HomeMy WebLinkAboutTRC Transcript - February 17, 2022[00:00:00]
[MUSIC] It is 7:06. I think we can call this meeting to order, if you want to do a roll call.
[00:00:20]
Commissioner Ali.
[00:00:21]
Present.
[00:00:23]
Commissioner Daniel. [NOISE] Commissioner Dillard. Commissioner Gathua.
[00:00:30]
Present.
[00:00:31]
Commissioner Johnson.
[00:00:33]
Here.
[00:00:34]
Commissioner Harris. Commissioner Nobiss. Commissioner Rivera.
[00:00:40]
Here.
[00:00:41]
Commissioner Traore.
[00:00:42]
Here.
[00:00:43]
Thank you.
[00:00:47]
Next is the land acknowledgment. We meet today in the community of Iowa City, which now occupies
the homelands of Native American nations to whom we owe our commitment and dedication.
[00:01:00] The area of Iowa City was within the homeland of the Iowa, Meskwaki, and Sioux. Because
history is complex and time goes far back beyond memory, we also acknowledge the ancient
connections of many other indigenous peoples here. The history of broken treaties and forced
removal that dispossessed indigenous peoples of their homelands was and is an act of colonization
and genocide that we cannot erase. We implore the Iowa City community to commit to understanding
and addressing these injustices as we work toward equity, restoration and reparations. Do we have
the approval of the minutes from February 3rd? Does anyone have any edits to make or anything like
that?
[00:01:49]
Motion to approve.
[00:01:50]
Second.
[00:01:52]
Properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes from February 3rd. Commissioner Ali.
[00:01:58]
Yes.
[00:01:59]
Commissioner [00:02:00] Gathua.
[00:02:01]
Present.
[00:02:02]
Commissioner Rivera.
[00:02:03]
Yes.
[00:02:04]
Commissioner Johnson.
[00:02:05]
Yes.
[00:02:06]
Commissioner Traore?
[00:02:08]
Yes.
[00:02:09]
Thank you. Passed at five, zero.
[00:02:14]
Next is public comment of items not on the agenda. TRC members will not engage in discussion with
public concerning set items. We'll start with people on Zoom. Nobody? Does anyone here have a
public comment?
[00:02:36]
Agenda item number 6 is a presentation from Heidi and Dina on the exclusionary discipline on
elementary students in the ICCSD. I will give the floor to you, ladies.
[00:02:55]
We're going to start with Heidi, who's going to introduce the larger framework of this issue. [00:03:00]
Then I'll take over and go into more particulars about what's happening here in ICCSD.
[00:03:11]
Thank you, everyone, for inviting us to present tonight. I think I've spoken to a couple of you,
commissioners, who are present. It's good to see you. I'm going to be talking a little bit about
exclusionary discipline in the school-to-prison pipeline. My name is Heidi Pierce, I'm a criminal justice
and psychology professor. I teach at multiple institutions, but I have my Kirkwood affiliation here. My
email address, I would love to engage with you further after tonight, if you would like to send me an
email, it's heidi.pierce@kirkwood.edu, and I will also put that in the chat later.
