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SAN
JOSE POLICE DEPARTMENT INFORMATIONAL BULLETINE FOR SCHOOLS On Monday, April 7, the following bulletin was sent by the San Jose Police Department to all public and private schools in San Jose, grades K-12th. Please review it for your own information. For presentations relating to Islam in school classrooms http://www.ing.org/speakers/page.asp?num=1 or training seminars for teachers & school administrators on interacting with Muslim children & curriculum pertaining to National & California Contents Standards http://www.ing.org/speakers/page.asp?num=16, contact ING at Mail@ing.org. San Jose Police Informational Bulletin for Schools: 1. Policy statement on student demonstrations/protests 2. Press release by the Islamic Networks Group asking for tolerance for Middle Eastern students. 3. Advisory statement by the Santa Clara County District Attorney on free speech rights and responsibilities. San Jose Police Policy on Student Demonstrations/Protests San Jose Police officers are committed to protecting the safety of students and the public, balanced with the Constitutional rights of assembly and free speech. Officers who are called to a student demonstration will maintain the public peace and safety, as the situation requires. This may include escorts, traffic control, and observation. Officers may arrest law violators if it is in the best interest of the students and/or the public. We are available to assist school administrators to accommodate safe student assemblies in lieu of demonstrations, protests or marches. Questions should be referred to the SJPD School Liaison Unit at 277-5263. POLICY GUIDELINES FOR TEACHERS & ADMINISTRATORS Islamic Networks Group (ING)/Islamic Speakers Bureau Program With tens of thousands of children of Middle Eastern and Muslim background in public & private schools throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, we are deeply concerned about their personal safety & security during the war with Iraq. Typically there is a rise in discrimination, harassment, and hate crimes during times of conflict involving a particular ethnic or religious group. During the Gulf War in 1991, such incidents occurred in schools across the country. Some of these included: 1) Racially & religiously motivated teasing that often went unchecked by school officials. Common slurs included "camel jockey" or "sand nigger." 2) Harassment & degrading comments were often made in unmonitored areas, such as school buses, hallways, bathrooms, school parking lots, cafeterias, locker rooms and libraries. These actions were not monitored or addressed. 3) Muslim girls wearing the religiously mandated headscarf (hijab) were especially harassed, called "rag heads" and often had their scarves pulled off. 4) Classroom discussions about the war often focused on "us" and "them", relegating students of Arab & Muslim background to a position of "the enemy" 5) Classroom discussions often lacked sensitivity towards innocent Iraqi civilians who died in the war. We call on teachers & school administrators to: 1) Understand & be sensitive to what students of Middle Eastern & Muslim background experience during times of conflict involving the Middle East or Muslim regions: many feel overwhelmed by events and embattled in school, or that they need to either justify or explain events. Some may exhibit fear of coming to school or being academically punished for their views. They may feel embarrassed, humiliated or degraded by statements or responses to current events and may generally feel that their own feelings do not matter. 2) Be sensitive in classroom discussions relating to the war or any other conflict concerning people of the region. Be supportive in words and deeds of a collective, inclusive, and positive feeling in the classroom & school, avoiding discussions that refer to "us" and "them." 3) Implement a zero tolerance policy for discrimination or hate from any one in the school, whether student or staff, and provide supportive practices and instructions for implementation of this policy. 4) Acknowledge and deal with personal views on current events which may affect the school's and its staff's academic responsibility to be objective and neutral in education. For example, school staff cannot appear to support a particular political point of view. Teachers in particular should allow for questions and differences of opinion, which must be grounded in civil discourse and mutual respect. Remember, that these issues not only impact students of Arab and Muslim background, but also Sikh children and other children of color who may be confused with being Arab or Muslim or who may be targeted because it presents an opportunity to those who harbor feelings of hatred to certain groups. Hate towards any group is unacceptable. Teachers and school administrators can be proactive creating a safe, comfortable and supportive environment for all students by preventing hate before it starts. INFORMATIONAL GUIDELINE TO FREE SPEECH RIGHTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office Over thirty years ago the United States Supreme Court stated: "First Amendment Rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either teachers or students shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) 393 U.S.503, 506. Accordingly, school disciplinary policies must be balanced against student and teacher's rights to free speech. With this in mind both the California Education Code and case law provide tools and guidance to ensure student and