regards to focusing on training that focuses on deescalation and on mental health impacts and that police ing the teenage brain, just the phrasing of policing, institutes trauma. and we should really focus that we're interacting human beings, first and foremost. >> thank you, very much. >> thank you, so much. and before opening this up to public comment, i did notice we have judy lee from the public defenders office and i -- patty, i'm sorry. patty lee. patty, i don't know if you wanted to make comments. also, police commissioner cindy alias if you wanted to make comments before opening it up to the public comment.

i'm sorry, patty, i can't believe i got your name wrong. >> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you for convening this hearing. i think it's important, given the changes that we've seen in the law and given the incidents that occurred at balboa high school. what i wanted to bring to the attention this afternoon of this body is the fact that frankly, i think that the sb395 legislation that was enacted the first of this year, our office and i actually have miranda duty right now so if this phone goes off i have to take a callment we will field any calls from the police when there is a custodial interrogation of any child 15 and younger. in the past year, we're near the end of the year and we're keeping the data, we have fielded over 75 calls.

i wanted to talk about the impact of those calls, not only with the youth, but with the families. also, in terms of the interactions with the police and families and the communities. i think it has had a very sal you tory effect and it has helped to improve the relationships of the youth and families in the communities, with the police department. most of the youth that we work with, and i'd like to think about expanding this legislation in san francisco to all youth 17 and younger. there's not much of a difference between that 17-year-old brain and the 15-year-old brain. and in fact, most of the youth that we work with in our office have maybe 50 to 60% of these youth have educational

disabilities, have trauma, have ptsd, have unidentified disabilities. that really impact on their ability to understand important constitutional rights to protect them from self-incrimination and to protect them from false confessions. recent studies, over the past 10 years, have shown that nearly one-third, 35%, of proven e exoneration were false confessions. i think it's' it's easy to unded that, when you look at your own child, who might be in the situation of being interrogated or questioned, not freely, not having the parent around, and

then the police officer runs through the miranda rights. you have a right to a lawyer. anything you say can and be used against you towards the law. if you don't have an attorney one will be appointed to represent you. do you understand your rights? do you give them up? do you waive them? even qualities we work with do not understand it. so it's an inherently stressful situation and the brain science, over the past 10 years, has shown that children are developmentally different from adults. the cortex is not fully developed until 25 years of age and what we have found that in our calls, the police, and i thank the officers who are here have been supportive and collaborative. they've given us the time --

i've spoken to 12-year-old kids that don't even understand what a lawyer is. i'm trying to explain i'm a lawyer and talk to them about a prosecuting attorney. talk to them about waving important constitutional rights. and i will say that i have appreciated the support from the police department in providing us ample opportunities to provide a attorney consultation to the most vulnerable youth. frankly, if this miranda legislation was enacted for 17 and younger, i don't think we would have had this situation that arose at balboa high school. i think the police officers would have automatically called our office and we would have consulted with ch that child. we provide attorney

consultation. we calm that child down. we tell that child, we're going to contact your parents or guardian. we're going to let them know you are ok. we're going to work with the police officers. they're not going to intimidate you. you will be ok. and we have assured the parents and guardians and the youth that they can contact us at any time on the miranda phone. it has really improved the interactions and the relationships between youth and the police and the families in the communities. and frankly, i think that it's only fair to state that all of us, if it were our child, under a custodial interrogation, you better know that you would have your child lawyered up. for all the youth pushed into the juvenile justice system, indigenous youth, youth of color, they don't have the 16 and 17-year-olds now don't have that right of attorney

consultation. it's been a process that has really worked. it's sunshine in 2025 and i know that i will be pushing the legislature to expand the miranda consultation for all youth 17 and younger. i'm here to answer any questions if you have any. i know that it insures a process, it protects the kids and protects the community. >> thank you so much. any questions? no. >> i do have a question for commander lazar. >> thank you. >> thank you. i appreciate your comments, very much. commissioner alias. >> good afternoon, supervisors. first i'd like to thank you for having this hearing. it's a very important topic.

