News & Commentary

Imagine this scenario: A student speaks out of turn in class and is immediately referred to the principal’s office then suspended from school for three days. This is the harsh reality of a catch-all school disciplinary code commonly known as “willful defiance” that causes California students to lose an estimated 250,000 days of instruction each year.All students have the right to a quality education regardless of who they are and what they look like. However, the overuse of the willful defiance punishment for minor misbehavior puts too many students on the path to failure, mostly students of color and students with disabilities. We know that suspending students for nonviolent incidents forces them to miss critical classroom time, causing many to fall behind and prompting some to drop out altogether.

Assistant Chief Nisleit must answer key questions to demonstrate the SDPD will ‘protect and serve’ all San Diegans fairly, equally and effectively under his leadership.Testimony of ACLU Senior Policy Strategist Christie Hill offers insights, raises questions at first of two City Council hearings to confirm next Chief of Police.

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Download a PDF version of the statement from CPAT here.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice is expected to reverse an Obama-era policy today that discouraged federal prosecutors from bringing charges against marijuana users in states where marijuana is legal. This decision would directly impact residents of the six states and the District of Columbia who have already legalized marijuana use, and should the change also affect medical marijuana regulations, could impact other states. It also represents a reversal on the administration’s past viewpoint that marijuana legalization was an issue best left to the states.