campus safety by delineating what types of student speech are permissible and which types may be suppressed. Permissible student speech: In the exercise of their right to free speech, students may: - Use bulletin boards; - Distribute printed materials or petitions; - Wear buttons, badges or other insignia; or - Use official school publications, whether or not such publications are supported financially by the school, or by the use of school facilities. Adult free speech on school campus: Adults who are not affiliated with a school may come onto school campuses for the purpose of distributing literature or talking to students, subject to the school's right to: 1) prevent disruption and disorder, and 2) forbid or control access in a nondiscriminatory manner. Regulation of such activity may extend to nonstudent activity on public or private property adjacent to the school grounds, if the activity is carried on in such a manner as to disturb or tend to disturb the peace or order of classes, even if such activity would normally be protected speech. Adults may picket on sidewalks adjacent to schools, but may not interfere with the order of the school, or access to the school. Student and adult free speech rights are subject to reasonable time, place and manner regulations. Education Code §48950(f). Standard for time, place and manner regulations: 1) must be narrowly drawn to channel speech, rather than to eliminate it, so as not to interfere with other important interests, 2) must use objective standards to clearly define prohibited areas, and 3) must not discriminate. - The regulations must be clear and easy to understand so that people of ordinary intelligence have a reasonable chance of understanding the regulations. - For example: schools may regulate the materials used to post handbills, or the locations in which they may be posted. - Time, place and manner restrictions on student speech apply both on and off campus. Speech, which may be, perceived as associating the school with a political position: - When students or teachers are engaged in speech which members of the public might reasonably perceive to bear the imprimatur of the school, the school has a great deal more authority. In particular, a school retains the authority to refuse to sponsor speech that might reasonably be perceived to associate the school with any position other than neutrality on matters of political controversy Student speech that may be suppressed: Under Education Code §48907 student speech may be suppressed if the speech: 1) is obscene, libelous or slanderous; 2) creates a clear and present danger that a) it will cause students to commit unlawful acts on school grounds, or b) substantially disrupt the orderly operation of the school; or 3) Invades or collides with the rights of others. Obscene, libelous or slanderous speech: School officials may suppress obscene, vulgar, lewd, obscene or plainly offensive speech. - Profane speech may be limited, as that does not restrict a student's right to free speech, but rather the form he/she may use to express his/her ideas. Disruptive/Dangerous speech: Standard is "clear and present danger": Speech that threatens violence against a specific person or group of persons, and that person(s) reasonably fears that the violence will be committed, and the person making the speech has the apparent ability to carry out the threat. - The danger must rise far above public inconvenience, annoyance or unrest. - Administrator's decision must be based on facts, not speculation or opinion. For example, students wearing armbands in protest of the Vietnam War, alone, did not present a clear and present danger of violence or disruption of class, absent any other supporting facts. - Peaceful demonstrations on campus are lawful. - Demonstrations that make so much noise as to drown out classroom discussion, or block entrances to class, or incite students to leave school are not lawful. - Fighting words or epithets are not protected when used to insult or abuse another person, rather than to communicate an idea, in a situation where there is an actual danger that it will cause a breach of peace. Invades or collides with the rights of others: All students have the right to participate fully in the educational process free from discrimination and hate violence. School Publications: Prior restraint of material prepared for school publication - School officials have the burden of showing the justification for suppressing student speech without any undue delay, prior to taking any action to actually limit that speech. - A public high school newspaper, written and edited by students in a journalism class as part of a regular classroom activity, taught by a faculty member during normal classroom hours and for which the students receive grades is not a forum for public expression and school officials are entitled to regulate the contents in any reasonable manner. Discipline: School districts shall not make or enforce any rule subjecting a high school pupil to disciplinary sanctions solely on the basis of speech or other forms of communication that, when engaged in off campus is protected free speech. Education Code §48950(a). - Under California law, students may still be disciplined for unprotected speech such as extortion, threats, obscenity, profanity or disruption of school activities. Education Code §48900. Use this information as a guideline only. For specific policy and procedures, consult your School District legal counsel. |
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