News & Commentary

Budget cuts, teacher layoffs and over-crowded classrooms have been headline stories across California in recent years, but Palisades High students were warned last week that now is the time to really pay attention to the crisis threatening their school year.'

A bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown this weekend will help ensure that public school districts don't charge students illegal fees to participate in educational activities.

The United States is increasingly a multiracial society, with white students accounting for just over half of all students in public schools, down from four-fifths in 1970. Yet whites are still largely concentrated in schools with other whites, leaving the largest minority groups — black and Latino students — isolated in classrooms, according to a new analysis of Department of Education data.

Eight Detroit-area public school students returning to classes this week are plaintiffs against a school system they say has failed them. Their families and the American Civil Liberties Union say that the Highland Park school system has denied the students the right to learn to read, and that the state has a responsibility to fix that.

By Hector Villagra, Executive Director A new school year is set to begin in LAUSD, with all the typical fresh hopes and dreams, but this one will be different. For the first time since the 1980s, when LAUSD first implemented it, no LAUSD student will be attending a school on the calendar known as Concept 6. This is something for all Angelenos to celebrate.

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"This form is different from the 'Williams Complaint Form' which is used for complaints regarding school facilities." Not many students that are harassed or discriminated against in schools are aware of their resources and many don't have the chance to read the statement above in the complaint section of the California Department of Education's website.

James Gilliam, pictured with Judy Shepard (left) and Jane Velez-Mitchell. “I remember those painful years of growing up being bullied and harassed in my home state of Tennessee just because I was gay,” said Gilliam. “No child should have to suffer humiliation or die by his own hand simply because of who he is. I’m proud to direct a project that works to protect LGBTQ students and to serve as an example that they can lead fulfilling, proud lives and not live in fear.” Gilliam has been the deputy executive director of the ACLU/SC since 2010. Before joining the civil liberties organization, he was a litigation associate and pro bono coordinator at Paul Hastings. He served as co-chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Sexual Orientation Bias committee for several years and has served on the board of directors for the National LGBT Bar Association. He teaches seminars on sexual orientation law and public interest law practice at Loyola Law School. “We feel privileged to work with someone as courageous as James, who has dedicated himself to stop bullying and help save the lives of LGBTQ students,” said Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU/SC. “James has become a national spokesperson on the issue of bullying, and we are extremely proud that people around the country are looking to the Seth Walsh Student Rights Project and James as a resource for addressing bullying and the fa