Court Document & Video: Berkeley Students Sue BUSD for Racially Targeted Interrogations

LAWSUIT by students and their families against the Berkeley school board

VIDEO of the November 16 press conference, and public comment at the school board meeting, including board responses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rindvR8-A14

Especially in light of the school district's treatment of immigrant students over the past two months, the community plans to return to the next school board meeting to support the sanctuary school resolution, but with stronger language that does not grant the superintendent along with lawyers the discretion to allow ICE to enter our schools, as it is currently written.

Speak-Out at School Board Meeting
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
7:30pm (fill out speakers cards before)
1231 Addison Street, Berkeley, California

More Details and Background:

Grievance of Yvette Felarca: https://occupyoakland.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Grievance-of-Yvette-Felarca1.pdf

Press conference with Yvette Felarca and her lawyer, September 28: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHhVxvNt3vY

Interview with Yvette Felarca by KPFA WorkWeek Radio and Labor Video Project, which gives an overview of the bigger picture of gentrification of Berkeley schools, systemic harassment of teachers and students by the school district, and the impacts of privatization on public education: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt38tXaJ6dQ

Oakland Education Association Resolution: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/10/26/18792693.php

September 21 school board meeting, public comments by Yvette Felarca, her students who demonstrated how she helped empower them, parents who praised her teaching style and expressed concern about recent racist activities in the schools, fellow workers who wondered about the implications of the district’s actions for other teachers, and community members who told personal stories about fascism in their own lives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg2giLt6Fu4

October 5 rally outside the school board meeting, and public comments inside by more students, parents, teachers, and community members speaking in defense of Ms. Felarca. When board members refused to disclose their personal positions on whether she should continue to teach, and instead scurried off into a second, unagendized "closed session", the community held its own meeting in the board room, with many more speaking out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdwuri1LFYI

October 19 school board meeting, more public comments in defense of Ms. Felarca, including a description of an interrogation by a student, remote participation from a former student who called in from Mexico City, and a standing ovation from one of the student representatives on the board: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az4GFkzEfSo

November 2 school board meeting, public comments the day Ms. Felarca returned to her classroom, though she is suing over wage theft and other abuses. The community returned to defend Ms. Felarca, and her students and fellow teachers who suffered retaliation for supporting her. A visiting trade unionist from Germany described the problems with neo-Nazis there, and declared the importance of international solidarity with all anti-fascists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZFtycr0vwI

Report of what happened in Sacramento, and the neo-Nazis involved: http://antifasac.weebly.com/home/blood-in-the-valley-why-people-put-their-lives-on-the-line-to-run-nazis-out-of-sacramento

More about the fascist organizers of the Sacramento rally: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/06/27/violent-clashes-erupt-sacramento-between-white-nationalists-and-antifascists

Details about neo-Nazis converging in Berkeley prior to their attempted rally in Sacramento: https://itsgoingdown.org/big-nazis-on-campus/

Article about racist events at Berkeley High School over the last couple of years, including racist pages in the yearbook which had to be recalled, a noose hanging from a tree, and a terror threat citing the KKK on a school computer, which resulted in a walkout by the majority of students: http://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/11/04/racist-threats-posted-on-berkeley-high-library-computer/