May 20, 2004

Downtown protest shows discontent with landmark desegregation ruling
Students say they’re still separate and unequal

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

More than 100 students, parents, teachers and community activists gathered Monday evening at Cesar Chavez Plaza on the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling ending racial segregation in schools to put the state “on trial” for unequal schools.

Holding signs that read, “Honk for education,” and “Claiming what’s ours,” and chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, ignoring students has got to go,” and “Separate but equal is a lie, racial justice must not die,” the group called for the state to provide more educational opportunities for all students, regardless of race or ethnicity.
Students organized a mock trial using a giant doll made of wood and papier-mâché and dressed in black robes to represent a judge and then asked parents and community members to speak about the deplorable conditions of schools in some parts of the city. After the mock trial, the group marched to the state building on Paseo de San Antonio.

Speaking to the crowd, San Jose City Councilwoman Cindy Chavez said, “While we celebrate today Brown vs. Board of Education, we’re no way near where we need to be as it relates to equity for young people in our schools.
“This is particularly true for children of color and this is particularly true for low-income communities. We have a lot of work to do.”

Chavez recalled how California was the first state to desegregate its schools when in 1945 farm worker Gonzalo Mendez sued the Westminster School District in Southern California for preventing his children from attending a nearby school for white students. Mendez won the suit and in 1948, California Gov. Earl Warren desegregated schools. Warren was on the bench when the late Supreme Court Judge Thurgood Marshall argued the landmark historic case before the Supreme Court, which declared segregation of public schools illegal.

“California set an important role on this,” Chavez told the crowd. “Your legacy is deep in this fight.”

“In (Marshall’s) debate he made the case that equity was not to be determined by the majority but it was in fact a judicial matter,” Chavez explained. “This means we must continue to take our case to the people and we must continue to take this case to the Legislature and the courts because real change is going to happen when a whole bunch of people feel affected by the same thing.”

Chavez also said that while several schools in the city, including those in the more affluent sections seem to be rated better academically, low performing schools affect everyone. “We’re all in this boat together, irrespective of where we send our children to school. We need to believe that the educational system will not fail any children in any other part of town.

“All schools must be producing the kind of people that we want our children to marry, that we want to be our neighbors, that we want to work with,” Chavez said.

Several speakers from Californians for Justice and the California School Employees Association presented evidence such as classrooms with broken desks, not enough textbooks, and long-term substitute teachers to validate their claim that the goals of Brown v. Board of Education have not been achieved and that schools are still separate and still unequal.  

During the event, the group also asked the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pass SB 1419, the Opportunities for Teaching and Learning Index, which would require the state to publicize data on schools’ resources, including qualified teachers, facilities, textbooks, and access to college preparation and vocational courses.

They also called on the governor to settle the Williams v. California lawsuit addressing appalling public school conditions. They argued that the state is failing to provide thousands of public school students, particularly those in low-income communities and communities of color, with the bare minimum necessities required for an education.

The event was one of five held statewide by the Campaign for Quality Education marking the anniversary of Brown v Board of Education. Similar events were held in Watsonville, Richmond, Los Angeles, Fresno, and San Diego.  
The majority of demonstrators were members of the Campaign for Quality Education, which is led by the Californians for Justice Organization. The Campaign is a statewide coalition of organizations protesting poor school conditions faced by students of color, low-income students, and limited-English speaking students.  
Lisa Castellanos, statewide campaign organizer for Californians for Justice, said, “We’re all fighting for education equity in California. We’re here to continue the struggle. We want to point out that schools are still separate and still unequal.”

The group was primarily represented by students from the East Side Union High School District where organizers said students face limited opportunities to learn and limited resources.

While Californians for Justice focused the rally on the plight of school districts with high concentrations of immigrants, students of color, and low-income families, Castellanos said the San Jose Unified School District also faces a pattern of unequal resources. “Some schools have more than enough credentialed teachers, enough textbooks to go around and a desk and chair for everyone, and other schools have a high concentration of immigrants, youth of color and poor families,” she said.

Almaden teenagers Alisha and Shaan Yadav-Ranja were at the rally to also protest unequal educational opportunities. While they attend a private school, they belong to the Santa Clara County Youth Task Force, composed of young people ages of 12 to 18, who serve as an advisory body to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and the Human Relations Commission.

“We want better education in public schools,” said Alisha, 13. “I find the conditions of public schools shocking and that’s why we’re demanding immediate improvements. It’s not fair. Kids need a better future.”

Raji Bains, coordinator for the Task Force, said overcrowded classrooms and a large police presence on campus, which sends a negative message, plague students at Independence High School, in the East Side Union High School District. “They don’t value the students enough to give them counselors so they can progress in school and go to college, but they have so many cops on campus that it sends the message that the students are criminals,” said Bains.

Alex Tu, 16, a sophomore at Independence High School, deplored how the state government spends money funding other programs instead of making education a priority. “We have this budget deficit, but we’re hoping that we’ll get more funding for schools because things haven’t improved much for low-income kids.”

Tu said the focus should be equality in education for all students. “We want the same level of textbooks, courses and teachers that students in the more affluent part of the city receive. We want more equality in the classroom.”
Referring to the San Jose Unified School District and its desegregation policies, Tu said they haven’t worked as schools in the northern part of the district which have a higher percentage of Latinos have the lowest Academic Performance Index scores compared to schools in the southern part, which have fewer Latino students and received higher API scores.