OPINION: Mauro Bautista, principal of Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez High School in Los Angeles.
For the past three years, students and adult allies have built a campaign to end the dehumanizing and demoralizing 26-year practice of randomly pulling secondary students, some as young as 11, out of class — without cause — to search their bodies and their belongings for weapons with metal detector wands.
But last month, inspired by a coalition of youth leaders, educators, community advocates and researchers, the Los Angeles Unified School Board passed a resolution to finally end this practice, jump-starting the path toward truly restorative schools. This is a powerful and long-overdue win.