[00:03:52]
I came to this work after some time spent in prison, working as a senior advisor [00:04:00] and
adjunct professor for the University of Iowa's Liberal Arts Beyond Bars program. I taught classes
related to psychology, mental health in prison, wellness, neurodiversity. As I got to know my students
who were incarcerated, I found that a lot of them had gotten caught up in the school-to-prison
pipeline and that they had started going down that path of incarceration from the time they were very
young, some of them even in elementary school. I'm going to talk about some very difficult topics. I
have about seven minutes I'll be presenting, but I did want to pose a trigger warning that I will be
talking about racism, ableism, and violence. Anyone who needs to leave or mute or step away from
the presentation, please do so. I also have the website here for community, which is our local crisis
center. They have crisis chat [00:05:00] and crisis phone, and I also have the Iowa warm line phone
number here as well, which is a peer run telephone-based non crisis line for people who are
experiencing some overwhelming emotions. I want to start just by talking a little bit about mass
incarceration. This is a term that many of you, I'm sure, have heard of. The United States has five
percent of the world's population, but we have 20 percent of the world's incarcerated population. Here
in the US, we incarcerate a higher percentage of our citizens than any other country in the world. This
mass incarceration goes back to systemic racism and the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution. In
this amendment, it says, it's unconstitutional to be held as a slave, unless you are a "criminal." This is
a loophole that allowed formerly enslaved people to [00:06:00] be exploited by labeling them as
"criminals" and continuing the forced labor. Right now in the United States, about 1.8-2 million people
are incarcerated. Approximately, 60,000 of those are juveniles. There are horrific racial disparities
with black, indigenous, and people of color being incarcerated at a much higher rate than White
Americans. The most at-risk demographic group are black males. One in three black males will be
incarcerated at some point in their lives. Here are some other statistics related to race, gender, and
incarceration. You can see that for both men and women, African-American or Black Individuals are at
much higher risk of incarceration than Latinx individuals or white individuals have the lowest risk of
incarceration. How do people end up in prison? Some of them are arrested as [00:07:00] adults, but
many fall into what we refer to as the school-to-prison pipeline. These are policies and practices that
make it more likely that students will be funneled in to these confinement and punishment systems. I
gave a two-hour talk about this the other day and I'm trying to do this in just a few minutes. I will
share the link, if anyone's interested in watching the two-hour presentation about this. But just briefly,
some of the policies that can funnel children into the school-to-prison pipeline are things like seclusion
and restraint, suspending a child. Anytime a child is suspended, they're losing out in an instructional
time and they're also being separated from their peers. When they come back, that can make it
awkward and difficult for them. Zero-tolerance policies, school resource officers or police in schools,
which is very fortunate that we do not have that here in Iowa City at this time. But we [00:08:00] do
still have a lot of referrals to law enforcement. I was actually talking to one of my students today who
works in an after-school program at a local elementary school, and she has been trained that any time
a child is having a meltdown to call the police. Not the mobile crisis unit which is there and an option,
but they are trained to call the police. And so we know that our black and brown children and our
disabled children are at much higher risk of enduring police violence, if that's the case. Not all of the
removals from the classroom are documented, some of these are referred to as informal removals.
There are children who are being taken out of the classroom due to behaviors that the teachers think
are unacceptable. They might be sitting in the office or some other room for 4-5 hours, and yet, they
are not documenting that as a in-school or out-of-school suspension, it's not being documented
anywhere. Sometimes, kids are pushed out [00:09:00] of the school with school staff, encouraging
parents to homeschool, or they're being suspended so many times that the parents really feel like it's
a challenge to their own children's mental health. There are a lack of resources in our schools, mental
health training, cultural inclusiveness. There are many things that we could do to make things better,
but the exclusionary discipline is still the go-to. I'm out of time, I will stop sharing. It will be Dina's
presentation now. Thank you.
[00:09:37]
Extremely efficient, Heidi. Very impressed. I will try to be similarly efficient. To bring it to local level.
My name is Dina Bishara. I'm a parent as Heidi is. I also work for Big Brothers Big Sisters. I'm also the
parent of a child with a disability who's autistic. I along with other parents including Heidi. Few years
ago, started [00:10:00] the ICCSD Mental Health, Special Education and Disability Advocacy Group.
We've advocated on many different issues including seclusion and restraint. Right now focusing on
exclusionary discipline. Heidi touched on some of this, just to review in-school suspension as a
removal from the classroom and instruction, out of school suspension is a temporary removal from the
school building, and as Heidi mentioned, informal removals are de facto in and out of school
suspensions that are not reported. They're technically not allowed, but we know they happen. In the
ICCSD on average since 2015, black students have made up 19 percent of enrollment, but are 63
percent of all students suspended. Disabled students, those with IEPs are nine percent of enrollment,
but make up 41 percent of students suspended and free and reduced-price lunch students, the lower-
income students, are about 37 percent of the [00:11:00] student population but are 80 percent of
students who are suspended.
