Blog Posts - Piedmont Appreciating Diversity Committee

Piedmont League of Women Voters sponsors a Speaker Event with Sr. Maureen Duignan on US Immigration Policy - April 7th @ 3:30-5:30 pm

4/4/2019

US Immigration Policy -
Speaker Event with Sr. Maureen Duignan

Join us to hear Sr. Maureen Duignan, Executive Director of East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, speak about US immigration policy and its effect on immigrants and refugees in the Bay Area.
Founded in 1982, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant is dedicated to offering sanctuary, solidarity, support, community organizing assistance, advocacy, and legal services to those escaping war, terror, political persecution, intolerance, exploitation, and other expressions of violence. The organization has helped more than 10,000 local immigrants navigate the legal system. Currently, the organization is deeply involved in advocating for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

Date: Sunday, April 7th, 2019
Time: 3:30 – 5:30 p.m
Location: 40 Highland Avenue, Piedmont

This event is sponsored by the Piedmont League of Women Voters and is free of charge to the greater community.

Click on the following link to RSVP:
https://my.lwv.org/california/piedmont/event/us-immigration-policy-speaker-event-sr-maureen-duignan

PADC OpEd Letter to The Post sent on February 11, 2019 regarding the potential School Resource Officer Position

2/13/2019

The Piedmont Police Department received a three-year grant from the U.S. DOJ intended for tobacco prevention. Now, the PPD is jointly taking steps with Piedmont Unified to use these funds to hire an armed police officer for the secondary schools. While vaping, drug, and alcohol prevention and outreach is needed, we believe installing an armed officer is the wrong way to address these problems.

Despite the horrifying fact of school shootings, children are safer in school than in almost any other place. While armed officers may create the appearance of safety, an implicit goal of the program, the research is mixed. The Washington Post’s “Putting More Cops in Schools Won't Make Schools Safer, and It Will Likely Inflict a Lot of Harm” (February 2018) and other published reports/articles make this clear.

Having an armed school officer can lead to unintended consequences including increased arrests for behavior ordinarily not considered criminal. Data shows this is especially true for children of color, with learning disabilities and/or special needs. Campus police can also undermine trust, negatively affect school culture and can lead to physical harm, such as in the 2016 Nevada case where a 14-year-old was shot after defending himself against upperclassmen. As a forward-thinking district, is criminalizing and potentially harming our children the best we can offer them?

A better way to preserve student safety is for community stakeholders (parents, students, and staff) to work together to build a positive school climate that “minimizes police intervention and emphasizes positive, preventive approaches,” as the Children’s Defense Fund recommends. By opposing a campus cop, we have an opportunity to create an inclusive and supportive approach so all students feel welcome and safe on campus, not policed.

And what about after the funds are gone in three years? How will the District explain away the need for an armed officer, whether for drug prevention or for safety? In light of the coming budget cuts, what are the District’s plans to pay for this added personnel if the officer is still needed at that time?

The School Board and City Council asks for community input before they vote on this proposal. You can find information at www.padc.info and sign a petition. More importantly, email Board & Council members and come to the Board meeting on Wednesday February 27th at 7PM, when the matter is slated to be discussed.

Sincerely,

Tonda Case and David Gard, Co-Presidents,
PADC and the PADC Executive Board

School Resource Officer Implementation-Letter to the PUSD School Board and Piedmont City Council sent on January 6, 2019

1/9/2019

Dear School Board members, City Council members, Police Chief Bowers, and Superintendent Booker,

The Piedmont Appreciating Diversity Committee (PADC) has been following the proposal for a School Resource Officer (SRO) with a great deal of attention and interest. We have researched the possible impact of an SRO on our schools and community, now that Piedmont has been awarded a CA Department of Justice Tobacco Grant for this purpose. Some of our members have pulled together various evidence-based articles regarding School Resource Officer implementation, and we wanted to share those articles and our concerns with you. Here is a link with those resources.

The Piedmont Appreciating Diversity Committee is proud of its collaboration with the school district and the City of Piedmont to ensure that our schools provide a safe, nurturing and inclusive environment for all students and staff and our City is viewed as a model of inclusion in all its practices, including policing. We appreciate the school and City’s efforts to ensure safety for all our community members and the strides our community has made in equitable and impartial policing. Based on the research shared here, we a have serious questions whether installing a School Resource Officer is the ideal solution for our community at this time. We have a number of specific concerns that are highlighted in these articles, but two of the main concerns are listed here, followed by suggestions for a more effective and transparent public engagement/outreach plan.

