No Justice, No Peace: The Sacramento Horror Story of SB 1530

October 19, 2012 (West Hollywood, CA)

By: Christopher Nikhil Bowen

No Justice

With the Miramonte Elementary School scandal fresh in the minds of all Angelenos, it was obvious that someone had to take action to protect our children from sexually predatorial teachers. (Video HERE)

The school took a hard approach but they had to walk a difficult tight rope, pleasing the teachers unions on the one side, and keeping parents and the rest of California from complete outrage on the other.  The true losers for the inaction of California “adults” however were/are the children.  But LAUSD’s hands were tied because the process for firing a teaching is incredibly convoluted in California thanks to the powerful teachers unions.  It seems like there would be no justice.

State Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima)

Luckily the state has elected some great leaders, especially from the Los Angeles area.  Alex Padilla (D- Pacoima) didn’t wait long.  He knew legislative action had to be taken to protect the most innocent and the most vulnerable amongst us, children.  SB 1530 was introduced in the State Senate February 27th, 2012 and took only 3 months to pass, and it did so with flying colors.  Of course it would go though. These are our children we are talking about. Who would do anything other than to vote in favor of such sensible legislation to protect them?

The bill arrived in the Assembly May 30th and on June 18th it was sent to the Committee on Education, where 11 Assemblymembers held the fate of SB 1530 in their hands.  Unfortunately, 4 members decided it was not important to cast their ballots in favor of the legislation, and abstained.  That action resulted in the bills’ death to the dismay of the Superintendent of LAUSD, as well as many Californians.  The four members who did not vote in favor of SB 1530 were Wilmer Amina Carter, Mike Eng, Das Williams, and Betsy Butler.  This really seemed like a cut and paste solution, and it should have yielded results. Instead it stalled and died because it was being held back.  Those four members may not have voted in favor of this bill according to many due to their financial ties to teachers unions.  These allegations are not coming from fringe sources either. An openly gay and respected journalist (Anderson Cooper) did a great ‘Keeping Them Honest” report where he tried to get answers from the four legislators as to why they shockingly chose to avoid this vote, and the footage is both unsettling and telling:

What we as should do as voters, as Americans and as a human beings is to hold those folks accountable for their vote.  It is widely known that lawmakers in Sacramento sometimes lose their way as their moral compass goes haywire.  Well, it may be widely known, and it may be quid pro quo to just go along to get along most of the time but this is NOT most of the time, this is SB 1530 and this is about the most vulnerable in our society; this is about our children. That was what a liberal society was created to do; to protect the rights of those who need it most.  And when people turn their backs on those innocent and most in need, I think it shows their true moral character.  These elected officials have some serious explaining to do. Not just to Anderson Cooper, not just to me, but to the people of California, but most importantly, to the children, the victims.  What kind of message are you sending to them when you can’t vote in favor of such a blatantly good bill.

Left to Right: Butler, Williams, Carter, Eng

How is it that  Assemblymembers Das Williams, Wilmer Amina Carter, Betsy Butler, and Mike Eng think this is okay?  Their collective inaction is beyond unfortunate, and I’m certain it should not be rewarded at the ballot box by voters.

No Peace

Good guys are supposed to win, and bad guys are supposed to lose! And pedophiles that feed on children should go to jail, especially if they have been entrusted by society to be guardians of those children.  Legislators are guardians of children too, how could they turn their backs on them?  SB 1530 should have passed, but it didn’t.  I know that Assemblymember Butler has done great progressive things for this state and this area, but that does not exonerate her from this issue.  You can’t be a good and moral legislator only when it’s financially convenient.  I could be wrong, and Assemblymember Butler may have a good reason for voting no, and she just didn’t want to share it with Anderson Cooper or the rest of California.

But if you watch the footage, it doesn’t look like it.  Even if the legislation was flawed, why wasn’t a more perfect piece of legislation being offered by one of these four Assemblymembers?  Maybe they think if they get another term they will get around to it.

Like I said before, I think those legislators have some explaining to do.  But until that time, NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE! Lets get some answers, and then lets get substantiate legislation on the books pronto to protect our kids!