By Sadie Fulton

The most memorable moment of the entire tour was looking at the child’s eyes through the glass. He looked nervous, curious and resentful all at once.

We weren’t allowed to meet the children, so this is all the contact I had with them. One young teenage boy staring out at me from his bedroom. All the kids were locked in their rooms, presumably, to allow us to tour what was basically their living room.

This teen boy that had presumably traveled thousands of miles to be locked away in Yolo County was in a cell in what the warden referred to as a “pod,” which is really a somewhat nice cell block. We were shown two of three “pods”, on the tour of the Yolo County Juvenile Detention Facility, which is under contract with the controversial Federal Office of  Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Each “pod” had a seating area, some colorful chairs that looked like a plush sofa except that it was made of plastic and had no cushions. They had a huge mural on the wall.

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The Davis Vanguard is alleged to have participated in a political campaign in violation of it's non-profit status. A form 13909 Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service Complaint against the Davis Vanguard was given to the Davisite by The Flatlander. The Flatlander received an anonymous envelope in its PO box containing the forms and other documents which appear to have been filled with the IRS.

The complaint is anonymously filed and the cover letter CC's The Sacramento Bee, The Davis Enterprise, The Daily Democrat, and The Flatlander.

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By Tom Owczarzak

I woke up this morning to fireworks.

And it got me thinking about my complicated relationship with my country. Big national holiday and all that.

I have never been able to fully understand how I feel about it all. Partly because I just learned too much in college that I was not able to ignore. When the image got cracked by knowledge but was never really replaced.

And that made me think of my equally complicated relationship to religion – which feels the same.

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Photo by Iggie Walsh 

By Michelle Jillian Bailey

As I sit here, in my air-conditioned home, the high will reach 106* today. I am reminded of other hot summer Saturdays of my youth. My summers, ages 10- 12 (that’s too many years ago to attempt the math!), consisted of lessons at Happy Horse Riding School. Happy Horse was located on Road 96 and was the idyllic camp for young horse lovers. It consisted of riding lessons in a covered arena, vaulting lessons (gymnastics on horseback) and even written horse education.

If you are familiar with Davis, you know that Road 96 is way out there. Even today, on Google maps, there is Davis, and then there is a lot of blank lines before you reach Road 96. In fact, it is just shy of six miles from my childhood home. Six miles. In 106*. For a 10-year-old. On a bike. Let that sink in for a minute.

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The Council of University of California Faculty Associations, an umbrella organization for the Faculty Associations (FAs) at each UC campus,  Joins the Call for University of California to end relationship with General Dynamics over GD's role in immigrant minor separation camps. 

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UC-AFT Demands End to UC Contract with General Dynamics Over Role in Child Separation

By Tom Owczarzak

Last night got – complicated.

We are not leaving this hospital anytime soon.

I am here alone in the silence – this is becoming way too familiar.

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By Dianna Huculak, President of the Davis Teachers Association

At the end of the school year, educators in our district received an email from Director of secondary education Troy Allen, which among other things, told us that our students would not be able to have new textbooks next year because of increased compensation for teachers.   Based on this email, many teachers expressed to me that they felt guilty that their salary increase hurt their students.   To me, and others who have worked in Davis for a period of time, this rhetoric from district office is all too familiar- a district message frame-repeated to the community that unfortunately pits nurses, counselors, teachers, psychologist, and all support staff against the children that we protect, nurture and serve.  It creates a false dichotomy which says anything that goes to the support the livelihood of the people in our school community, must take something away from children.   It disrespects and minimizes the role of our school communities to create healthy spaces for children to grow and to learn.   Moreover, it’s not enough that teachers had to picket, write letters, show up at multiple school board meetings, for what basically amounted to a cost of living adjustment- we are also supposed to feel guilty about it.   What I didn’t realize at the time, was that apparently, this logic only applies to teachers.

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Image From Leidos website and Chancellor May 

By Nick Buxton

I’m glad to hear the university administration read my piece, although I wish it had led to some self-reflection about the ethics of education leaders holding corporate board positions – even more so when they are in the defense industry. Instead they have deployed a PR defense tactic of mis-characterizing my argument rather than addressing its core concerns. The fact that a university administration also spends public money defending a private corporation shows the costs of universities becoming ever more corporatized in recent years.

My article did not argue that Leidos was responsible for the latest Trump policy of separating children from their families, nor did I say that Chancellor May was responsible for this. However it is clear that Leidos is part of the border regime, and that May as a Board representative therefore naturally bears some responsibility and accountability for its activities.

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Dear Davis School Board Members, (boe@djusd.net)

I am so very disappointed in your leadership and continued support of the Superintendent’s agenda and request for additional salary for top administrators. You have been saying all year that teacher salaries are a priority yet your actions speak otherwise. Stop adding admin positions and stop increasing their pay!

This year I had an amazing student teacher, the kind that only comes around once every few years, and we lost her to a school 15 miles away. Although she loved being at Pioneer – she could not turn down $1,000 more take home pay per month plus a much better benefit package. After all – she has student loans to pay back!