Amended in Assembly June 19, 2014

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 149

Introduced by Assembly Member Weber

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(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Lowenthal)

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(Principal coauthors: Senators Jackson and Mitchell)

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May 13, 2014

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 149—Relative to begin delete Femicide and Gendercide Prevention and end delete begin insert School Attendance end insert Awareness Month.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 149, as amended, Weber. begin delete Femicide and Gendercide Prevention and end delete begin insert School Attendance end insert Awareness Month.

This measure would begin delete proclaim May 2014, and each month of May thereafter, Femicide and Gendercide Awareness and Prevention Month end delete begin insert designate the month of September 2014 as School Attendance Awareness Month, and would encourage public officials, educators, and communities in California to observe the month with appropriate activities and programs end insert .

Fiscal committee: no.

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WHEREAS, The Legislature and the Governor enacted a local
control funding formula and clearly established school attendance
as a matter of great state interest by explicitly identifying pupil
engagement, as measured by school attendance and chronic
absenteeism rates, as a state priority; and

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WHEREAS, The Legislature first enacted Senate Bill 1357 of
the 2009-10 Regular Session to establish the definition of a
“chronic absentee” as a pupil who misses 10 percent or more of
school for any reason, making no distinction between excused and
unexcused absences; and

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WHEREAS, For the first time, every county office of education,
school district, and charter school in California is required to
calculate chronic absenteeism rates and establish specific goals
and actions to improve pupil engagement; and

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WHEREAS, The impact of chronic absenteeism hits low-income
pupils and children of color particularly hard if they do not have
the resources to make up for lost time in the classroom.
Low-income pupils and children of color are more likely to face
systemic barriers in getting to school, including unreliable
transportation, lack of access to health care, unstable or
unaffordable housing, and even unfair discipline policies; and

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WHEREAS, Improving school climate, reducing instruction
missed due to discipline policies and out-of-school suspensions,
and implementing schoolwide positive behavior intervention and
support systems and restorative justice practices can have a
significant impact on improving attendance; and

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WHEREAS, School attendance improves, and chronic
absenteeism is significantly reduced, when schools, parents, and
communities work together to monitor and promote good
attendance and address hurdles that keep children from getting
to school; and

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WHEREAS, Schools and school districts must do more to track,
calculate, and share data on how many and which pupils are
chronically absent so that schools and communities can work to
deliver the right interventions for the right pupils; and

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WHEREAS, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson,
Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, Secretary of California Health
and Human Services Diane Dooley, Chief Justice Tani G.
Cantil-Sakauye, and others have joined efforts to combat chronic
absenteeism to encourage state and local action to improve the
overall health, safety, and well-being of our children by promoting
public awareness and reforms that improve school attendance;
now, therefore, be it

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Resolved by the Assembly of the State of
California, the Senate thereof concurring, That
the Legislature designates the month of September 2014 as School
Attendance Awareness Month in the State of California, and
encourages public officials, educators, and communities in
California to observe the month with appropriate activities and
programs; and be it further

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Resolved, That the Legislature hereby joins with other
communities across our nation to increase awareness of the
importance of school attendance by addressing school attendance
barriers and the root causes of chronic absence; and be it further

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Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit
copies of this resolution to the Superintendent of Public Instruction,
the Attorney General, the Secretary of California Health and
Human Services, the Chief Justice of California, the author, and
the coauthors for appropriate distribution.

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WHEREAS, According to estimates by the United Nations
(UN), up to 200 million women and girls are demographically
missing, which implies that the number of missing women, killed
for gender-related reasons, is of the same magnitude as the
estimated 191 million human beings who have lost their lives
directly or indirectly as a result of all the conflicts and wars of the
20th century; and

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WHEREAS, The kidnapping by militants of approximately 300
Nigerian girls from Chibok Government Girls Secondary School
in April 2014 has caused a worldwide outcry for their release and
has brought world attention once again to crimes against girls and
women; and

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WHEREAS, This type of gender-related violence has become
too common globally and has been identified by the world
community by the terms “femicide” or “feminicide.” The term
femicide was introduced in 1976 by feminist author Dr. Diana
E.H. Russell while testifying at the International Tribunal on
Crimes Against Women in Brussels, and means the killing of
females by males because they are females, or the misogynous
murder of women by men. Another applicable term is “gendercide,”
which was first coined by American feminist Mary Anne Warren
in her 1985 book, “Gendercide: The Implications of Sex Selection,”
and refers to gender-selective mass killing; and

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WHEREAS, Examples of femicide have been occurring in cities
such as Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, since 1992, where more than 1,400
women and girls have been killed; and

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WHEREAS, Examples of gendercide have been common
practice in countries such as China and India, where the UN
estimates over 200 million baby girls have been killed because
they are undesirable and even unacceptable; and

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WHEREAS, Women live in a very insecure world where many
fall victim to gender selective abortion and infanticide; other
women do not receive the same amount of food and medical
attention as their brothers, fathers, and husbands; other women
fall prey to sexual offenders, honor killings, and acid attacks, most
often for refusing a suitor; and scores of women succumb to the
special horrors and hardships that conflict, war, and postconflict
situations reserve for girls and women; and

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WHEREAS, A shocking number of women are killed within
their own walls through domestic violence; and

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WHEREAS, Rape and sexual exploitation remain a reality for
countless women, and millions of women are trafficked, some sold
like cattle; and

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WHEREAS, The State of California commends the Obama
Administration for helping the international community, and the
Nigerian government, by sending a team of military, law
enforcement, and hostage negotiators to do everything they can to
recover these young ladies; and

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WHEREAS, The State of California condemns, and desires to
combat, all acts of violence against women, be it femicide,
gendercide, sexual exploitation, or rape; and

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WHEREAS, Educating the public about the evils of femicide
and gendercide, including the adoption of a Femicide and
Gendercide Awareness and Prevention Month, are effective tools;
now, therefore, be it

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Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby proclaims the
month of May of 2014, and each month of May thereafter, as
Femicide and Gendercide Awareness and Prevention Month; and
be it further

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Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.

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