we appreciate you bringing this matter to light and gathering more information. i know that chief scott has been working or making efforts to build the bridge between the community, specifically the young adults and youth in our community, with the police department. i am happy that command ar lazar is here as well as lieutenant yolanda williams, who i think is a great resource and has worked with the youth in our community. i am looking forward to hearing public comment and finding the results in the m.o.u. efforts that will be made. thank you for in inviting me. >> supervisor peskin, do you want to ask a question before public comment? >> it might be helpful. let me associate myself with the comments of last speaker, relative to seemingly arbitrary age difference. i completely agree with. it seems like commonsense, i say that as the son of a social worker.

i did, relative to supervisor ronen who said it or commander lazar, but it seems to me that when you are taken down to a station and then not charged with anything, that seems kind of strange to me. i just wanted commander lazar to explain the situation, if you know anything -- if you know more details. >> thank you for that question. as mentioned earlier, we not only had reasonable suspicion to detain and investigate further but we had probable cause to arrest the three individuals that we brought to the station. one had the firearm. all three had clothing and all that stuff. i think, a lot of thought went in with captain hart and his team thinking about harm reduction, think about the trauma we're talking about here with the youth, when they engage with law enforcement and they

get detained. the trauma that happens and what happens thereafter. we go home and they're thinking about it and all that for days. i think, a great decision was made in the spirit of, you know, restorative justice, that ok, even though we have probable cause to arrest this person for the gun, this person as an accessory after the fact. this person who was somehow collaborating with the original guy that discharged the firearm. in the interest of justice, to slow down the trauma, let's release them and let's release them and let's have the district attorney make a decision about whether or not later on they should be charged. next week, i celebrate 27 years in the department. i cannot tell you a time in which a juvenile had a firearm in their position and coordinated and was an accessory after the fact to a firearm discharge in the school and they got to go back to their parents. that's the reasoning and the thought process why they weren't

charged. i asked why would they not be charged. kudos for the officers for thinking in those terms. i want to conclude by saying, captain hart went the following day and interacted with classroom to classroom to explain the why to reduce the effect of trauma. and captain hart and his team, i think a month prior, with 100 students, had a one-on-one street law class with them. mindfulness. that's what it's about for that team. thank you to be asking the questions and that's why they didn't go to jail that night or go to the juvenile justice center. >> thank you, commander. >> we will open this up to public comments. i'd ask the folks who want to speak would lineup on right side of the room.

state your first and last name into the microphone. if you have a written statement, provide it to the clerk. no applause and booing. speakers are encouraged to avoid repetition of previous statements. there are blue cards in the front of the room and it helps us if you have not already given us one, if you fill one out and give it to the clerk. so, first speaker. >> i'd like to ask if i could speak for my son and run over. my name is roberto pena. i want to say i'm a 20 year san francisco unified school district employee. i also have five police officers from sfu in my family. i'm here today because that was my son that was pulled out of balboa and a lot of what the officers said is not true. so i don't know if he was given

misinformation and i was the gentleman at the police station. i was never allowed in the police station. i just want to back up a little bit. the gun went off at 11:09. the principal had to call me to find out where my son was at because the school didn't know where my son was a lot during the lockdown. my son interacted with the kid with the gun that discharged it because school staff locked the bathroom on the third floor and my son had to come downstairs to use the bathroom. the kid went in there. if he plotted, the kid is a flesh man. my son is a senior. he is 17 years o he doesn't know the young man. it was over 15 kids in that bathroom. they detained four kids, according to the news. there was another name given to supervisor on the school board and another latino special-needs student who was detained and sfusd didn't know about it because sfpd released him to himself. his mom came to the meeting

that's how we found out this young man had been detained. the mom was never called or informed. so the gun went off at 11:09. i was on scene at 11:50. in communication with the principal. the principal asked me where my son was at. after i let the principal know where my son was at, he went up to the room with four officers and they extracted my son with ar-15s and shotgun in front of his classmates. in front of his teacher. there was 15 officers we were told per floor with ar-15s. officers escort the media to the front of the school where my son was there. >> i'm sorry, sir. your time is expired. can i get my son's time. my son is here. >> i'm looking at the clerk. we can't do that, according to our rules. we have my son's statement.