1) It is not clear that inserting police officers into schools is a good way to improve school safety or that our schools will benefit by having one. What danger is an SRO intended to prevent? Statistically, the odds of a given child getting killed in a mass school shooting — or any school shooting — are less than 1 in a million. On the other hand, arrest rates for disorderly conduct and low-level assault substantially increase when SROs are assigned to schools. In addition, studies indicate that the presence of SROs leads school administrators to defer to the police on issues of appropriate punishment, and increases the number of students involved in the justice system.

The staff report that accompanies the City Council agenda item suggests a strong and thriving partnership between the schools and police department. We also recognize the physical proximity of the Police Department to the Middle and High Schools’ campus. Given this strong and close partnership, it is not clear why Piedmont in particular needs a law enforcement officer, who will likely carry a firearm, to be on campus.

2) The data indicates a differential impact of SROs on students of color and other minorities, which has a negative impact on us all. For example, an analysis by the Austin-based public-interest law center Texas Appleseed found that police officers assigned to McKinney, Texas schools had arrested and ticketed black students at an “extremely high and unequal” rate. And SROs' presence in the schools led to an increase in the citation of black students, and a decrease in the citation of white students. Given our schools recent work to increase inclusiveness and diversity we are very concerned that this could have the effect of undoing that work, and inadvertently creating more problems within the schools - especially for students of color. Given the reality of implicit bias, even a well-intentioned SRO is likely to over identify students of color for disciplinary issues.

Our suggestion: Increase Public Engagement/Outreach Processes to determine if an SRO is necessary.

It is not clear how and why the decision was made to explore an SRO position through the CA DOJ Tobacco Grant Program in the first place. It seems that neither the school board nor the city council voted to make this a strategic priority, and there has been no public discussion about the issue beyond one school board meeting when the issue was introduced (to a limited audience). We applaud the city and school district for undertaking a public engagement/outreach plan to “provide an overview of a Piedmont specific SRO program, answer questions and seek feedback” and strongly encourage this in order to get input. Ideally, this would go beyond the small proportion of stakeholders who are able to attend in person meetings or feel comfortable voicing their concerns over this complex issue in a public setting. To ensure an effective and transparent public engagement/outreach effort we recommend that the school district follow processes it has used in the recent past including:

In addition to scheduled meetings seeking community input, conduct a brief online survey to elicit input from a broader group of students, staff and parents than are likely to attend in person meetings.
Consider convening a time-bound taskforce of students, staff, parents, school board members, police department and city leaders to determine (a) IF an SRO program is what our community needs; (b) identify lessons from the implementation of SRO programs in similar districts; and make recommendations on IF and how Piedmont should move forward with implementing the California Department of Justice Tobacco Grant.

While we understand and agree that building a positive school culture is crucial, given the research to date, we do not believe that an SRO is the best method of achieving this in our schools. There are numerous paths forward that could be more effective in this regard,we believe, including the district’s recent commitment to restorative justice practices in the schools and offering enhanced student counseling services and groups that serve to educate and support everyone. Furthermore, we are concerned that the implementation of an SRO could have unintended negative consequences on all our students, especially students of color and contribute to perpetuating systems of privilege and oppression,the exact opposite of what is ideal to model for the next generation.

We are looking forward to meeting with Chief Bowers & Superintendent Booker at our January 10th meeting, including a discussion of these concerns and of the key motivations and goals around the possible implementation of an SRO. All are welcome to join this meeting.

Thank you all in advance for considering these resources.

Best regards,

David Gard - Co-president PADC
Tonda Case - Co-president PADC
PADC Executive Board

"100 Years-One Woman’s Fight for Justice" to screen on 1/24 and 1/27

1/8/2019

IN PIEDMONT Thursday, January 24, 2019
@ Ellen Driscoll Playhouse / 325 Highland Ave / Piedmont
6:30 PM Doors Open, Reception
7 – 8:30 PM Screening
IN OAKLAND Sunday, January 27, 2019
@ The New Parkway Theater / 474 24th Street / Oakland
12:30 PM Screening

Presented by the Appreciating Diversity Film Series, proudly celebrating 20 years of top-quality, diversity-related documentaries.

