The Los Angeles Unified School District could begin a process Tuesday to rename schools and commemorate farm workers instead of César Chávez Day, prompted by last week’s allegations of sexual assault allegations against the late labor leader.
LAUSD’s Board of Education is expected to hold a special meeting Tuesday, when they are expected to discuss an update to the district’s strategic education plan. Also on the agenda, the board is expected to consider a resolution introduced by members Kelly Gonez and Rocio Rivas via an emergency rule.
The resolution calls for an expedited process to rename the Cesar Chavez Learning Academies in San Fernando, and Cesar Chavez Elementary School in El Sereno — with the renaming to be finalized by the fall, according to the resolution. The process would include engagement with students, families, educators and community members.
If approved, the resolution also calls on the district to recognize March 31 as “Farm Workers Day,” honoring the collective contributions of farm workers and their enduring impact on communities.
The resolution comes after an explosive investigation by The New York Times, which detailed allegations that Chávez sexually assaulted female followers as young as 12 in the 1970s, and raped United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, now 95, in 1966.
Chavez was a leader in the famed Delano Grape Strike.
Members of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, a predominantly Filipino and AFL-CIO-backed labor organization, conducted a strike against table grape growers in the Kern County city about 30 miles north of Bakersfield that began on Sept. 8, 1965.
The predominantly Mexican National Farmworkers Association, which Chávez founded alongside Huerta, joined the strike eight days later. The two groups merged in August 1966 to create United Farm Workers.
Strikes and boycotts ended in 1970 after 26 table grape growers signed contracts with UFW.
The Times had said its investigation was based on interviews with more than 60 people, including top Chavez aides at the time, and also his relatives and former members of the UFW.
LAUSD’s resolution called “Standing with Survivors and Recognizing Farmworkers,” names Huerta, as well as Ana Murguia, Debra Rojas and Esmeralda Lopez — as individuals harmed by Chavez.
“…The Governing Board of the Los Angeles Unified School District stands in solidarity with survivors… who should never have been forced to endure the harm of the abhorrent and repetitive abuse and sexual violence committed against them, or carry the burden of society’s expectations in silence for decades,” the resolution reads.
LAUSD would be expected to provide resources and counseling for its students and school communities, recognizing the revelations may be triggering and traumatic. District officials would also provide accessible, student- and family-friendly information on how to report incidents of sexual violence.
The district would further “strengthen age-appropriate, culturally responsive instruction on consent, healthy relationships, and recognizing abuse, aligned with existing health education standards…,” the resolution reads.
The Board of Education previously approved a resolution honoring the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez on March 10.
LAUSD is among several municipalities and government agencies taking action to recognize farm workers, and the removal of public dedications to Cesar Chavez.