Sacramento Bee's Daniel Weintraub picks up on CRI's concerns on the AB 537 task force recommendations. The following informtion is important for all individuals but especially important for educators and school board members. It is relevant to any discussion of hate crimes, tolerance, or discrimination issues to make it very clear that Capitol Resource Institute believes in equal protection for all victims of crime. No persons, especially children, should be subjected to ridicule, harassment, or violence. However, any law or laws, rules, regulations or policies that seek to elevate the suffering of one person or group of persons over the suffering of another person or persons should not be tolerated.
All persons deserve equal protection.
CRI believes that recently passed laws and the following recommendations and strategies unduly burden schools with granting unequal protections. Last year, Delaine Eastin, California s Superintendent of Public Instruction, formed a 36-member task force called the AB 537 Advisory Task Force. The members were charged with incorporating new nondiscrimination laws into already existing hate-motivated violence policies for every school in the state. It is widely accepted that this task force has taken an overly broad approach in interpreting the intent and purpose of those laws. To clarify what the laws say, what the task force recommendations say, and what is expected of local schools and districts.