i hope you read it. there's a lot of work that needs to be done. i'm a district employee. it needs to change. >> thank you, sir. >> i will read the statement out after public comment. >> clerk: next speaker. >> thank you for having this hearing. thank you for letting me talk to you. i wish i could face the other way because hearing commander lazar's version of what he has been told just retraumtraumaties the situation for my family. having my son hear this version they would like to tell you, i mean, i'm thinking we're making progress in terms of trauma three months after the line. and this is just retraumatizing my family all over again. the statements are not true. i wish, if everything that the police are saying about wanting to work with the community, to

make things better and that the m.o.u. is coming up, i wish command ar lazar would have called me or my husband, who was there. who this did happen to. to see if everything that his subordinates were telling him. if the concern was there, there would have been other investigations to the families that it happened to. and let's talk about trauma and oh, let's have this brilliant idea of going in front of cayuga where all the parents were there scared for their children. they had a clear, front facial view of my child's face. not one police officer said, oh, let's cover his face with a hoodie. look down at least. not one. instead they were high-fiving each other, congratulating on the great work they had done. so, please, let's do the right thing here. it's not just about trying to save your image to the community because the hearing has been

called. please, review the policies. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello supervisors. my name is balam. i'm the district 11 youth commissioner and the chairperson to the youth commish. i'm here today to remind the commander sfpd they serve us, that means if the community is saying this is what happened, you don't make that uncreditable. after the incident happened, i did everything i could to reach into contact and to speak to the parents and students who were effected by this. i believe them. i believe when they tell me the stories that they've told me and that supervisor ronen will read in a statement, i believe them. it's frustrating that sfpd paints a narrative that we did the best we could, when yes, i believe commander lazar when he says sfpd did the best they could of their ability but that's not the case for the

community. what is best for sfpd is not best for the community and they need to remember they serve us. their goal shouldn't be about finishing as fast as possible and investigating and putting things together with your goal is to ensure that the students are safe and protected, that should be your main priority going into the school. ensuring that safety is there. there is no longer an active shooter to take care of the situation. your job is not to arrest young people right away and then disrespect them and alienate them. that is what happened. police officers need to remember that they are an oppressive figure to people of color. we do not trust you. you need to build trust before you tell us the narrative to what happened. there's no trust. especially after this event and the trauma that happened many of there's definitely no trust. it's frustrating because police officers, i have a lot of respect for them but time and time again they put their own needs before the needs of the

community. it should not be the case what sort the need of community should be put first. that's what a public servant, to the community, should be doing and it is so frustrating this incident occurred and i keep hearing excuses. >> clerk: thank you. next speaker. >> hello supervisors, members of the community. my name is charlie obermire. a big part of why the youth commission came out here today is because we have heard so much, so much from our community about how horrible this experience was, how poorly handled they feel it was as a situation. we've really looked into it as a result of that. the youth commission, we're tasked with trying to hold and convey the voice of youth in san francisco to the board of supervisors.

it's rare that, really, any event leads to such a ground swell of public comment. questions and requests that we share sort of what the community is feeling and we've been doing some research looking into some numbers. we found it truly, truly concerning statistic. of the over 2,000 san francisco police officers, fewer than 30, fewer than 30, have been trained, properly trained to interact with young people. there's a module called policing the team brain. this module of training details procedures and restrictions for police officers interactions with young people. fewer than 30 officers. so, when we come here and ask why did this sort of thing happen, how could it happen? how could these officers act in such a disrespectful way to members of our community,

ignoring a very big history of oppression and mistrust, we need to be looking to the procedures. who is actually being trained. not what is the official policy. how is it being implemented. who is being trained. ultimately we need to expand that to ensure that all officers on patrol are capable of respectfully interacting with young people in san francisco. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, board and community members. my name is grace, i'm a youth representative from the youth commission. i live in district 9. i'm currently a senior at school of the arts. i'm here today, as a high school student, i saw the outrage of other teenagers in my community towards the sfpd and sfuc's actions after the balboa high school incident. to my understanding, from going

to community events and talking about this issue, pro cols were not followed and sfpd did not understand how to handle this situation. because the balboa incident was so mishandled, i urge the board to follow the youth commission's history of juvenile push confirmation and push sfpd to continue their trainings, policing the teen brain. these trainings are important to train officers on deescalation tactics and how to spot biases and how to recognize indicators of trauma and mental health issues so another incident like this does not happen at another school. thank you again for your time. >> clerk: thank you. next speaker. >> hello, board, community. my name is jo i am the vice-cha.

