We demand that Ventura County School Boards & School Districts immediately respond to and work to meet the following actionable steps:

In regards to Curriculum Reform:
-Devise and implement curriculum changes that are more racially accurate, sensitive, and inclusive
-Shift the focus of eurocentric English and Language Arts curriculum to include literature and scholarship by -Black, Indigenious, People of Color, and anti-racist authors. The focus on “classics” and “great works of the past” undermines inclusivity and equates European literature to literature of value.

In regards to Racial Equity Programming:
- Review and release public reports on district efforts of current diversity and inclusion programming.
-Devise and implement mandatory Diversity and Inclusion programming across district schools
-Diversity and Inclusion student councils promoting more students of color in leadership positions
-Dedicate at least one special assembly per year to addressing student racism and implicit bias

In regards to Diversity in Hire Process:
-Release a detailed plan for recruiting, hiring, and retaining educators of color, as well as establish a leadership position dedicated to equity and social justice.
-Plan and implement professional development for all staff and faculty on implicit bias, racial equity, proper responses to student racism, and inclusive curriculum.

In regards to Student Punishment:
-Review and publish annual reports on progress of racial equity in CVUSD disciplinary practices, including racial disparities in student searches, detentions, suspensions, expulsions, and schools’ involvement with legal authorities in student conduct issues.

MORE ABOUT VC JUSTICE IN THE CLASSROOM:

Ventura County Justice in the Classroom is a student-led coalition aiming to increase cultural and racial competency and conversation within Ventura County through service, advocacy, and educational reform. We represent current high school students and alumni across Ventura County schools who would like to call attention to our school districts’ curricular practices that neglect issues of racial justice. This statement is intended to address both the ways in which the current curriculum implemented in both primary and secondary education excludes academia inclusive to students of colors’ lived experiences, and leaves students ill-prepared to discern cultural and racial complexities.

As students, alumni, parents, and faculty representing school districts in greater Ventura County, we have all had different experiences with our education. However, there is one point on which we can all agree: our K-12 education has not prepared us with the ability to comprehend and navigate current and historical injustices in our country, nor has it given an accurate representation of our history. The legacy of racial injustice in America and the charge to repair it applies to everyone.

Arguments that in-depth race education is not necessary for secondary education to address come from a point of privilege. For instance, higher education systems, like Universities, that offer interdisciplinary race courses are simply not accessible to all our community members, which makes this a primary and secondary education issue. Additionally, our community members in the school district are not a monolith, so the history we learn should not depict the American experience as a monolith either. To combat this, our students of color must be able to see their voices, faces, and history represented in our academic education. Right now, the school district makes it look like race education is optional, as though race and the social constructions around it are something of which to opt-out. In fact, in CVUSD, of the 100 literature books approved, only 12 are written from authors of color. The current, outdated curriculum sets students up to believe they are sufficiently informed when they only have a surface level understanding of the systematic and generational racial injustices we still see played out today.

History and literature are presented in a way that centers Eurocentric narratives and heteropatriarchal perspectives, while pushing aside those of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. We often learn about race from books told from a white perspective (To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men). We learn about history from a narrative that paints white people as the protagonists. We learn to think that white people have and always will be center stage. A few, optional, books from authors of color, a chapter about the Civil Rights Movement, and the history of Native Americans from a colonizer’s viewpoint do not do race education any justice.

We cannot keep treating race like the elephant in the classroom, for the dismissal of race education is a dismissal of reality. We must acknowledge, address, and rectify the current failings of the curriculum. Education must engender an understanding and discussion of the stories and perspectives of people of color because they are integral in contextualizing history, exploring the human experience, and eradicating prejudiced lines of thought. All students should be capable of grasping and discussing systemic social issues related to race by the time they graduate from high school.

THANK YOU!!
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Email: vcjusticeintheclassroom@gmail.com