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Home My WebLink AboutCorrespondence - #12Alcala, Abigail From: Abby Broyles < Sent: Tuesday, October 3, 2023 8:40 AM To: eComment Subject: Item 12 - Approve a Three -Year Agreement with the Garden Grove Unified School District for School Resource Officer Services in the Amount of $630,657 Payable to the City Attachments: (23) 09.29 Letter to Santa Ana City Council in Support of SRO for GGUSD2.pdf Dear Santa Ana City Council, Please see the attached letter from Garden Grove Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Gabriela Mafi in support of Agenda Item #12 on Tuesday's city council agenda in support of a School Resource Officer from the Santa Ana City Police Department for GGUSD's six schools located in Santa Ana. Dr. Mafi will also be in attendance at the meeting to show her support. We have also sent you a hard copy of the attached letter. Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions. Abby Broyles Public Information Officer Garden Grove Unified School District Garden Grove, CA 92840 Phone: aGARDEN GROVE Visit our website at: hops_.//usd.us CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail and any attachments may contain non-public, confidential or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any unlawful interception, disclosure, printing, copying, distribution or use of the contents is prohibited under the Electronic Communication Privacy Act, 18 USCA 2510, 18 USCA 2511 and any applicable laws. If you received this in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and delete this message. GARDEN GROVE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 10331 Stanford Avenue • Garden Grove, California 92840-6353 Phone: (714) 663-6000 • Fax: (714) 663-6100 September 29, 2023 Dear Santa Ana City Council, BOARD OF EDUCATION Walter Muneton President Teri Rocco Vice President Bob Harden Dina L. Nguyen, Esq. Lan Quoc Nguyen, Esq. SUPERINTENDENT Gabriela Mafi, Ed.D. I am writing to urge you to vote yes on Agenda Item 412, which would approve a three-year agreement with the Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD), providing approval for the Santa Ana Police Department to staff one full-time School Resource Officer to our school district. I will also be attending the October 3 City Council meeting to show my support. GGUSD is the third largest school district in Orange County with 67 schools serving approximately 38,000 students. Our district covers 28 square miles. and has schools located in five cities including 50 schools in Garden Grove, six in Santa Ana, six in Westminster, four in Fountain Valley, and one in Stanton. We currently have six School Resource Officers from the Garden Grove Police Department (three with support dogs), one from the Westminster Police Department, and we are hoping to secure one from the City of Santa Ana and one from the City of Fountain Valley. In GGUSD, safety is our highest priority. Since our district does not have its own police department, we have worked collaboratively with our local police departments to build an effective School Resource Officer program that is highly valued by our Board of Education, district, school administrators, staff, families, and students. We have worked hand -in -hand with the Garden Grove and Westminster Police Departments to create a program that is mutually beneficial to our school district and our partner police departments. GGUSD School Resource Officers do a phenomenal job ensuring the safety of our schools, implementing safety protocols, providing training and resources to school administrators and serving as role models and trusted adults to our students. On a regular basis, they investigate threatening comments, safeguard schools from nearby police activity, recover stolen property, assist families with crisis scenarios, provide expertise to emergency situations, visit classrooms, and serve as mentors on our campuses. With nearly 20% of our GGUSD students and their families residing in Santa Ana, it is especially important to us that our Santa Ana schools are receiving the same high-level of law enforcement support as our schools in Garden Grove. We are proud to be part of the Santa Ana community and our schools regularly showcase that sense of community pride — attending community events, partnering with Santa Ana businesses and welcoming elected officials to all of our school and district events. Having a School Resource Officer from the Santa Ana Police Department, who knows the city and its families and who cares about keeping children safe would be invaluable to our district. Sincerely, (gab 'i e, Gabriela Mafi, Ed.D. Superintendent (Year 10) Garden Grove Unified School District Alla Abigail From: 8u|maroVicente <boomer@chispaocorg> Sent: Dctober3' 2023 12:23 PM To: e[omment Subject: 1O/3[[Meeting Public Comment Item 12[hispa'sLetter ofOpposition Attachments: [hispaLetter ofOpposition Item 12 SA1O.O323.docx9df [fcUo, Please see Chispa's Letter of Opposition on Item 12 l300u}er Policy and Political Director |ChiSp8 e: C: don CEW October 3, 2023 Mayor Amezcua and City Councilmembers 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 Via Email RE: OPPOSE Item 12: Approve a Three -Year Agreement with the Garden Grove Unified School District for School Resource Officer Services in the Amount of $630,657 Payable to the City of Santa Ana Dear Mayor Amezcua and City Councilmembers, Chispa urges you to vote NO on Item 12, the proposal to contract with the Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD) for School Resource Officer Services. Instead we urge you to invest in proactive safety measures like crossing guards and other services that better address the safety concerns of students in the City. Earlier this year, the Council made a decision to reject the funding of $7 million for school crossing guards for students in our City.' This decision severely disappointed many community members. The safety of our students should always be a top priority, and providing them with safe routes to school is an essential component of that commitment. By rejecting funding for crossing guards, the City failed to invest in a resource that has a direct and immediate impact on the safety of our students. This agreement highlights the School District's and the City's misplaced priorities. Extensive research has not shown any connection between school police and school safety; police in schools do not make schools safer. On the contrary, there is substantial research that shows school policing's harmful effects on students of color. For example, a 2018 report concludes that law enforcement in school only "satisfies our desire to appear secure, but wreaks ' Pho, Brandon, Will Santa Ana Kids Go Without Crossing Guards Over A Funding Spat?, The Voice of OC (May 18, 2023), https://voiceofoc.org/2023/05/will-santa-ana-kids-go-without-crossing-guards-over-a-bitter-funding-spat/ havoc on school culture and fuels the school -to -prison pipeline."' A wealth of scholarship has repeatedly shown that the presence of police officers in schools creates hostile environments that subject Black and Brown youth to arrest, harassment, and assault by police.' In fact, studies show that having even one School Resource Officer in schools on a weekly basis increases the likelihood of students becoming involved in the justice system.4 Arrest rates for disorderly conduct and low-level assault substantially increase when police are assigned to schools. s The evidence does not suggest that police are the best way to improve school safety;' rather, increasing their numbers comes at an unacceptable cost in the form of the over incarceration of students. For these reasons we urge you to vote No on Item 12 and prioritize the safety of our students by investing in school crossing guards and other proactive safety measures. Our children deserve a safe environment for their education, which police cannot and will not provide. Sincerely, Bulmaro Vicente Policy and Political Director PB Petia oza(.ii)santa....aga.on) Jessiel,opez(�)sanla a aa.or ).vaz uez ii)sanla ataa.org Advancement Project, Alliance for Educational Justice, Dignity in Schools Campaign, & NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.,"Police in Schools Are Not the Answer to School Shootings," Advancement Project (2018): 3, https://advancementproject.org/resources/police-schools-not-answer-school-shootings/ 31d. 4 Jason P .Nance, "Students, Police, and the School -to -Prison Pipeline." Washington University Law Review 93.no.4 (2015): 919 - 988 s Cheryl Corely, "Do Police in Schools Really Make Them Safer". NPR (March 8, 2018), https://www.npr.org/2018/03/08/591753884/do-police-officers-in- schools -really -make -them -safer 6 Skiba, Russel J., et al. Are Black Kids Worse? Myths and Facts About Racial Differences In Behavior: A Summary of the Literature (March 2014) Indiana University, http://www.indiana.edu/—atlantic/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/African-American-Differential-Behavior 031214.pdf 2