i am here today because, as a district 4 representative i represent many students that go to sfusd and some that go to balboa high school. they have the right to feel safe where they go to school. school should be a safe place. a nurturing environment and learning. instead at balance owe a, even with this incident, it was severely mishandled and students did not feel safe. so, the transformative justice committee has a couple of recommendations we want to present to you. we believe in youth rights. we really believe that sfpd and sfusc should up hold them. we should make sure all children know what miranda rights are, how to get a lawyer. we need them to know so if they're in a situation they can be able to defend themselves and have their rights. also, an incident like this impacts the whole community, not

just the students and administrators involved. we need to have an investment in community healing and community or entered solutions that follow-up with youth and their families. thank you for calling this hearing and having me here. just wanted to give a quick shout out to the other organizations we're working with, some of which are here right now. young women's free center. huckle berry, project what and lar kin youth services, they're all paving the way for reforms in this area. thank you to them and thank you to the board. >> clerk: thank you. next speaker. >> good evening. my name is jordan, i'm the initiative director for road map to peace. i want to thank supervisor hillary ronen for calling this very important hearing. i just wanted to share that this unfortunate situation that happened at balboa, you know, it's extreme example of why this

m.o.u. needs to be revisited and strengthened. it needs significant amount of community input from various groups and families and many of the groups the young women just spoke about earlier. because it's such an example of how a young person's rights were completely violated, privacy confidentiality, this was a young man who was very, very involved in his community. a youth leader involved in various programs, supporting and mentoring other peers, football player in his school. it was an exceptional -- is an exceptional young man and was profiled really and his rights were violated. his face was blasted everywhere. there was very specific things that could have been done to protect his privacy or him not to have been detained. yet this young person went through that. the whole family was impacted.

when you read the statement later, you will see exactly how this situation exemplifies how the protocols were not followed and how these practices need to be improved and changed. also, looking at how to also restore situations when things happen. there wasn't this work around trying to restore what the school feels are restorative practices, that was not done in this situation. instead the experiences of the youth in the family were dismissed and there wasn't that process. i just wanted to thank you for holding this hearing and hearing from the community. >> clerk: thank you, next speaker. >> hi, supervisors, thank you for holding this very important hearing. my name is tracy brown. i'm with the mission peace collaborative and also with sciiu who have been supportive of the family and 100% behind

wanting to revisit the m.o.u. the m.o.u. is only as strong as the people who implement it. i think it was well written and well thought out. i think the youth commission and the youth groups did a great job. there's an incident that happened at balboa, with the kid who is a star kid on the football team. principal knew him. prance pal knew who he was. and when he was seen on video by the police, going into the bathroom, along with other kids of different ethnicities, the only ones called out for questioning were the latino and african american students. we know there's biases, i'm bringing it up because we need to get better at this. when at the station, i was at the station, the family was not allowed to be with their children. there were other parents there as well. they didn't know what was going on. we had to call patty lee. patty lee called the station and read them what they were supposed to do and that's how the parents got into the meetinf

harm done to the family and community. the school district held a meeting. it was supposed to be facilitated along with community and it was facilitated by the school district -- [ please tant b stand by ]

>> at coleman advocates we worked with the board of supervisors and some of the advocates in here to craft that last m.o.u. with the school district that doesn't go far enough because the police doesn't want to be police. they're out there doing their job to the best of their ability and sometimes their actions can go beyond what we think is necessary and doesn't always prioritize the young people who they're interacting with, so the idea about expanding the protections and the viability for young people to have a lawyer thinks about

great steps moving forward. i'm looking to working with others in the process to update that m.o.u., but there are some things that that m.o.u. won't be able to cover and do. that's why we need the board of supervisors to take a step and take leadership on this issue so we can make sure as youth who feel protected. as someone who grew up in san francisco, who had police harassment on me, had guns pulled on me, how do we make sure young people know their rights and are safe and aren't setup for experiences where -- incidents where they'll experience harm, injury, or incarceration? we're not setup for that, and the police need to. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> i'm here today as a concerned citizen, and to have this topic come before you in