[00:11:06]
In the 2020-2021 school year, 75 percent of school suspensions were black students, and that's
actually an increase. We saw the same thing with students with disabilities. The percentage of
students with disabilities who were making up suspensions increased. This is while overall the number
of suspensions are going down, but we see the disparities and this proportionality persisting or indeed
getting worse. I like to say reported suspensions because we know that this data doesn't really cover
everything. Just to break it down, we don't get this information from the school district, but every few
years the Office of Civil Rights at the US Department of Education collects data, and so we can see
how race and disability intersect. For instance, you can see here that [00:12:00] the race and
ethnicity of IDEA students as Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, so students with disabilities
receiving disciplinary actions. Black students made up about 32 percent of students in special
education, but they made up about 57 percent of special education students who were suspended.
[00:12:24]
Then overall, just a side note, because Heidi mentioned we haven't really focused so much on
referrals to law enforcement. But just to see how disability affects that as well,62 percent of all
referrals to law enforcement and the survey year were of students in special education. Interestingly
enough, in that particular survey here, black IDEA students were not over-represented in this one
area. The suspension of elementary students, [00:13:00] that's what we're focusing on now. About a
third, for over the past three years of all suspensions have been of elementary school students. The
students as young as six can be suspended.
[00:13:15]
Basically why we're making this push is that the research is very clear that exclusionary disciplinary
practices like suspension are anti evidence-based, they're ineffective, they're actively harmful, and
they're mulch harmful, of course, to are most marginalized students, and that's our black disabled,
and poor students. The United States Commission of Human Rights in 2019 clearly stated that
students of color with disabilities face exclusionary discipline, pushing them into the school to prison
pipeline at much higher rates than their peers. The American Institute for Research said in 2021 that
more severe exclusionary discipline has a consistent negative effect on many other long run
[00:14:00] educational outcomes for students. The Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports
Technical Assistance Center, their research says that suspensions are not an effective deterrent to
future problem behavior. We don't see a justification for the continuation of these practices. We've
had about 199 individuals sign our call to end exclusionary discipline for elementary students, and
also the following organizations. Part of the reason we're here is to just humbly ask you to consider
them as individuals or a group to join these folks in asking the school district to end the practice of
exclusionary discipline for elementary students. If we have time, I know Heidi and I are very happy to
take any questions or comments or feedback on this. [00:15:00] I will stop sharing.
[00:15:05]
We'll start with any questions from anyone on Zoom. If you have any questions just raise your hand.
[00:15:20]
There's no one on Zoom.
[00:15:22]
I was like, I can't. Is anyone in here have any questions? What about commissioners?
[00:15:32]
Do you guys have any questions? I went to our presentation the other day. So it was very awesome.
[00:15:40]
This is Commissioner Rivera. Hi to both of you. Thank you so much for presenting this information. I
haven't met you, but luckily, I have an open communication with Heidi, which I'm very grateful for
and I've heard some of what she presented as well.
[00:15:59]
You might [00:16:00] at some point just provide the sources for this information. I think that'd be
helpful for us to have on hand as we continue to talk about this issue. We can have that available with
the times that I've heard this information and I've seen the data collected in PDF form and it doesn't
get easier to hear. I think Iowa City purports itself to be a lot of things and this is some of the most
compelling evidence that this is not the progressive community and/or equal community, that we
think that we are. It's hard for us to hear these things, but it's important for us to see them, and so I
just want to thank you for educating our community, and for trying to propose directions for us to
move in. I personally think that we should have a vote tonight about [00:17:00] adding our name as
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to this list of community organizations. I'd be happy to
[LAUGHTER] talk about why I think that, but I'll open it up to my other commissioners to hear their
thoughts as well.
[00:17:26]
I just added my name to it.
[00:17:31]
Do you want to vote on it then? Do you want to make a motion?
[00:17:35]
I'll make a motion.
[00:17:36]
Before we do that, I just wanted to thank you Dina and Heidi for your presentation.
[00:17:51]
I do this although for me personally, it's triggering. For the last 20 years I've been in [00:18:00] Iowa
City. I've been apparent in the district. I am a licensed school counselor in Iowa. I am a counselor
educator and a researcher and a teacher on social injustice. What you were talking about, I have had
personal experience with that. I still continue doing so and I fear for my first grandchild who just
turned two yesterday. She's my main motivator as I continue fighting social injustice in my city. My
daughter is one of the school counselors in the district. So it's very personal. Thank you for your work.
