Anonymous
Source: Santa Barbara Education Foundation
Speaking to community members at the Elings Park Amphitheater, Santa Barbara Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Hilda Maldonado and students addressed the community during the State of Our Schools presentation.
In years past, the event has been an informative and sometimes data-driven presentation. This year, Dr. Maldonado invited student leaders to share the stage to report their perspectives on Santa Barbara Unified schools to the community.
In introducing the student panel, Maldonado explained, “I would be remiss if I didn’t do this in collaboration with who I work for. And that is why I have students with me today.” She then quipped, “I have all these bosses. I have 13,000, today, I only brought five!”
But aside from the joking, Maldonado started by looking at the Santa Barbara Unified’s mission “to prepare students for a world that has yet to be created,” and asked the question of what is the best way to prepare students to take on tomorrow’s challenges.
The superintendent admitted that there was still much work to do to get the District to where it needs to be. She then highlighted the progress made with a lengthy list of some of the recent improvements to classrooms, facilities, and resources for teachers. She emphasized the District’s investment in increasing the staff-to-student ratio with the addition of counselors, tutoring services, and family engagement liaisons at every school site.
Dr. Maldonado then passed the microphone to students so that attendees could hear directly how District policies and efforts are affecting them and their peers.
The student panelists included Dawson Kelly (San Marcos High School), Kavya Suresh (San Marcos High School), Emily Pineda (Santa Barbara High School), Isabella Mireles (Dos Pueblos High School), and Finnegan Wright (Dos Pueblos High School). The students spoke on mental health, campus safety, inclusivity, diversity, and student advocacy. Many of the students highlighted what was working in terms of services for students and used examples from their own experiences.
But students didn’t just celebrate only what was working well. They also spoke about where they thought the District had room for improvement and made calls to action.
San Marcos High School sophomore and incoming Santa Barbara Unified Student School Board member Kavya Suresh shared student survey data on what is seen as an appropriate response for school safety at all three Santa Barbara Unified high school campuses.
“As a student closely involved in the campaign to reimagine school safety as something to be achieved without the active involvement from law enforcement, I urge the District to continue to investing in mental health professionals, social workers, and campus security to protect our students’ mental, emotional, and social well-being.”
Suresh went on to say, “We deserve to be in learning environments that grant equitable access to restorative justice and rehabilitation for all students and staff to help us prepare for a world that is yet to be created.”
To watch the entire State of Our Schools presentation, please visit sbefoundation.org/state-of-our-schools-tickets.
SBEF also wishes to recognize and thank State of Our Schools sponsors, including 19six Architects, Santa Barbara City College Foundation, Future Leaders of America, Hospice of Santa Barbara, Oniracom, and Jeannine’s.
Santa Barbara Education Foundation promotes private support of Santa Barbara’s public education system in 19 schools. For more information, visit www.santabarbaraeducation.org
Given the horrific tragedy unfolding as I type this at an elementary school in Texas where 2 children have been shot to death and 13 others are fighting for their lives in a hospital, what do our local schools plan to do about the ever present and predictable threat of gun violence at our schools?
Sac – Weren’t the schools (or at least a vocal group of kids and parents) pushing to remove the resource officers from campus…?
Why would anyone in their right mind downvote Sac’s comment.
GT – I think we all know who did. It would be great if we could see who votes, like other sites.
Damn, when i first saw that was hoping it was 14 injured, 1 dead… Very sad indeed.
Sacjon, you’re aren’t going to like the answer to your question. The only way to stop a suicidal lunatic with a firearm who’s intent on killing people, is a good guy with a firearm who’s intent on protecting those people. Other than that, there is nothing the school could have done to prevent this tragedy.
VOICE – “Other than that, there is nothing the school could have done to prevent this tragedy.” Yup. Nothing at all. Absolutely nothing we can do. Carry on folks. It’s part of being an American. It’s our God-given right as proud ‘mericans to shrug our shoulders while children are mowed down by bullets.