2018, when i as a parent in the san francisco unified school district was dealing with this very issue in 2002 and thought that it had been resolved by my activity and others and everyone on board. but to see about this and hear about it from my living room and from neighbors that the very same issues with presented here to students being questioned without family present, without an ally there, i'm beyond troubled. i got over here from a research project. i said i have to get there because it's baffling.

i didn't tell my child who was at marshall in 2002, that this was still happening because we'd done so much to make certain that it didn't happen again, and yet here we are. so yes, we need the next level of assistance because clearly, the m.o.u. is not enough. we need another body involved. please get involved, and don't let time let this fade from your memory. it is imperative that you stay connect today this so it does come through to help families and students and the residents of the san francisco community. thank you. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. next speaker. >> supervisors, community members, i am tommy craig. i'm from coleman advocates, and i would like to speak specifically in support because i am a parent, i am a part of the community, and i know how

my community was affected. i had to have meetings with parent members as well as the youth because so many of our demographic was affected. parents, youth, everybody was traumatized. there were helicopters, there were people that felt that they didn't know what was happening. the entire community got locked down. it wasn't just balboa. i mean, the whole thing was a mess. and the one thing that wasn't protected was the rights of our students. i feel for the parent that that happened to, that that child was perp walked. like, that's something that should never have happened. as a minor, they don't put your face on t.v. so i want to end that suffering for any of the family members and community, and just to let you know they're children, they're human, right? they got treated like animals. they got locked in a cage, and we need to know how to figure out how we can support them

better, how do if we want relationships with the police, how do we get them to interact, and can we investigate further so people don't feel like they stories are being heard or they're being believed. that's one of the reasons why we have issues with the police because we feel like our stories aren't believed, or see, we have a video. that's the only way we feel like we can be believed. it's horrible, but it's true. no family should have to go through this where you're innocent until you're proven guilty. i ask that we definitely revisit the m.o.u. and strengthen it so that it protects the most vulnerable. thank you. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. next speaker.

>> good evening. my name is alatiita fischer, adoptive mother of four children within sfusd, in my 13th year as a parent and within sfusd. my two youngest have learning differences and other disabilities, and i'm really emotional right now because every time something like this happens, i think holy crap, my kid is next. i'm here because of my seventh grader, damian. he's the sweetest kid you'll ever meet. he's 13. he doesn't look like a kid, he looks like an adult. he's got adhd, sensory processing disorder. when he gets overwhelmed, when he get overstimulated, he shuts down. in a situation like this, i don't even want to think about what would have happened to

him. so while we need to not only revisit this m.o.u., we need to consider all of our student populations. we have a huge amount of disproportionality of sfusd of our african american students and latinx and pacific identifies lander being put into certain situations and not given the support they need. and we need to make sure that we've got all the appropriate safeguards in place, particularly in our m.o.u. to support students who need the additional layer of support, including training for all officers who work with students including cultural sensitivity. i want to just thank you very much for holding this hearing and for starting these challenging conversations and moving us forward, so thank you. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. supervisor peskin, you had told us you would have to leave at

4:30. thank you for staying an additional half an hour. >> supervisor peskin: thank you for calling this hearing. i am absolutely available to work with supervisor ronen's office and the p.d. and sfusd and really appreciate it. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. are there any further speakers who'd like to address us during public comment? seeing none, public comment is now closed. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor mandelman: vice chair ronen. oh, excuse me. public comment is now reopened. >> clerk: next speaker, please come forward. >> hello, everyone. my name is messiah and i'm an advocate with the youth commission. i am here today because i feel as a student i understand the trauma he's going through. i feel like no student -- well, no student, adult or child

should feel scared of a police officer, where their job is to keep the public safe. but instead, situations like these are traumatizing people more and more. so i feel like what these commissioners are doing, we should tell people about their rights, so they can know what to do in situations like this. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. >> supervisor ronen: thank you so much. >> supervisor mandelman: is there any additional speakers who would like to address us during public comment? seeing none -- here we go. >> i would like to thank you guys for having this presentation and hearing. it's very important to the community. my name is desmond jeffreys, past educator. also former teacher with san francisco unified. i'm here today speaking as an individual but also support the students and families, but also supporting san francisco police department. i know how hard it is to find that balance between safety and security, but also making sure