It adds to the body of knowledge that we have on this. It's not just a topic. [00:19:00] It's people's
lives and destruction of people and mass. As we continue looking at ourselves, and wanting what we
have for those people, thank you for adding your voice to these to this cry.
[00:19:31]
I do agree with my fellow commissioners that we should add our voice to the bodies that are part of
this of ending exclusionary discipline in our district. Thank you.
[00:19:50]
Thank you.
[00:19:52]
If you guys just want to hang around for the vote and then do you mind adding [00:20:00] our name
and then we can sign individually if we choose to do so because we all have that link?
[00:20:06]
Yeah, absolutely. I added it in the chat too and along with my editorial, it was yesterday. I don't know
if that's the best way to get it to you guys but includes some more research. But I'll make sure I send
our full report, which I also linked in the chat. But our full report that has even more research in it.
Here are one of the other commissioner's request. I'd be happy. I'll do after the vote.
[00:20:32]
Yeah. You have staff's emails so if that information if you just want to send it to Stephanie at any time
and she can send it to the rest of us commissioners.
[00:20:40]
The only thing I'll add before I make the motion is all suggests that you also reach out to the Human
Rights Commission as well. I think that they'd do very willing and receptive to this call the action as
well.
[00:20:54]
I'll also add something before we vote, that I'm also in [00:21:00] a position as the coordinator of
Nisaa African Family Services in Iowa City. We walk with Kirkwood and ICCSD to improve the lives
although our mission is to help and provide services for those who are facing sexual violences. We
also partner with those who work on improving the lives of Africans in Iowa City and our county and
our State. I am in a position to work with you and make that decision that we can also add Nisaa to
the organizations that are on this list.
[00:21:47]
Thank you so much. I'm about to hide in my emails and the chat as well. I can also email that to
Stephanie. We're so grateful to you for your support.
[00:22:00] [00:22:01]
This is Commissioner Rivera. I'll make a motion that we allow these organizers to add the Iowa City in
Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission to the list of individuals and organizations calling in Iowa
City Community School District to end exclusionary disciplinary practices as so presented tonight.
[00:22:23]
Second.
[00:22:25]
Commissioner Ali?
[00:22:27]
Yes.
[00:22:27]
Gathua?
[00:22:29]
Yes.
[00:22:31]
Johnson.
[00:22:32]
Absolutely.
[00:22:33]
Commissioner Rivera.
[00:22:34]
Yes.
[00:22:35]
Commissioner Traore?
[00:22:37]
Yes.
[00:22:37]
Motion passes five zero. Thank you.
[00:22:41]
We are very honored. Thank you so much. Feel free to email the school board too.
[00:22:47]
Yes.
[00:22:48]
There's a school board meeting that's Tuesday where I'll be presenting our call officially with all the
signatories. Thank you so much.
[00:22:59]
Thank you, guys, so [00:23:00] much for your time. We really appreciate it. Thank you.
[00:23:08]
With item Number 7 on the agenda, the update on the excluded workers fund. Commissioner Harris
was supposed to give that, but due to childcare needs, he's not here.
[00:23:22]
I don't have a say.
[00:23:24]
Does anyone have updates?
[00:23:30]
The only thing I have that I feel comfortable actually saying it being confirmed is that for the last
meeting for the Board of Supervisors, a group of excluded workers had tried to enter the meeting
once again. They were met with Sheriffs at the door even before being able to enter.
[00:23:58]
Essentially just still being stonewalled [00:24:00] and no real commitments just yet to the exclude
workers fund in itself. I do you know that right now they're just working out the criteria of how these
funds are distributed. Still, whether it's the lottery-type system.
[00:24:19]
Like the 10 different points of qualifying or something like that. Yeah.
[00:24:24]
Yeah.
[00:24:24]
I remember that.
[00:24:27]
That's still just where things are. Everything is pretty much up in the air.
