The past couple of months have been an unknowing time for the Black Student Achievement Plan (BSAP) at LAUSD schools. A program dedicated to uplift and improve the graduation rate among black students in LAUSD schools has been in the crossfire of individuals saying that it is discriminatory.
However, a conservative group from Virginia—Parents Defending Education—claimed the program violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and The Equal Protection Clause in a complaint written to the Department of Education.
“The Los Angeles Unified School District is offering race-based programming for some students that is not open to all,” the complaint said.
Part of the Civil Rights Act they reference says, “no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” This quote was also included in a letter from the Department of Education.
Since the program is specifically used to support black students, LAUSD can no longer base those within it on any factors such as race or gender.
Students Deserve is a student-led organization in many LAUSD schools which aims to “end the school-to-prison pipeline” and works towards implementing the Black Lives Matter movement in schools.
Students Deserve was also one of the organizations that helped push to create BSAP. The group is currently working to “put the black back in BSAP.”
The director of Students Deserve, Joseph Williams, said that Students Deserve has been extremely involved in the evolution of BSAP.
“There have been obstacles since the very beginning,” he said. “Every single year of BSAP the district has failed to spend really big percentages of the funding that they’ve committed to BSAP.”
According to Williams, “the district committed about 120 million dollars in the 2023-2024 school year and they did not spend almost 40 million of that.”
Students Deserve was one of the organizations that got that 120 million dollars per year invested in BSAP in the first place.
“There have been issues throughout, but BSAP has still been really transformative in bringing additional resources for black students who have some of the highest rates of school pushout, highest rates of criminalization, lowest graduation and college readiness rates.”
Williams said the current proposal suggests that it will still be called the Black Student Achievement Plan, but the district would remove the race of students as one of the factors for targeting resources.
Students Deserve has just been inducted as an official club at Venice after seven months of trying to get it approved, according to senior One Chan Love, a Venice Students Deserve co-president with seniors Billy Quinn and Pauline Lao.
Love said he had heard of pregnant 18 year old Manuela Hernandez, who was shot and killed by school police, as well as school police racially profiling, and randomly searching students on multiple campuses across the district, which led him to get involved in the organization.
“We have experienced lots of pushback,” Love said.
However, assistant principal Ernesto Guerrero said that there “was not such a push back.”
“Every club that is approved by the ASB has to include a statement that indicates that they’re not going to be part of a political organization,” he said.
“It was not a push back, it was finding out if that statement was included in their Constitution,” said Guerrero.
Guerrero said that it is a procedural process.
Venice BSAP Counselor Taylor Thomas said she did not have much information other than that “they’re trying to take the B out of BSAP.”
She said she had heard that the proposal had gone through but did not know when it would take effect.
BSAP helps support students at Venice through community partnerships.
“Next semester we will bring in more of the arts,” she said. “We do really lean more towards our community partnerships to help with certain areas that we are not trained in.”
Next semester, Venice will be working with the group Better Making of Men which mentors black young men.
Brandon Miller, the program coordinator of Better Making of Men said the goal is to “bridge the gap of things that students of color need to know moving into adulthood.”
“They need to be successful in the upcoming years,” he said.
He said that these programs are beneficial to helping young men.
“I don’t necessarily agree that it is discriminatory to say that this is a specific space for a certain demographic,” said Miller.
“It’s more so about creating a safe space, and if people are included into that space, but allow it to remain safe.”
Venice BSAP Counselor Evelyn Knox said that BSAP has “always been inclusive” but focuses on black student achievement because their academic profiles are “traditionally the lowest in the district.”
“Obviously the goal is to not have a specific thing, but that’s where we are,” said Knox.
“This office has become a safe haven for kids and it’ll continue to do that until they tell us we can’t do it.”
