Where in our priority list are our young people?
Jeanne Brown | Published on 10/1/2023
Along with the October 4th luncheon, the Criminal Justice Committee continues to focus on Juvenile Justice. At our September meeting, we had two speakers from the Coalition for Juvenile Justice who spoke about the School-to-Prison-Pipeline. They shared their research which showed how damaging it can be for students of color to have police on campus, particularly in districts that do not have their own “school police departments” San Diego Unified is the only school district in the county that has that. The advantage to having their own police department is that these are officers who have asked to be working with kids and have had special training regarding young people and the problems that often arise in today’s world. They are also officers who are not going back and forth, sometimes with kids and sometimes with adults. When officers who have been dealing with adults, are suddenly brought onto campuses with kids, they often use techniques that aren’t appropriate.
For our October 11th meeting at 12:30 pm, we will not have a speaker but instead will plan where we want to focus our juvenile justice programs and action, using our local and state-wide positions. We hope you will join us with your ideas, concerns and expertise .