Fix School Discipline Toolkit for Educators | Page 23

Highlight: Garfield High School
Los Angeles Unified School District

InnerCity Struggle

InnerCity Struggle is a non-profit organizing
youth, families, and community residents to build
power and promote safe, healthy, and non-violent
communities in the Eastside of Los Angeles since
1994. In 2003, they began organizing to secure the
construction of a new high school to alleviate the
overcrowding issues affecting Garfield High School,
which was, at the time, the only high school in East
Los Angeles. In 2010, as a result of their organizing
and advocacy, a new comprehensive high school
was opened, which relieved Garfield. With a smaller
student population, school leaders were positioned
to implement academic and best practices around
alternatives to discipline, such as school-wide positive
behavior intervention and supports and small
learning communities.

How did you begin organizing around
changing Garfield High School?
Maria Brenes, Executive Director, previously
Youth Organizer: In 2003, United Students, a
campus-based student organization supported
by InnerCity Struggle, was frustrated with the
overcrowding and high dropout rates at Garfield
High School. Garfield was originally built for 1,500
students but was instead attempting to serve 5,000
students on a year-round, staggered, multi-track
system. Some tracks were preferred and, therefore,
there was entrenched inequality of course offerings,
academic opportunities and quality of teaching
staff. There seemed to be no incentive to support
all students to remain in school and this lead to the
implementation of policies such as a tardy room,
where students were sent and held for long periods of
time if they arrived at school even 1 minute late, and
high suspension rates. United Students launched a
campaign to eliminate the tardy room. After securing
a commitment from Garfield administration that they
would eliminate the tardy room and implement a
proactive approach, the school Principal changed and
the tardy room was returned. We realized we needed

to address the root cause of the multiple issues
impacted by overcrowding.
The following school year United Students then
started organizing to educate the community about
what was happening at Garfield – low graduation/
high dropout rates (only 1 in 16 entering 9th graders
graduated and enrolled in a four-year California
public university), low college/career readiness,
and the tardy room – and they collected more than
7,000 signatures in support of the construction of
a new high school. That year, 400 youth, parent,
and community members from our organization
marched to LAUSD demanding that they approve the
construction of the new school.
Once the construction of the new school was
approved in 2004, we then focused on the academic
structure of the new school and researched data
and best practices. We also surveyed more than
6,000 Eastside community members about the
type of school they wanted the new school to be.
In 2007, InnerCity Struggle released a report that
outlined policy recommendations from families
and students. We wanted to make sure that the new
school wouldn’t replicate the problems of the old
school. We wanted a small learning communities/
small schools model, A-G course offerings, career
preparedness, a culturally relevant curriculum, and
wrap-around support services for all students. We
demanded that teachers work in teams to submit
proposals for operating the five small schools on
the campus to demonstrate their plans were high
quality and aligned with the community’s vision. We
wanted Eastside residents to have excellent choices
for high school and worked with teachers to develop
proposals.
In 2009, while we engaged in the campaign to ensure
that the new school opened with quality instructional
models, we raised the urgency for improving
Garfield’s academic program to school and district
officials. In July 2009, the administrative and teaching
staff were directed to come up with a plan to increase

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