Goleta Union School District responds to racial slur incident involving students

Published November 22, 2022 6:17 pm

GOLETA, Calif. – The Goleta Union School District is responding to reports of a racially motivated incident at one of the district's schools.

In a statement, the school district said there had been a recent report that the N-word was used towards Black students.

The district said the statement from Superintendent Galindo-Roybal was sent out to families and staff on November 9.

News Channel 3-12 obtained the statement on Tuesday.

"In GUSD, we take the use of any derogatory and racial language within our schools very seriously," said Galindo-Roybal. "We reaffirm GUSD’s commitment to ensuring that our schools are physically, socially, and emotionally safe spaces for all children, specifically our Black children."

"We value the strength of diversity in our schools and community," said Galindo-Roybal. "I realize we still have much to accomplish in our effort to eliminate prejudice and bias among our students and staff."

Galindo-Roybal provided the following initiatives to support the district's efforts:

School Handbook
- Posted on each school’s website under the “About” tab
- Outlines how we implement Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) school-wide
- Includes logical, natural consequences to hold students accountable for their actions and restorative justice approaches to repair relationships that are developmentally appropriate for our Preschool through 6th grade population
Mental health support at every school
Comprehensive District-wide equity audit
Mandatory Implicit Bias Training for employees
Anti-Bias training for staff
Monthly Board reports on the topic of “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion”
Social Justice and Equity Task Force to develop the GUSD Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan for GUSD

"We all share the great responsibility to ensure that our students develop into kind, caring, and respectful human beings," said Galindo-Roybal. "With that said, our response to inappropriate and unsafe behavior will be developmentally appropriate to the age and maturity of the individual. We will strive to address and correct behavior in a manner that upholds the dignity of the child."

The statement did not specify where the incident happened, but did say, "elementary school provides a vast learning experience where children will make mistakes. Our job is to model, teach, and support children through those mistakes, so they learn to not repeat them."

For more information on the Goleta Union School District, visit: www.gusd.us.

Below are the student handbooks for each GUSD school. The statement mentioned can be found on each school's website.

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