22nd Annual 2019 MLK Celebration- January 21st, 2019 @ 12-2:30

12/5/2018

2019 MLK Celebration — “Beyond the Dream: King Speaks Out Against Poverty”
Presented by Piedmont Appreciating Diversity Committee (PADC) and the City of
Piedmont

January 21st, 2019; 12:00 pm to 2:30 pm,
doors open at 11:30

Martin Luther King’s iconic “I Have A Dream” speech put forth a soaring vision for racial inclusion and justice. Yet in lesser known sermons and letters, King was pointed in his belief that to create a truly just and inclusive American society, we must all work to eradicate poverty. For Piedmont’s 22nd annual MLK Day Celebration, we honor King’s anti-poverty legacy. King believed that any struggle for justice must eliminate poverty. "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny,” he wrote. “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

The program will feature inspiring performances by the Black Sheroes of Young Gifted and Black; Oaktown Jazz Workshops; Together We Slam of Piedmont High School; and Oakland Interfaith Youth Choir. Speakers include the Honorable Barbara Lee, U.S. Congresswoman, 13th District of California; the Honorable Buffy Wicks, Assemblywoman, 15th District of California; the Honorable Bob McBain, Mayor of Piedmont; and Oakland’s Youth Poet Laureate Leila Mottley.

Piedmont Veteran's Memorial Hall
401 Highland Ave, Piedmont CA 94611

Register for FREE tickets

Oscar-Nominated I Am Not Your Negro to Screen 11/28 and 12/1

11/5/2018

“One of the best films you are likely to see this year.” The New York Times, (2016)

I Am Not Your Negro envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, a radical narration about race in America, using the writer’s original words as read by actor Samuel L. Jackson. Alongside a flood of rich archival material, the film draws upon Baldwin’s notes on the lives and assassinations of his close friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., to bring an eloquent, personal perspective to the current racial narrative in America.
Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated documentary is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. Ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassinations of these three leaders, Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for.

I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO will screen FREE twice:
IN PIEDMONT Wednesday, November 28
@ Ellen Driscoll Playhouse / 325 Highland Ave / Piedmont (near Oakland Avenue)
6:30 PM Doors Open, Reception
7 – 8:30 PM Screening
IN OAKLAND Saturday, December 1
@ The New Parkway Theater / 474 24th Street / Oakland (between Broadway & Telegraph)
3 – 4:30 PM Screening

Presented by the Appreciating Diversity Film Series, proudly celebrating 20 years of top-quality, diversity-related documentaries.

Mill Valley Film Festival: "Bias" 10/13 @ 2pm

10/2/2018

Several PADC members are planning on attending the Mill Valley Film Festival screening of "Bias" on Saturday, October 13th at 2pm - please come join us! Jen Cavenaugh is organizing a list of people who are interested in carpooling. Email her at jcavenaugh@sbcglobal.net if you'd like to carpool.

Note that tickets will likely sell out soon, as the reviews for this film have been very positive, so be sure to purchase them as soon as you can!
https://tickets.cafilm.org/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=398758~ddf8938c-55cf-4613-9c4b-6bac081c46cd&epguid=d5fcca9f-7082-480c-bc72-7f383f1e6950&mc_cid=88d1b1bb3d&mc_eid=d4884ef8bd
Bias

PADC Grants Program

9/14/2018

PADC Fall Happy Hour 9/28 from 5-7. Please "purchase" your ticket via eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/padc-fall-happy-hour-928-from-5-7-tickets-49799023219

9/2/2018

Unity In Community, Sunday 4/22 1-3pm

4/19/2018

The Millennium and Piedmont High Schools, in partnership with PADC, are pleased to present Unity In Community, Empathy In Action, this Sunday, April 22, from 1-3pm, at the Piedmont Community Center and Park.

This will be a fun and engaging festival, focused on building empathy and taking action to support a more inclusive community. The festival will feature youth-led booths, and performances by students from local area middle and high schools, hands-on activities ranging from kid-friendly arts and crafts games to stations dedicated for letter-writing to congress members. There will be fun and learning for all ages. Show your support for building a more inclusive community. Come join the fun!