HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - May 23, 2006 - HRC Azusa Human Relations Commission
Minutes from meeting of May 23, 2006
Present: Diana Williams,Nancy Gibson, Paul Naccachian, Logan Westbrooks, Christina
Valdez, Marty Villanueva, Ilean Ochoa
Absent: Heath Hamilton, Terry Franson
Meeting called to order at 7:09 pm
I. Public Comment: La Lisa Morgan and her neighbor,ten year resident, Angel
Simril (1146 W. Calle del Sol, Azusa).
La Lisa said that her son was once again targeted(2nd incident)
because of his color. She demanded that we get our brochures out to the public. She
is doing her masters thesis project study on Bi-racial and African American Social
Interactions and Depression. She would like to get surveys filled out by AUSD
parents and students. She will submit her proposal but she would first like a letter of
recommendation from the City Council,the HRC and the School Board. She wants
to document incidents of interpretation of discrimination. She says she will be
supervised by Cal State L.A. Internal Review Board. Deadline for her proposal is the
1st week of Sept. 2006. She needs a letter from the School Board but they are off for
the summer. She asked the HRC if we would send a letter of support to the AUSD
School Board. She said that the City and the HRC could both use the data from her
study.
La Lisa says that she wants to interview at two elementary,two middle and two high
schools. Paul asked if there was any evidence, data or preliminary information that
she could provide. She says she has anecdotal evidence from her neighborhood kids
about racial tension in the public schools. She stated that she wants to empower the
kids with a zero tolerance policy.
Paul asked for her Thesis Statement and said that she needs to have her goals and
intentions clarified.
La Lisa's neighbor, Angel, stated that she was glad to hear of our support.
Ilean suggested that she contact Kathy Miller, that she needs to have approval from
the School Board first. Ilean also suggested that La Lisa needs to find out if there is a
need for this type of study and that she should provide statistics.
Logan suggested that we need to determine the proper procedure and that this is a
sensitive issue. He also stated"some officials do not believe there is a problem."
Marty and Paul informed La Lisa that they visited the principal of Victor Hodge
School to find out if the problem(first incident) was resolved satisfactorily at the
school site.
Principal Jennifer Root assured them that the problem was resolved and that the