“We deserve to be in learning environments that grant equitable access to restorative justice and rehabilitation for all students and staff to help us prepare for a world that is yet to be created.”
A future in politics awaits…
Mental health care is needed for not just youth but all Americans to address high rates of depression. But most depressed people are not homicidal. Comprehensive gun reform is badly needed in this country. If nothing changed after Sandy Hook, then sadly nothing will change after this tragic incident. Children will keep dying, the NRA will keep lobbying, the GOP will keep receiving donor $$ and the dems will be too chicken sh** to do anything when they have full control. Round and round we go as we all become desensitized to mass murders and shootings like countries ran by cartels.
Scajon your question, specifically, was what the SCHOOL COULD DO. And I answered your specific question. You’re response at 2:28 is rather disgusting.
VOICE – no it’s not at all disgusting, it’s frustrated at the lack of any meaningful effort in this country to stop this. But, you’re right, my emotion took over there. What could the school do? You’re answer: a good guy with a firearm. Well, I agree. That’s really all they can do other than keeping school walled and fenced in like prisons, as 1 or 2 on-campus cops/deputies aren’t much of a match for a heavily armed gunman. The bigger issue really is though – why should schools have to do anything beyond what they’re doing? What other (civilized) nation has armed guards at school? At what point do we, as a nation, make protecting our LIVING children a priority?
@ Voice, the “good guy” with a gun fled the scene at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the “good guy” with a gun in Buffalo was shot and killed early on. This has not worked. Sweeping legislative change is needed then more crackdowns on illegal firearm sales and ghost guns.
Again, my reply was directly to Sacjon’s specific question, doesn’t require a fenced/walled in prison complex, and I certainly didn’t even insinuate it was a fool proof solution. Weird how you throw out downvotes even when you agree with me while directly answering your question. These type of occurrences aren’t perpetrated by ordinary criminals out to enrich themselves, it takes some serious mental derangement to think about, plan and go forward with something like this, especially on young kids. Time and time again the perpetrators have shown they don’t care about gun laws, being in possession of an illegal firearm, or gun-free zones. More gun laws won’t help, more mental health care will.
“More gun laws won’t help, more mental health care will.” Why don’t other civilized countries have this problem? Are we the only country with mental health problems?
A good guy with a gun was what finally stopped this tragedy.
5:16pm – 18 children and 3 adults (at least) were shot before the good guys were able to stop him. Not a solution.
Sounds like a memorized string of buzzwords from the Gavin Newsom school of bay area highbrow gibberish.
6:25 – Only a complete idiot would think that more guns are part of any solution to the problem of too many guns.
I can’t blame them, per se… I certainly remember saying some pretty wild things sophomore year of high school. Feel bad though as it’s obviously not a real, genuine (or intelligible) thought… It’s California though… may help with a UC Berkeley application in 2 years!
God forbid any young person would have beliefs different than your own.
GT – it’s obviously unintelligible silliness. It’s ok to point that out and to acknowledge that…
That’s not what was said, there are already plenty of guns our there, more than could ever be taken away, that’s reality. All this talk about doing something , armed officers can be done tomorrow. Have any other ideas that we could put in place tomorrow to try and help prevent this from happening again? We just sent $40B to Ukraine on top of what, $15B already sent. For $40B you can fund 200,000 trained personnel at a cost of $200,000 per year each. There are 100,000 public K-12 schools in the US.Longer term, significantly improve support and mental health care for kids so they can become responsible adults, that will help address many of the ills impacting our society. Will it be 100% effective, no, nothing ever will be, but look at what we put our kids through over a virus that to them is less harmful than the flu, what happened to doing something to protect them rather than nothing? Such short memories…
Send Hilda packing. Her policies and programs are screwing our kids’ futures.
It’s intelligible to intelligent and honest people.
PST- First off, Are you or anyone okay with 1 kid being killed with a musket? I assume no, so muskets are out too…The same type of problem.
You ask why?
