Stand Up for Racial Justice in Santa Monica – Malibu Schools

Recent school-based racial incidents demonstrate that our children's school climate is not safe. Recent test scores demonstrate that, not only has there been no progress in closing the racial academic achievement gap, but the gap has widened. This petition is dedicated to making safety and education equity for all students a top priority in our schools by:
- Raising awareness about these injustices
- Promoting anti-bias training for teachers, administrators, staff, volunteers, and students
- Implementing mandatory reporting protocols for all hate-motivated incidents
- Bringing a proven program for addressing the achievement gap to our schools

Strong evidence demonstrates that a local program, "The Village Nation" www.thevillagenation.com, significantly improves school climate and increases the academic success of students of color. Therefore, as a concrete step toward achieving the above goals, we petition the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School district Board of Education to bring The Village Nation program to Santa monica High School during the 2011-2012 academic school year.