BILL NUMBER: ACR 149 AMENDED BILL TEXT AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 19, 2014 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Weber(Principal coauthor:Assembly MemberLowenthal)(Principalcoauthors:SenatorsJacksonand Mitchell)MAY 13, 2014 Relative toFemicide and Gendercide Prevention andSchool Attendance Awareness Month. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST ACR 149, as amended, Weber.Femicide and Gendercide Prevention andSchool Attendance Awareness Month. This measure wouldproclaim May 2014, and each month of May thereafter, Femicide and Gendercide Awareness and Prevention Monthdesignate 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 . Fiscal committee: no. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.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; andWHEREAS, 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; andWHEREAS, 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; andWHEREAS, 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; andWHEREAS, 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; andWHEREAS, 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; andWHEREAS, A shocking number of women are killed within their own walls through domestic violence; andWHEREAS, Rape and sexual exploitation remain a reality for countless women, and millions of women are trafficked, some sold like cattle; andWHEREAS, 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; andWHEREAS, The State of California condemns, and desires to combat, all acts of violence against women, be it femicide, gendercide, sexual exploitation, or rape; andWHEREAS, 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 itResolved 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 furtherResolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.