[00:24:36]
Yeah. I was going to say the last time I watched was during the supervisor meeting earlier this week. I
know that there is quite a few public commentary on it.
[00:24:46]
Oh, there it goes Eric.
[00:24:55]
Commissioner Harris.
[00:25:00] [00:25:08]
Yes, I'm here. I'm sorry. I got overwhelmed with fatherly duties. I was cooking.
[00:25:14]
You are okay.
[00:25:16]
Yeah.
[00:25:16]
That's perfect timing actually. We're just talking about the update on the excluded workers fund.
Mohammed had just right before you got on, he had mentioned that at the last meeting excluded
workers tried to get in and weren't able to. Then I just wasn't sure at what point. I just had heard the
public comment during the last meeting. If you have anything to add?
[00:25:46]
Yes, I do. I went to the meeting this morning and the public comment was pretty sure. I went on my
own because the school workers didn't want to come because [00:26:00] on the previous meeting
that they had about David, he told me it had to be a dozen deputies there.
[00:26:13]
He decided that he didn't want to show up and I showed up on my own at nine o'clock this morning. I
went there and I made a public comment and a couple of other people made a public comment and it
was about 15 minutes and they moved on. It is disturbing at this point because some commissioners
have reached out to the Treasury. The next thing I know, I see another commissioner who's out in
Washington DC trying to go over what the Treasury said. It's just getting too far and just [00:27:00]
going a little bit too far.
[00:27:05]
At this point, I support the school worker's fun, but it's just too political at this point. If I can sit down
with all the people that are involved in it and who have an interest in it and we can stay on and talk
about it. That would be great. But with John Green calling out and being able to discover that Treasury
rules wasn't being followed and then the next thing I know, I look up and is as I'm just going to say is
Roy Sam Porter is in Washington DC talking about that she wants to go and see what the Treasury is
saying. Just on a little bit too far. This is just, I would say to you, we are a great place. But this is just a
brief so far. That's my update. [00:28:00] I was down at this morning and I gave public comment and
let them know that they needed to follow the advice from the Department of Treasury. It says no way
around it and I let them know about that and also let them know that they needed to improve the
ways that they let people use public comment. Because I saw recently that the Iowa City Council
wants to look at how they use public comment and not allow people to be kicked out of the meetings
and things like that. But the Johnson County Supervisors, they still haven't changed on that. Most of
the people that I would hope would be that I could talk to, they were on Zoom calls. Ross Sullivan, I
wish I could've talked to him, but [00:29:00] he just wasn't there.
[00:29:06]
With that, it's going to be a wow because now the school workers are accessing to have some more
time to look over this because they've discovered that the Johnson County Supervisors, we're ignoring
the rules at the Treasury had made for the ARP funds. Now we have to go through a whole different
process.
[00:29:36]
Well, thanks for the update. Thanks for keeping track of everything that's going on while you've got
other things that you have to worry about. Does anyone have any comments?
[00:29:55]
The eighth agenda item is the facilitator process. [00:30:00] My update is just really short.
[00:30:10]
The local partners that we're working on, they're part of the proposal. After, I think our last meeting
and meeting with everyone, they just wanted more time to be able to make sure that they were
involved in this, [NOISE] so that this would be something that when Kearns & West, Think Peace or
whoever is not involved in this process anymore, that we still have longevity and it can still be a
sustainable thing. As of right now, the plan is to present proposals on our first meeting in March.
Hopefully by then, if we decide that night, then we can have [00:31:00] it sent to council for approval.
That is about all the update that I have to give on the facilitator process. Does anyone have any
questions?
[00:31:16]
Question for maybe Stephanie, with the funds that have previously been approved for our facilitator
in the last calendar year, does that carry over or is there a new process or a renewal?
[00:31:31]
I think Commissioner Ali had asked me that a few weeks ago. In my memory, I don't recall that
resolution ever being countered. To me that resolution is still there. It was never withdrawn.
[00:31:46]
I spoke to Jeff through and about this, because I just was wondering, what happens? Should we aim for
that $197,000, and if we go under that, then does it have [00:32:00] to get approved differently?
