New Updates for 2024 - 2025
As the 2024-2025 school year begins, we want to reflect on the impactful 2023- 2024 year for Students Deserve and our incredible youth leadership. Students Deserve leaders in chapters at over 30 LAUSD schools worked tirelessly advocating for
the dignity and empowerment of students—and they continue to show us that "when
we fight, WE WIN!"
Last school year, we achieved a landmark victory by defunding an additional $3.7
million annually from the Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD) with our
partners. These funds will be used to expand Community-Based Safety (CBS)
initiatives—including safe passage, conflict intervention, de-escalation, and more—to
schools that previously couldn’t access them. This comes less than four years after our
historic victories in defunding LASPD by $25 million annually and creating the Black
Student Achievement Plan (BSAP) in 2020-21, when the Class of 2024 were just
freshmen!
These and other victories this year mark major steps towards dismantling
cycles of criminalization and abuse within our education system.
Read on to hear more about these historic achievements and our ongoing efforts to
create equitable, safe, and supportive learning environments for all students.
February 2021 VICTORY!
STUDENTS DESERVE MADE HISTORY! AGAIN!
WE GOT LAUSD TO DIVEST $25 MILLION FROM SCHOOL POLICE. WE PUSHED LAUSD TO INVEST ALL OF THE MONEY (AND MORE!) INTO SUPPORT SERVICES FOR BLACK STUDENTS. OUR VICTORY IS A MODEL FOR SCHOOL DISTRICTS (AND FOR CAMPAIGNS!) AROUND THE COUNTRY:
- DIVEST FROM SCHOOL POLICE. INVEST IN BLACK STUDENTS.
- LISTEN TO BLACK STUDENTS. FOLLOW THE LEAD OF BLACK STUDENTS.
WE WILL KEEP BUILDING WITH OUR BLM-LA FAMILY AND OUR COALITION ALLIES TO FULLY DEFUND LA SCHOOL POLICE AND #FUNDBLACKFUTURES
What did we win?
School police have disproportionately targeted Black students; our wins prioritize Black students as one small step towards recognizing the disproportionate harm that Black youth experience.
- The $25 million that we defunded from LA school police will be prioritized into supporting the 53 LAUSD schools with the largest numbers of Black students!
- An ADDITIONAL $13 million in funds will be invested into funds for support staff for students. This will include Counselors, Psychiatric Social Workers (PSWs), Restorative Justice Coordinators, Pupil Services & Attendance Counselors, School Climate Coaches. Some of this funding will also be used to expand Ethnic Studies programs.
- We won funding for 10 of those schools to become Community Schools that provide complete wrap-around services and support to students and families.
- To monitor the implementation & accountability of this win, we established a Black Student Achievement Steering Committee. STUDENTS DESERVE and our broader Defund School Police coalition members are on this new committee to make sure that the wins are genuine and not merely on paper!
- LAUSD has been feeling the pressure from us to ban pepper for a few years now. We finally won a complete ban any school police officer from using chemical weapons (pepper spray) against any LAUSD student.
- NO COPS WILL BE STATIONED ON ANY HIGH SCHOOL SCHOOL CAMPUS WHEN SCHOOL RESUMES IN PERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SUMMER 2020: When we fight, we win!
Students Deserve, & the police free LAusd Coaliton
led the push to DEFUND the L.A. School police department
by $25 million!
THE FIGHT ISN'T OVER --
WE'LL KEEP PUSHING TO FULLY DEFUND LASPD
AND INVEST THAT MONEY INTO SUPPORTING BLACK STUDENTS!
The fight to Defund LA School Police must continue!
We want to fully Defund LA School Police and invest all of that money and more into support for Black students.
We will announce next steps soon! Follow us on social media for up-to-the-moment updates!
We want to fully Defund LA School Police and invest all of that money and more into support for Black students.
We will announce next steps soon! Follow us on social media for up-to-the-moment updates!
Our spring 2020 campaign
after LAUSD Schools went virtual...
Students Deserve Support!
#StudentsDeserve Support from LAUSD During a Global Pandemic!
#StudentsDeserve universal passage of all classes and graduation for seniors, not stressful work and deadlines.
#StudentsDeserve graduation ceremonies (when it's safe to have them) to celebrate our achievements.
#StudentsDeserve food distribution centers that are ICE-free and police-free zones.
#StudentsDeserve the cancellation of all rent and evictions, not just a delay on when rent is due.
#StudentsDeserve immediate housing, healthcare, and sanitary resources for all who need them.
#StudentsDeserve to have loved ones freed from all prison/detention facilities to stop the spread of COViD-19.
#StudentsDeserve mental health support for trauma and setbacks from this period. We demand a permanent college counselor, PSW (psychiatric social worker), AND grief counselor at every school when schools reopen.
#StudentsDeserve to not be pepper sprayed by school police when we go back to school.
#StudentsDeserve everything that the Black Lives Matter Global Network is demanding in terms of permanent structural supports for communities, that United Teachers Los Angeles is demanding of local and state leaders, that Healthy LA Coalition & LA Tenants Union are demanding regarding housing and eviction moratoriums, and that the Justice LA Coalition and others are demanding regarding "criminal" and prisoner justice during COViD-19.
#StudentsDeserve universal passage of all classes and graduation for seniors, not stressful work and deadlines.
#StudentsDeserve graduation ceremonies (when it's safe to have them) to celebrate our achievements.
#StudentsDeserve food distribution centers that are ICE-free and police-free zones.
#StudentsDeserve the cancellation of all rent and evictions, not just a delay on when rent is due.
#StudentsDeserve immediate housing, healthcare, and sanitary resources for all who need them.
#StudentsDeserve to have loved ones freed from all prison/detention facilities to stop the spread of COViD-19.
#StudentsDeserve mental health support for trauma and setbacks from this period. We demand a permanent college counselor, PSW (psychiatric social worker), AND grief counselor at every school when schools reopen.
#StudentsDeserve to not be pepper sprayed by school police when we go back to school.
#StudentsDeserve everything that the Black Lives Matter Global Network is demanding in terms of permanent structural supports for communities, that United Teachers Los Angeles is demanding of local and state leaders, that Healthy LA Coalition & LA Tenants Union are demanding regarding housing and eviction moratoriums, and that the Justice LA Coalition and others are demanding regarding "criminal" and prisoner justice during COViD-19.