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” So the big bad guy in this is not just being able to defend ourselves from armed criminals, but our government. Not to mention that target shooting is fun and wild protein is way better for you than farmed.
We are very sheltered here. If you lived in Chicago you might not feel the same about rampant crime.
So get rid of responsible people having guns and defund the police (cops are leaving in droves by themselves) and then the only ones with guns are the few cops and a million criminals!
I’m 100% for background checks (not for ammo every time like here), waiting periods, and what ever black lists as long as there’s a set and reasonable set of rules. Not if someone goes to see a consular because they feel depressed.
Alex, so what would you propose that we could enact TOMORROW to help prevent the next incident? The SB Bowls has better security and other preventive measures in place than a high school. Any type of meaningful firearm reform will take time, and even then, won’t stop sociopath’s and criminals from breaking any law in the way. And even then, there are simply too many guns out there to keep them out of the hands of criminals intent on doing harm. Take away all the guns? Great! But that’s like saying lets address climate changing by having all cars run on unicorn farts, it simply isn’t possible and not based in reality. Whatever firearm reforms are proposed, think, if this was in place would it have prevented X,Y, and Z tragedy? To have these calls to “do something”, then bash the idea of having armed security personnel, single points of entry, things we could do tomorrow without major political reforms, is absolutely nuts. It’s almost like people would rather lash out about it than actually do something about it – something politicians thrive on.
It’s truly not though…
What’s interesting how people will defend something obviously unintelligible by trump, Tucker carlson, Biden, etc… out of bizarre almost religiously zealous allegiance to a political party. It’s ok to be a progressive (or conservative) and have the honesty to note when something by someone you support says something wrong or unintelligible. Give honesty a try here….
I’ll bite though Marcel… as an “honest and intelligent” person… break it down for me. What is this student council member saying/advocating for in school policy/change with this comment?
Problem with people like VOICE and other Repubs is that it always has to be all or nothing. Same with masks. If it doesn’t cure covid, don’t even bother trying to reduce risk. Same here, if it doesn’t prevent ALL shootings, don’t even bother trying to save maybe even 1 life. It’s time for the political cowards in office to ball-up and ignore the screaming, howling gun worshipers and makes some meaningful legislation to help save ANY lives. Nothing will prevent gun violence 100%, but that’s not an excuse to not even try. Enough is enough.
You’re either OK with this or you support sensible gun laws.
JOESIX – exactly. Sad and frustrating thing is, the NRA and their minions have drilled into the gun lovers’ heads that ANY barrier to gun ownership, be it an age restriction or background checks or even writing their name with a crayon, is a “violation” of their “absolute” right under the 2nd Amendment to own any gun they want. THIS is the mentality we need to break. Sadly, these brainwashed killing-lovers also vote, so our cowardly politicians are scared to offend the drooling masses, lest they lose the next election.
Your suggestion is great and makes perfect sense and I support it 100%! But I worry that until we either amend the 2A or repeal it outright, there will be the same and extremely vocal and powerful resistance against making it in any inconvenient to buy a mass murder machine.
Sacjon, part of the reason we’ll haven’t been able to put meaningful reforms in place is people like you, you make blanket statements that vilify more than half the country with no regard to accuracy of the statement or other viewpoints. ” brainwashed killing-lovers” seriously!!?? Seriously!!?? All this does, on this issue and others, if further divide and alienate different groups and prevent them from coming together to agree on meaningful reforms for the betterment of all. For a liberal, the amount of hate, stereotypes, blanket inflammatory statements and condescension you and others apply to people with different views is stunning, and will never allow us to make meaningful progress on hot button issues. You’re a politicians dream voter.
Incredibly inaccurate Sacjon. ” Same here, if it doesn’t prevent ALL shootings, don’t even bother trying to save maybe even 1 life.” weren’t you the one just bashing the idea of armed guards? Apply those same standards to yourself. “Howling gun worshipers”, do you even hear yourself, you have no idea how more than 1/2 country’s feels or what they believe and are seemingly incapable of appreciating other peoples views and thoughts, even when they want the same thing (like preventing mass shootings!).