there's privacy and protection as well of the individual. finding that balance is important, and what i want to approach san francisco unified school district and the committee, when i was there as a teacher, we didn't have a lot of active shooter training. parents don't know the protocols, teachers don't know the protocols, students don't know the protocols. having a system of how things are going to be is going to be helpful. second, i think what needs to be taken into consideration i privacy. we need to consider and hold our children and our students to that same standard. i stand for a stable, safe, and supportive schools, and i hope you will, too. thank you. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you, are there any further

public speakers? seeing none, public comment is now closed. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor mandelman: vice chair ronen. >> supervisor ronen: thank you. first, i wanted to read the statement of the young man who i had referred to in my comments and whose parents spoke. sunday, september 2, 2018. on thursday, august 30, 2018, during passing period from homeroom to third period, i needed to use the bathroom. i tried to go to the third floor bathroom because it is on the same floor of my first-class. as i was walking down the stairs to the bathroom, i saw the kid in front of me. he went into the bathroom. i also entered the bathroom to use the stall. as i walked out of the stall, i saw the spider-man backpack with the bullet hole. i washed my hands and walked out. i saw roman and said what's up to him as i walked up the stairs to my class.

i also saw my friend sky letter by the bridge and asked him if he was going to class. he said he would be there in a minute. i still had no idea what happened. i got to my classroom, room 309. i sat down and started pulling my sketch book. my teacher followed the lockdown procedure. after 35 minutes into the lockdown, the phone rang. they were looking for rober roberto pena. i answered that is my dad. my dad called me to ask where i was, i told him room 309. he asked me if i was involved and i said no. ten minutes later, the swat tried to open the door but couldn't was it was locked. then freedom unlocked the door. the swat team pointed the rifles into the classroom and said sfpd. they asked if diego pena was here.

i said yet, right here. they pointed the rifles at me as they told me to standup, put my hands up and incident lace my fingers on the back of my head. when i was out of the classroom, they grabbed me, turned me around, and patted me down. after they patted me down, they asked me if i had a backpack. i said yes it's white and gray nike backpack. they asked me what i knew. i responded that i had heard that there was an accidental shooting in a classroom. they asked me if i knew who the student who shot the gun, i said no. they asked me if i knew what grade he was in. i said i think he's a freshman. i realize there were five police officers with me and four more officers are rifles guarding the hallway. as i was in the hallway with the officers being questioned, i saw my phone flash, notifying me that someone is calling. i assumed it was my dad, so i told free, i think it's my dad calling, can you call him. he said don't worry, i'm going

to be good. he texted me dad and said he was with me. freedom texted me the whole time and told me that he was going to be good. i was allowed to sit on the floor. after five minutes passed i saw two police officers come up the stairs. one police officer's pulled out handcuffs and they told me to get up. the police started talking to each other, then freedom told me that i was now a suspect and the officer cuffed me. they read me my miranda rights. they patted down again vigorously. i asked the officers where i was going, they said the station. i saw my coach, and i said don't worry, i'm going to be good. then i was walked out the main entrance. i saw the media at the corners and saw a lot of police cars. while i was being walked out of the black school gate, a reporter put a camera in my

face and took pictures. while the officer took me to the police car, everyone saw my face and knew who i was. as they put me in a car, i saw a parent i knew. he asked me what happened and i said i didn't do anything. while i was in the kari told the officers to tell anyone not to take any pictures of me. they didn't respond. i asked the officer which station i was going to, and they said ingleside. i told the officers to call my dad and gave them his name and number. the officers were it down on a napkin. they took me to the station. i waited in the car about three minutes. they opened the door of the car and asked me my name and address. they also asked me the name of my parents and a number. they took me out of the car and put me against a fence to wait. they told me i had to take a girl out of the community room and that i would be next. i saw my dad's car pull up and he started yelling.

