ARLETA – Assemblywoman Luz Rivas (D-Arleta) issues letter to the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) Superintendent Austin Beutner asking for an end to their daily student search and frisk practices.
On June 18, 2019, as part of United Teacher of Los Angeles’ teacher strike negotiations, LAUSD passed BUL-5424.1, to impose a districtwide ban on random searches and seizures of students by July 2020. LAUSD came to the consensus that these search practices should be banned due to the harmful psychological, emotional, and social effects on these students, yet the ban was not immediately implemented.
“Schools should not feel like prisons, and students should not be treated like criminals. Students should feel safe and supported when they enter their school campus. These types of stop and frisk practices are ineffective, target students of color, promote discrimination and injustices, erodes trust between teachers and students, and students lose out on quality class time,” said Assemblywoman Luz Rivas. “It is time we put an end to this outdated approach, which is why I have requested that these search and frisk practices are immediately ceased in all LAUSD schools.
The University of California, Los Angeles conducted a comprehensive study on LAUSD’s mandatory metal detector search logs and concluded that these searches were frequent, not random, disproportionally targeted specific students, and far too intrusive.
Assemblywoman Rivas proudly represents the 39th Assembly District, which includes the City of Los Angeles communities of Arleta, Lake View Terrace, Granada Hills, Mission Hills, North Hollywood, Pacoima, Sun Valley, Sunland-Tujunga, Sylmar, and the City of San Fernando.