officers from San Marcos High School in response to the San Marcos campus group Cops Off Campus last year because some students felt they were targeted unfairly. To meet their demands, our suggestion is the officers assigned are people of color.
A group widespread in America called Cops Off Campus has led the charge to disband school resource officer programs.
SROs started in the 1950s with the goal to improve interactions between students and local police officers. Remember “West Side Story’s” Officer Krumpke?
SROs, in essence, serve as counselors and teachers and as a resource to parents. In recent years with school shootings and children with weapons on campus, many felt their presence enhanced safety.
However, the push to remove SROs came with the response to George Floyd’s death and part of the BLM demands to defund police.
When DYK contacted Santa Barbara Interim Police Chief Bernard Melekian, he said, “I am strongly supportive of school resource officers. A false narrative that has been allowed to gain traction that SROs arrest kids and feed them into the prison pipeline. That has never been the case in Santa Barbara or, for that matter, anywhere in California.”
Another law enforcement spokesman said sadly the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program was dismantled several years ago. However, the Sheriff’s Office had a program until COVID-19 shutdowns.
BLM/Healing Justice also presented a list of its demands during the Santa Barbara Unified meeting.
It’s common knowledge that respect is earned and not acquired on demand. Can you imagine giving your kids chores and they refuse unless you pay them?
Mostly the BLM demands, made from all three female members, involve creating positions and hiring blacks only and that all non-blacks must go through “programming.” They demand that the district provide reports of anti-black violence across the campuses, monies for families for access to any black mental health professional of their choosing and to hire more black teachers and black mental health clinicians at each campus.
Per their accusations, 12 race related incidents over seven schools went unreported involving black children and that a” rampant anti blackness across the district exists.”
How many white kids, Hispanic and “others” were involved in any incident? Out of 15,000 students, 66-80% are minorities. They also demand that anti-blackness within the Latinx communities be addressed.
The focus is victim me, it’s all about me. The attack is so all encompassing, yet it screams self-segregation. All this for 143 black students. What about the 66 Native Americans or the 563 Asians in our local schools?
Much of the focus on education in Santa Barbara County is on critical race theory.
Instead of focusing on educating students, teachers are more concerned about not hurting their feelings — and programming them. Except of course for white children, who are the focus of the CRT manifesto that all things “white” are wicked. That’s along with Implicit Bias Training, which is mandatory in many government entities and is the assertion of people being guilty of racism without knowing it — simply by the experiences due to the color of one’s skin or physical attributes. Short people are judged differently than tall people, so are blondes and gingers. Remember the Polish jokes? Look now, Poland is humanely standing up and taking in Ukrainian refugees, while many are cowering.
However, the leaders of the American teachers’ unions are not cowering. In fact, they are wielding a much greater influence over the education of our children than most parents realize. Just follow the money. The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have been increasing their political contributions yearly.
Their contributions grew to $32 million in 2016. Every year, 94% of it goes, in various forms, to the Democratic Party.
In 2021-2022, a non-election year, the combined contributions of the two unions were $18,837,527. No organization donates these amounts of money without quid pro quo.
The leaders of teachers’ unions are spreading their power and influence beyond the mere protection of their members. Often, this divisive, CRT indoctrination is hidden under other, benign descriptions.
In any case, it has come to DYK’s attention that CRT is being exposed, in detail, in a new documentary video entitled “Whose Children, Are They?” During a 30-day window, from March 15 to April 14, viewers can see the expose via ticketed events at their churches, homes, schools and other venues. After that, the movie will be available via premium videos on demand.
“CRT is dividing our children in ways that are unacceptable,” Dr. Carol Swain, a former tenured professor at Princeton and Vanderbilt universities, says in the documentary. Dr. Swain is also a co-author of “Black Eye for America: How CRT is Burning Down the House.”
She is an educational adviser for the American Cornerstone Institute, founded by Dr. Ben Carson.
She added, “They use the tactics of CRT to divide Americans and to create a culture of envy and blame. They desire to upend our free republic, American traditions, and capitalism and to replace them with socialism, communism and atheism.”
Here’s a reminder to answer the survey monkey questionnaire regarding the Santa Barbara Police Department, which is available until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.
Santa Barbara Community Formation Commission developed a draft framework to create a civilian oversight system for the Santa Barbara Police Department. The CFC would like to share this draft with the Santa Barbara community to review and gather feedback via an online/paper survey.
The 17 questions ask for demographics and whether the reader agrees filing complaints regarding police conduct and policies would be more transparent if filed directly with this new commission, which includes a new city department and at a cost of more than $600,000 annually. We think it is redundant. After all, the city administrator, the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury and the Santa Barbara City Council are paid to oversee the city as well as the police department. Plus, a whole year for this draft framework and a survey?
How long will their investigations take, plus where is their expertise?
To respond to the survey, go to www.surveymonkey.com/r/santabarbaracfc.