The problem truly is that both sides won’t budge an itch. To the right, any thought to restrict guns is tyranny! And to the left, any obvious and logical restraints on abortion is tyranny. The truth on most of these issues falls in the logical middle. We need much more restrictive gun laws. We also need a logical middle ground on when it’s a choice and when it’s a baby. Unfortunately you can’t have that logical conversation with a huge population on the right about guns (or many other things) or with a huge population on the left (about abortion and many other things).
We’re ruining our country by basing so many of our policies and agendas on the fringes of either party. It’s time to change that.
Sac – that’s actually kind of a silly comparison. If anything it’s completely the other way around. We needed sensible mask rules and when they were a complete charade (walk into bar with it, then Remove) it was time to end that charade. It’s the same with guns. It’s too easy to get and have them… we need to (sensibly) make them harder to get, keep and have. Change ridiculous and nonsensical rules. Let’s get rid of assault rifles and require masking in nursing homes. Let’s not demand everyone mask at all times and allow any/all guns to just about any/all people. Sensible rules and laws. The mask rules quickly became farcical… much like our gun worshipping laws.
There is an obvious problem with allowing bars to be open while schools are closed. That you can sit eat and drink in a coffee shop but you need to order with a mask on. Same goes for our current gun laws. The problem is the people who are so blinded by ideology that they refuse to note the madness of that mask mandate… or of the insane ease of getting assault weapons at age 18. It’s the problem with Libs and repubs… they are so beholden to their political party that they end up making, enforcing and allowing insane rules and laws.
So much funding is going to “feel good” BS programs instead of much needed mental health / intervention programs that might at least put a damper of troubled kids growing up to do bad things. Think of all of the money being spent to provide school lunches that get thrown away – maybe, just maybe, that same money could have been used to hire a mental health person that is proactively engaging students to mitigate small issues that become big issues. it appears the 18 year old was bullied, had a mom who did drugs, and was socially lost. This is probably a common situation across every school. As a society we “feel good” doing the easy stuff at the expense of doing the hard stuff. All of this BS crap on CRT, equity grading, free lunches, day care. Schools are exist to educate not indoctrinate. They also have an opportunity to identify kids who have a messed up life and need help. This is not rocker science – it requires just some common sense thinking and no BS politics. Lastly, when it comes to guns, I agree there needs to be better regulations on who can get guns. The issue is that bad people who intend to use guns to do bad things do not care about regulations – this is the main argument pro-gun advocates have. I think if the left would actually keep these bad people in jail, then the pro-gun advocates would be less adamant of wanting access to guns to defend themselves. As a society we have lost a moral compass and having consequences for bad actions.
“weren’t you the one just bashing the idea of armed guards?” – Nope, not at all did I ever do that. Where do you see that? I said I AGREE with armed guards, but I don’t think that’s enough. I fully support on campus officers, but we need to do more than that.
DUKE – I’m not demanding we wear masks at all times. I’m just pointing out that those who say masks/vaccines aren’t 100% effective are ignoring the good they do. Same with those saying no gun laws because they won’t stop all the shootings.
” they want the same thing (like preventing mass shootings!).” – If they did, they’d stop being all or nothing and support further restrictions. They don’t, therefore they can’t honestly say they want to prevent mass shooting.
Killing-lovers. Yes. They love guns. What do guns do? What is their sole function? Killing. There you go.
Wow, way to be mean about a 16 yo girl (who happens to be my son’s classmate – I’ve never met her, but she seems really sweet!) Let me break it down for you:
“We deserve to be in learning environments that grant equitable access to restorative justice and rehabilitation” – Learning environments where ALL students, not just the “good” or the “white” or “whatever” students are given the benefit of the doubt.
“Restorative justice” = mediation between the perpetrator and the victim. Offenders must take responsibility for the harm that they have done. This has actually been something that has been emphasized since elementary for many years. The goal is to prevent it from happening again.
