Following Online Graduation Ceremonies, Sacramento School District Encourages Student Protests
‘Racism is part of the current design of our systems, from our schools to our prisons to our neighborhoods’
By Katy Grimes, June 9, 2020 8:28 am
The Elk Grove Unified School District is encouraging students to protest the George Floyd murder, yet parents report they had to do online ceremonies for graduation last week.
Dear Elk Grove Unified Students, Parents and Families,
During this tumultuous past week, in Elk Grove Unified, we continue to stand resolute and in solidarity with our Black students, families, community and staff in peaceful support of ending police violence. District leadership remains committed to its work to stop racism, hate and discrimination and we continue to support implemented programs like restorative justice, opportunity and access and student-centered support.
EGUSD families and staff are invited to participate the following upcoming planned peaceful protests and healing circles with EGUSD leaders:
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- A “Justice for George Floyd” protest will be held at the Elk Grove Aquatics Center at 9701 Big Horn Boulevard on Saturday,June 6 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will feature Stevante Clark as a speaker
- On Tuesday, June 9 at 12 noon, there is a planned protest at Morse Park in Elk Grove
- On Wednesday, June 10th at 10 a.m., there is a March that will begin at Colton Park and end at the Elk Grove City Hall
- Organized by the Sacramento NAACP, the George Floyd Peace March will take place on Saturday, June 6, 2020 beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the Golden One Center
June 6, 2020 Safe black Space Healing Circle
June 13, 2020 Safe Black Space Healing Circle
Sacramento City Unified School District isn’t far behind. They’ve been signaling their virtue through emails to teachers, parents and the community. Last week SCUSD sent out an email claiming, “racism is prevalent throughout this country, including in Sacramento.”
Here is their latest “Addressing Racism in the Sac City Unified Community:”
Examining Our Role
“In the case of Sac City Unified, that means looking in the mirror and taking an honest stock of our own role, including implicit and explicit biases, and examples – both past and present – of institutional racism.”
and the May 31 Statement by Superintendent Jorge Aguilar on the murder of George Floyd:
“Our community, and my family, grieves over the killing of George Floyd. Anger, despair, frustration, fear and hopelessness are valid feelings. We are in pain. Racism is part of the current design of our systems, from our schools to our prisons to our neighborhoods. And each of us is responsible for breaking down this injustice against our black community. Today we grieve, protest, demand change – tomorrow we take appropriate and unrelenting action to bring justice. I ask our community, especially our youth, to demonstrate peacefully and to exert energy through civic action — participate, vote, make your voice heard by disrupting inequities each and every day. But the responsibility doesn’t fall on you alone. We need honest and frank conversations, from every level of government and to hold those standing silently to account.”
Parents have every right to be very angry.
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You make a great point, in addition to the other points, that Elk Grove USD took away precious graduation ceremonies from students in the name of never-ending COVID fake panic while then encouraging the same students to be cheek to jowl on the protest march field (masks optional, no doubt, and “social distancing” nonexistent).
I only had to watch part of one Elk Grove USD school board meeting a couple of years ago to see exactly where the district is coming from. Deadening, enervating political correctness fuels its empty, ineffective policy. Sorry to hear that not one thing has changed and apparently the picture has only gotten worse.
I’m wondering if students who are being “encouraged” to show up for these protests think there will be retribution for NOT showing up. If so isn’t it really blackmail that we are seeing here? Doubtful the absent students can be counted or named as a practical matter, but as we’ve seen in so many other instances, too numerous to name, the implied threat’s the thing and nothing else need be done if the THREAT resonates sufficiently.
This exposure of what the Elk Grove school district is up to also helps explain the otherwise inexplicable gaggle of high school students (mostly white teens led by black activists in their 20s, very few masks and NO social distancing) ignorantly mouthing platitudes while marching like zombies in an obscure intersection in my own town last weekend. Guess the explanation is that school district was poking them with a hot poker: March or else.
Or maybe these kids were just desperate to get out of the house and mix with friends and classmates after months of needless COVID lockdown.