Escambia Youth Justice Coalition (EYJC) is meeting tonight.
Action and discussion items include:
1. Set up a meeting with the superintendent and ask for :
–the data on Escambia’s PBS schools (there are 20 or so);
–more African-American members on the school PBS leadership teams;
–demand that the Superintendent lead the effort to get an agreement with law enforcement to not arrest kids. Whether we call it a School Offense Protocol (SOP) or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), we want Superintendent Malcolm Thomas to lead the effort. We believe Supt. Thomas should invite Judge Teske (Clayton County, GA judge responsible for the creation of SOP) and his team down to Pensacola to provide technical assistance on how to stop arresting kids from school. We can look to the agreement recently signed my stakeholders and representatives from key community groups in Fort Lauderdale as a template.
2. Attend school board meetings and workshops, sit on PBS leadership teams, demand a re-write of the District’s Student Code of Conduct that models Buffalo, NY and Denver, CO; and generally be more active and make more noise on behalf of PBS and good discipline policies.
3. Identify key political allies, prospectively the Mayor, City Commissioners, and County Commissioners, to garner their support for local education and juvenile justice reforms.
MEETING TODAY
When: 5:30 p.m. Monday, December 16
Where: First United Methodist Church, 6 E Wright Street