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Teacher highlights Poderosas mural, credits youth organizing for ending Sac City Unified police contract
Summary
Vanessa Saenz Katabec, speaking on behalf of Sacramento City Teachers Association and Sac City Unified during a Hispanic Heritage Month message, described the Poderosas mural project and credited youth organizers with winning termination of a $3,000,000 contract between Sacramento City Unified School District and the Sacramento Police Department.
Vanessa Saenz Katabec, a teacher at Phoebe Hearst Elementary and second vice president of the Sacramento City Teachers Association, spoke during a Hispanic Heritage Month message on behalf of Sac City Unified and the union.
"On behalf of Sac City Unified and SCTA, I'd like to wish you a happy Hispanic Heritage Month," Saenz Katabec said. She introduced the Poderosas mural project, which celebrates nine Chicana and Latina leaders active in social justice and advocacy in the Sacramento Valley region, and directed listeners to the project's website, sacpoderosas.org.
Saenz Katabec described Alma Elizabeth Lopez Flores as the executive director of Brown Issues and said Flores "has transformed her community by cultivating the next generation of Brown leaders through healing, civic engagement, and narrative change." She said Flores led organizing that included the Councilors Not Cops campaign from 2018 to 2020.
Saenz Katabec said Brown Issues Youth "successfully demanded the termination of a $3,000,000 contract that Sacramento City Unified School District had with the Sacramento Police Department and reinvestment of those funds into mental health services, restorative approaches to school discipline, and social workers for the schools." Those statements were made as part of a commemorative Hispanic Heritage Month address rather than as part of a formal board action at the meeting.
The remarks combined community arts promotion and a brief summary of local youth organizing efforts tied to school safety and district spending. Saenz Katabec closed by encouraging viewers to learn more about the mural subjects and where the mural can be viewed and added, "Or to learn more about Chicana Latina inspirational figures, you can always ask a teacher."