“for all students and staff” This should be obvious. Everyone should get a second chance to do better.
“to help us prepare for a world that is yet to be created.” I don’t know about you, but the world as it is right now is FAR different than it was when I was in high school back in the dark ages. The type of work and jobs that most high schoolers will end up doing don’t actually exist right now.
If far-righties like yourself cared as much about our children as you do about the unborn, and cared as much about healthcare and mental health as you do about guns, chasing the CRT Boogeyman, or having library books with a “booby” in it, and would maybe vote for increased spending on mental health and on common sense gun reform – then maybe, just maybe we could start to work on the issue.
SBLOCAL1967 – You think school lunches, day care, teaching about racism, etc is a waste of time and money. So… how do you propose we help feed and care for the kids who’s families aren’t able to? Just leave them hungry and alone after school? What about teaching about racism? Just ignore that?
So would you be ok with your tax dollars being spent on mental health programs? I have a feeling you’d complain about that too.
Sacjon, do you even know who “they” are? Yet again using blanket stereotypes for more than half the country based off what, what the MSM talking heads said and some hillbilly gun-nuts dumb post on social media (the far-right equivalent of LibsOfTikTok)?
MM – I’m not bashing her at all. Pointing out that someone said something nonsensical isn’t bashing…it’s being honest. Too often we blindly go along with statements and actions that make no sense…
What perpetrator and what victim are you referring to to seek out mediation towards restorative justice?
I wish this girl nothing but the best and look forward to her thoughts maturing towards something that can manifest logically for the good of all. I commend her for trying (while still humorously noting the sheer nonsense of the statement).
” Think of all of the money being spent to provide school lunches that get thrown away”
Think about all the kids that depend on those lunches because either there is nothing at home to eat. Why do tighty righties always hate school lunches? Oh, because they don’t have kids in school and or hate to spend a penny for someone else’s sustenance.
Hi Joe Sixpack
This is via CNN
https://constitutioncenter.org/images/uploads/news/CNN_Aug_11.pdf
“Well-regulated in the 18th century tended to be something like well-organized, well-armed,
well-disciplined,” says Rakove. “It didn’t mean ‘regulation’ in the sense that we use it now, in
that it’s not about the regulatory state. There’s been nuance there. It means the militia was
in an effective shape to fight.”
In other words, it didn’t mean the state was controlling the militia in a certain way, but rather
that the militia was prepared to do its duty.
On “Shall not be infringed”
“While there is a common law right to self-defense, most historians think that it would be
remarkable news to the framers of the Second Amendment that they were actually
constitutionalizing a personal right to self-defense as opposed to trying to say something
significant about the militia,”
I tend to disagree here because people in the late 18th century engaged in duels over honor, and also carried weapons openly for self defense, protection from robbery, protection from hostile Native Americans. That is a way wider range of weapons carry than we allow today
The historical precedent was open carry of the best weapons of the day – that you could afford – even if you weren’t in any militia, had no training.
That said, I’m in favor of single trigger pull, single shot weapons, in favor of registering firearms, banning felons from possession, age limits, mental health exclusions, firearms safety tests at point of purchase, waiting periods (with exceptions. ex: person with violently abusive, life threatening partner)
VOICE – just to update about the “good guy with a gun” “solution” you have – at least two “good guys” tried to stop the shooter from entering the school. They were both shot. A third “good guy” was there, the school resource officer (armed guard), but not clear whether he fired any shots. To top it all off, the COPS (aren’t they the best “good guys with guns?”) were there OUTSIDE the school for ONE HOUR as the guy was barricaded inside and shooting.
So, ONCE AGAIN, good guys with guns failed. We need a better solution. What more will it take before we finally go after the real problem – guns.
BICYCLIST – good point. So, it was even more reprehensible that the cops didn’t charge in. Sad to say, it’s starting to look like the cops were pretty useless here, as the school cop in Parkland was. Once again, this shows how weak and toothless the “good guy with a gun” argument is.