Because I just wanted to give people a ballpark of what they were looking at and he said that he
wasn't concerned if it was three teams over 200,000, that that money would be there. I think because
it was just the 197 that was voted yes, so I think we should be good.
[00:32:42]
Are you ready to move on to commissioner announcements? This is so good. We're going to be home
and it's not going to be freezing cold, guys.
[00:32:52]
It is literally freezing cold.
[00:32:55]
It is freezing cold, but it won't be that bad.
[00:32:58]
I can say that for the record, it is freezing [00:33:00] cold. [LAUGHTER]
[00:33:03]
Does anyone have announcements?
[00:33:05]
I'd like to say Commissioner Harris is going to be a good dad.
[00:33:15]
What? I didn't hear you.
[00:33:18]
[inaudible 00:33:18].
[00:33:21]
What was that?
[00:33:22]
I was saying you're a great dad.
[00:33:27]
I'm sorry. There's duties that I have to do in my life. I try to get around them, but it just comes first.
[00:33:36]
Don't apologize.
[00:33:37]
Do you have any announcements, Stephanie?
[00:33:43]
I don't know if it'll be the next meeting, but probably at some point in March, if commissioners felt
comfortable, we're going to try to transition so that you'll actually be setting up here versus down
there and then I'll move down there. It will help out a lot with the communications [00:34:00]
department having to set up because there's rooms used for other things during the day so then they
have to come over here and set up. Ideally, if people felt comfortable about wearing masks we'd still
be required to just move it up here and the mics would be up here. There's computer screens there. I
think you'll like the transition as long as everyone is comfortable, and if somebody has any concerns,
just reach out to me and we can talk through that. But will probably be on March 1st or maybe March
17th meeting to try to get that.
[00:34:36]
Anyone else have anything?
[00:34:38]
Yeah, I do that one thing.
[00:34:44]
I'm part of Dream City right now, so I'm the lead father that coordinate over there. If anybody knows
any fathers that need help with things that's going on with them being a father, everybody knows my
contact information, you can pass [00:35:00] it around. Get a hold of me because we have a good
program going on over here and we're helping a lot of fathers. You can contact Dream City at any
time or you contact me directly because when a father needs help, I'm the person that comes out
immediately and then we work with a plan to help them because there's a lot of kids out here, but
having fathers in kids' lives, that's really important. As you can see right now what I'm doing right
now. Having fathers in kids' lives is really important and then one of the things that we do is we try to
help try to resolve disputes between maybe a kid's mom and the kid's dad and we try to help some of
the fathers if they are experiencing [00:36:00] homelessness or they are experiencing that they can't
get a job because of different barriers, I help them with that and I do that hands on everyday. If you
know of anybody, link them up with me, I will definitely help them.
[00:36:16]
Thank you. I wanted to mentioned that the Kenyan and Congolese communities in Iowa City, on Feb 4,
they lost a man from the community, he was 42 years old.
[00:36:41]
I had wanted there to be an agenda because we had a vigil on Sunday.
[00:36:52]
The people coordinating the mourning and repatriation of the body to Kenya for burial, [00:37:00]
some people are feeling that because he fell on the walk side on outside 119 Friendship Street, where
he works. There wasn't even a mention and he clocked out of work, ordered an Uber and then he was
discovered dead at 6:00 AM by someone who was walking a dog.
[00:37:36]
There is a video on this conversation.
[00:37:43]
They felt that, is it there no mention by relevant offices, is it because he was a Black body? They felt
that this has happened sometime [00:38:00] earlier. That is why I had wanted to have that on the
agenda. But because they're very overwhelmed, the communities were not able to organize
themselves and get here, and because they had already organized, I've just come from a prayer
meeting as I came into a meeting and that's when I was getting car trouble. That's one of the reasons
I got to be late.
[00:38:30]
But that is something that we are dealing with as the African communities. We will further discuss it
on Sunday at our board meeting of the African Communities Network. Thank you. Thank you. Motion
to adjourn.
[00:38:54]
Do we have a second?
[00:38:57]
We're all good. Have a good night, everyone. [MUSIC]