By Harold Pierce | hpierce@bakersfield.com
Bakersfield.com
September 14, 2017
A coalition of community groups is hosting a meeting Friday informing the public of steps moving forward after the Kern High School District settled a major discrimination lawsuit in July.
That lawsuit alleged KHSD engaged in a years-long pattern of discriminatory disciplinary practices against black and Latino youth. The district settled for $670,000 and a series of remediation programs, including hiring expert consultants to improve school climate and address disciplinary matters.
The meeting will allow the public the opportunity to meet with those consultants who will be fully implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), a system that establishes student support and a social culture conducive to academic, social and emotional health.
“They [the experts] want to get a sense of what the community is like here,” Gerald Cantu, spokesman for The Dolores Huerta Foundation, a party to the lawsuit, said. “We really want to just give them a taste of what it’s like here on ground zero and what some of the issues the community is facing here and what the culture is like.”
The meeting is being organized and directed by Building Healthy Communities, The Dolores Huerta Foundation, Faith in the Valley Kern, Equal Justice Society, the National Brotherhood Association, California Rural Legal Assistance, Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.