my dad told the police that he depth wa didn't want them to talk to me at all. they pulled the girl out of the community room and put me in there. there were three officers in the room. i was still handcuffed when i was sitting in the chair. two officers were talking to me and the other officer was guarding the door. they searched my backpack again and didn't find anything. the police officers talked with me about the 49ers and football because of my sweatshirt. they asked me what position i play and i responded middle line backer. one of the officers said you must be strong then. i laughed. one of them asked me if i was hungry, and i responded no, i have food in my backpack. about ten minutes later, i asked if i could use the bathroom. i told him i could not use it and wash my hands. they put me back in cuffs and sat me down. about 40 minutes later, mr. lau came in and told me what the next steps were and that my parents were here and were

going to be in the room soon. he told me what he was going to say and ask me. he told me i could refuse. he walked out and three minutes later he walked back in with my parents. officer lau came in with the recorder, read me my miranda rights again and asked me if i wanted to cooperate. i said no. he then asked if i wanted to give a d.n.a. test and i said no. after the recording was over, my dad asked if he could ask me if the police had spoken to me. he said yes. my dad then asked me if the police officers had spoken to me, i answered yes. we were talking about football. my dad was super mad. officer 4r au told the officers not to talk to me anymore. from that point on, my dad stayed with me in the room the entire time until i was released. while i was in the room, the officers offered me water two times. i refused both tights. sergeant contreras came in and asked me if i had my medical. i said no. he came in five minutes later with some papers. my dad said he is not

responding to this because he should have been asked this when he got here three hours later. my dad and me were just talking to each other and had to wait for the lead investigator to tell us what happened next. the sergeant came in about 415. they took pictures of my face, and then we were let go. that's the statement. officer lozar, could you come back up? i have some questions -- commander, sorry. so you've heard now the testimony of the parents and heard the written testimony of one young man. can you respond to that? i guess my first question is why would it take three -- if the father arrived at the same time as his son, why would it

take three hours to allow the father in the room with his son? >> well, it shouldn't take three hours, and i think, as we talked about earlier, we have mentionedpress, i would be

irate, irate, if my daughter was questioned without me being present. so i absolutely understand why this family is so angry. if it is true this family had to wait that amount of time, it is unacceptable. it should not be allowed to happen, and i will do whatever i have to do to make sure it does not happen again. parents need to be with their chirnt in these moments. they need to talk to a lawyer, as well. that should be a shall and not an option. but just hearing that there was a possible -- whether it was 45 minutes to three-hour delay that the parent was not allowed in the room with his child is enough to make me irate, so i can't even imagine what the -- what the parents are feeling. and it's problematic to me that

we don't have that information. i mean, this -- that's key -- that's the first thing that stood out to me when i read the statement. and he's saying the same thing as you said, that they were talking about football. but as a parent, i don't care. i don't want my kid talking to the police about anything if i am not there with my kid, and you know you would feel the exact same way because i know you, and i love you commander, but that is outrageous. so i want to get to the bottom of that, and say that that issue alone is a problem that cannot continue to happen. so we can find that out, and that's something that i want -- i want to say that i'm going to follow up on, but i don't understand, if our policy is that a parent can be with their child, why there would be any delay at all. and the fact that the father arrived at the same time as his child, i don't know why the child was ever in the room for one minute without his father. so -- so that's the first

thing. >> okay. >> supervisor ronen: the second thing, is it your understanding that the child -- that the police came into his classroom and drew a weapon inside the classroom and removed the child? >> that is not our understanding as to what happened, and we actually have -- all the officers' actions are on body camera. >> supervisor ronen: okay. and will that footage be released? >> well, that's probably an offline discussion that we should work out in terms of confidentiality, etc. the answer is it's on body camera, so the body camera would show, like, what the officers did, so that's definitely a decision that we'll have to make and talk about. >> supervisor ronen: so i know when there's an officer-involved shooting there's a specific time period by which the camera footage has to be released. is that not true on just any arrest where the public requests to see the footage?

