Board is firm that local parents and children have priority over others concerning school permits. A Malibu mother talks of reverse discrimination.
By Carolanne Sudderth/Courtesy of Ocean Park Gazette
Parents lashed out at the latest reshuffling of permit priorities at the Aug. 22 Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board meeting.
At its last meeting, the SMMUSD put children seeking intradistrict priorities at the top of the list (those already in the district, but wanting to go to a different school) and shoving interdistrict permits for children of district employees and/or those entering grades K, 1, 6, or 9 who have siblings at a Santa Monica-Malibu school to second and third place, respectively. (The fourth and last category is interdistrict permits for employees of the cities of Santa Monica or Malibu.)
Parents objected not only to their loss of status in the pool, but also to the short notice. Jeff Condon said his daughter, Carlie, had been looking forward to joining her siblings at Franklin Elementary. “We now have no time or opportunity to make other arrangements for our youngest’s first year in school,” he said.
The Condons moved across the border into Los Angeles and their children are attending the Santa Monica school on an interdistrict permit. “We ask for nothing except consistency in keeping our kids together.”
Carla Moyer has been working as a noon aide at Lincoln for the past 3 1/2 years. “I took the position with the idea that I’d have priority in getting into schools. I’ve given up opportunities to work full-time jobs so that my children can go to Santa Monica schools, and I’m hoping that something can be done about it.”
Board member Jose Escarce suggested allowing those with intradistrict siblings already enrolled to join them this September, but to hold off on the implementation of the other priorities until after this year’s permits are issued.
“I had a very strong sense that we were making an error and did not speak up. My view is not based on what we did, but when we did it.”
SMMUSD Superintendent John Deasy said there are 143 new intradistrict permits (for those without siblings already attending) and 24 for those with siblings. Requests are for all schools except Point Dume Elementary in Malibu. There are fewer seats than expected in Santa Monica because of a sudden upswing in residency. As of Aug. 21, there were 40 seats available throughout the district, and the “overwhelming majority of those,” Deasy said, “are in Malibu.”
Board member Pam Brady said the original intent was to put a moratorium on permits to limit class size.
“This has got to stop. We have first obligation to the residents of Santa Monica-Malibu. We respect the residents of Beverly Hills, Culver City and Los Angeles, but we were elected and our obligation is to the citizens of Santa Monica-Malibu.”
Escarce’s amendment was unanimously voted down. The final language of the priority list was changed from “guarantee” to “will make every effort.”
Parents decry discrimination in schools
Moms-for-justice is a group of Latino parents alleging children of color are being profiled, targeted, and subjected to harsher treatment than their paler skinned counterparts.
However, one Malibu mom pointed out that the discrimination also runs the other way.
Last night, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District was presented with a new and better-organized, statewide breed of Hispanic activist-the Mexican Political Association.
“We can no longer tolerate our children being harassed in the community,” said Vice President Margie Zepeda.
At the meeting student Vicki Martinez said that she had been wrongly accused of stealing a cell phone from another (white) student at John Adams Middle School.
“I told her my mom bought it for me for Christmas and she [the other student] told me to stop lying.”
She ran out of the office, she said, and went to find her teacher, who called her parents. When her mom showed up with the phone contracts, she was told that cell phones were not allowed in school.
“Then my mom told her, ‘Only if you’re white you can have a cell phone?'”
Darcy McCarthy, a Malibu mom, said that racism was not limited to Latinos. Her son, who is white, attended Will Rogers, a primarily minority school, where she enrolled him in bilingual classes.
“We actually experienced many things that were painful. To hear it said that this is an Anglo-thing is very hurtful.”
She pointed to a case where two boys got into a fight-one white, one of color. The Hispanic boy’s mother complained of unfair treatment toward her son.
“She wasn’t aware that the other child had been arrested, too,” said McCarthy.
She asked that in addition to the weapons policy parents must sign, that each family receive information on when police are called.