Stop the Harassment of Los Angeles High School Students Who are Against the Bush Regime!
Revolution #027, December 19, 2005, posted at revcom.us
The following is the text of a petition being circulated by World Can't Wait. A PDF version of the petition is online at worldcantwait.net
Stop the Harassment of Los Angeles High School Students Who are Against the Bush Regime!
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
Los Angeles Unified School District
333 S. Beaudry Ave.
Los Angeles CA 90017
ph: 213.241.7000
fax: 213.241.8442
BELMONT HIGH SCHOOL
Principal Gary Yoshinobu
1575 W. 2nd St.
Los Angeles CA 90026
ph: 213.250.0244
fax: 213.250.9706
email: gary.yoshinobu@lausd.net