Commentary
Will Rogers observed, “If we got a tenth of what we were promised in the State of the Union speeches, there would be no incentive to go to heaven.”
In San Francisco, we can hardly qualify the school district for heaven with an elected Board of Education that hates American institutions and practices revisionism of history. The Board’s violation of the Brown Act at its January 26 meeting demonstrates its brutalizing deception of voters and taxpayers.
The notice of the agenda for the January 26 meeting referred to the discussion of an advisory committee’s report on the naming recommendations for 44 schools. That is what the citizens would have expected at the public meeting. Instead, the Board adopted, 6–1, a resolution that instantly required the removal of the names Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Lowell, among others, from taxpayer-funded public schools.
In a move started by North Beach attorney Paul Scott, with two public school students, the George Washington High School Alumni Association, the Lincoln High School Alumni Association, the Lowell Parent Teacher Association, The San Francisco Taxpayers Association, Lope Yap and John L. Burton (former Congressman, State Senator, Assemblyman, Chairman of the State Democratic Party, and Lincoln High School alumnus) sued the school district and the Board for violating the Brown Act of 1953, which controls all public entities.
The San Francisco Superior Court quickly recognized the validity of the lawsuit, issuing an alternate injunction ordering the Board to overturn the illegal resolution or show cause on April 29 why it had not done so. The lawsuit also reveals that the advisory committee cited an incorrect record and that the Board used it in adopting its January 26 resolution.
Plaintiffs are entitled, under California law, to recover their attorneys’ fees and court costs once the Superior Court orders an injunction this month.
At the same time, a group of San Francisco voters last month initiated the removal of three of the seven members of the Board (President Gabriela López, Vice President Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga) who, if successful, should send a message the other four.
An attorney representing the George Washington High School Alumni Association notified the Board on February 17 that it had violated California’s Environmental Quality Act by abolishing 44 school names, adding that a review may also be required. Federal historical record, in addition to consideration of the eligibility of affected schools. for the California Register of Historic Resources and the National Register of Historic Places “due to altered physical features as well as removal of associations with historic persons.”
Attorney Susan Brandt-Hawley reminded the Board: “Criticism of the process and the importance of the name change has already spread throughout California, our nation and internationally.”
On April 8, 2021, Brandt-Hawley will appear in Superior Court to obtain an injunction stopping the “destructive actions,” that is, the removal of a mural (“The Life of Washington”) from Washington High School.
Such a whim on the part of the Board invites us to recap the events that led to the amendment to the San Francisco Charter of 1971 that changed the appointment of the mayoralty from seven members to the election of all city members. I plead guilty. In 1970, the Board unilaterally decided that San Francisco elementary schools were racially segregated, despite the fact that no law or resolution supported such ideological reasoning, and instituted city-wide bus transportation for elementary school students.
I personally participated because my two children, who attended Lafayette School two blocks from their home, were transported by bus. Despite litigation to stop such illogic, the Board ignored all opponents, including Chinese-American parents from Commodore Stockton School and Jean Parker School students who regularly and faithfully attended Chinese language schools. in Chinatown after school.
As readers should know, Chinese-American children, according to the California Education Code, had been subjected to “hateful racial profiling” in the 19th century. They were not allowed to attend any nearby public schools except one. Japanese, American Indians, and “other children of Mongolian descent” had to attend the same school. This law was not repealed until 1907.
Thus, Chinese-American children had effectively been subjected to racial discrimination and segregation and had a constitutional right to attend “non-segregated” schools. They did not want to. I represented them, unsuccessfully, in a US District Court litigation to prevent the school board from assigning them to elementary schools outside of Chinatown.
Then-supervisor John Barbagelata and I led an initiative to amend the 1932 Charter by electing members of the school board. With the support of Mayor Joseph Alioto and public school parents, we obtained signatures for inclusion on the November 1971 local ballot. Voters approved it immediately.
The first election was in November 1972. Unfortunately, only three of the seven elected to the Board voted to stop bus transportation, which has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars since then and contributed greatly to registration in the Public schools decrease from 92,000 in 1972 to 52,000 today. .
The current Board challenges a selection system that I helped create 50 years ago. I prefer Mayor London Breed’s judgment to that of the Board members whose election seems attributable to the Teachers Union and the Democratic County Central Committee, the two entities most interested in deciding the governance of the school district.
Although the count of governor impeachment signatures is not complete, it appears that approximately 2,100,000 signers are securing an impeachment election in 2021. Under the Charter (Section 14.103), such an impeachment election allows for the consolidation of a recall that began last month for remove District Attorney Chesa. Boudin for neglect of duties, waste of taxpayers’ money of nearly $ 400,000 in annual compensation, distortion of criminal justice data, increased neighborhood crime and embezzlement. To qualify for the recall, sponsors need 51,000 ballot signers by August 11.
Thirty proponents include Democrats, Independents, and the remaining San Francisco Republicans. Boudin responded by stating that he was chosen to “reform a legal system that criminalizes[d] poverty ”and“ ignored the root causes of crime ”. He said it is a “Republican-initiated effort that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars.”
Of course, there aren’t many Republicans registered in San Francisco, so that’s a “dead horse,” and such a recall can be combined with the Board of Education and Governor recalls in late 2021. The committee’s website of withdrawal is RecallChesaBoudin.org, phone 415-349-0106. Hopefully it succeeds.
Ronald Reagan declared more than 30 years ago: “We must reject the idea that every time a law is broken, society is more guilty than violating it. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is responsible for their actions.
Boudin seems more interested in the interests of criminals than in those of their victims.
Quentin Kopp is a former retired San Francisco Supervisor, California State Senator, and Judge. Lives in San Francisco, District 7.
The opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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