>> we're dealing with the california code as it relates to arrests and juvenile victims and all this surrounding youth. if we're having a conversation about this happening in a college and everyone is over 18 or what-have-you, then, it's well, everyone's an adult and there's a body camera and it's public record. we need to do a little research and stay connected on that and then make a determination as to who can view it and all that. >> supervisor ronen: so i am committing to the family that i will be following up on this. i do think these privacy issues are very important. it's why we're here, because that privacy was violated, so i do understand that, but i do believe that the parents and -- and -- and -- and other representatives of the family should be able to see that footage. and if there's a discrepancy between what the community is saying happened and -- and the child himself and the police,

and there's evidence that will clear that up one way or another, that we should all be given equal access to that evidence to understand. as a policy maker, are there interventions that i need to make in order to make sure that this -- that this doesn't happen again if -- if the young person's memory of what happened that day is indeed the case. because i have a ton -- i have a whole line of questions that we could be here all night talking about if it was indeed the case that the officers entered the classroom with guns drawn in that situation. again, i do -- i do -- i do want to -- to -- to make everyone understand that i understand how difficult this situation was. when a gun goes off in a school, it is appropriate that the police are taking every single precaution to protect the safety of every single

child, so i really do understand that -- this is a hard one. i get it. it was a real sensitive case, but i'd love to go through a timeline with you, maybe some youth commission present, maybe the family. we can talk about the right configuration to preserve the family's privacy and the young person's privacy, but to go over the timeline and how these judgments were made because once that it was determined enough that there wasn't an exigent circumstances that were putting youth at risk, i don't know about some of the judgment calls that were made, right? it really upsets me that this young person was paraded in front of the press. i don't understand why more precautions couldn't have been

taking place to prevent that. i understand people were antsy, i understand people were hungry. i understand that perhaps there were issues of still safety concerns, and that's what i want to understand a little deeper before making judgments? but how this kid could not have been guarded from the press or more efforts were not taken place to guard him from that -- from the press is really problematic. if that clearly needs to be written in an m.o.u., then it needs to be written in an m.o.u. if there are laws that i need to write and pass, then those are laws that i need to write and pass. but those are parts that unfortunately, i don't know if all these questions are going to be answered today, and i understand the sensitivity here with really making sure we protect the family's privacy, but also get answers to this and decide how to move forward.

>> quick comment, quick suggestion. so in terms of what you said, you know, we should -- let's just, you know, have the dialogue and go a little farther on this because you've alluded to, like, chaos, scene, gun, discharge, confusion, what-have-you, and then we don't know what the officers were thinking in terms of, you know, what their perception of safety and officers' safety was. we don't know what they were told, information over the radio, what-have-you. so definitely, let's have the conversation. the other thing is i've been very impressed with all the speakers today. they've come up, they're brave, they're talking about their concerns, their perceptions, how they feel. the letter is beautiful. and you know my personality. i think what we should do is we should sit down with youth commission and other folks and let's just have -- let's just talk about what happened. i'd like to hear further about what people feel, and i'd like

to bring in other people, definitely acting captain yolanda williams. i know that captain hart got ahold of the father the next day and had a great conversation with him. but you know, the community today is talking about trust with the police. and we need to be about having -- in the spirit of procedural justice, we need to be about having a further conversation. i think none of this would do us justice if we walked away and said that is that. i offer that up. >> supervisor ronen: i appreciate that. i am personally ready to take you up on that. i don't know about the penas, but what i would say is i clearly have some disappointment. we clearly have some notice of what the hearing was about. i introduced the hearing request, what, five months ago, carolyn? i don't know. so it wasn't as if there was notice of what we would be discussing today, so it feels like there could have been more information provided at this hearing today about what the

officers' state of mind was about why they made certain decisions. and again, as i said many, many times, this was not an easy one. so i'm not even necessarily criticizing the decisions that they make if i understand why they made the decisions. that's what i was expecting to hear today. but what i'm hearing from the pena family, and i'm hearing from them -- and i already heard it from them, which is why i called the hearing this afternoon, is concerning, and i hoped to hear from you the opposite of that. what was the decision-making process involved? and if there was the wrong decision-making process, i need to make new laws in the future. i'm underwhelmed with the amount of information i'm

getting today. if captain hart -- in fact, he's one my favorite captains in the entire police force. if he made decisions, i'm sure he was very thoughtful about it because he's a very thoughtful person. but if i believe that someone who's that good at his job led to a youth being paraded in front of the press, then maybe the system is broken. this is what i wanted to tease out and get to the bottom of today? and i agree we started -- i agree the testimony was very powerful and compelling. i will definitely take you up on your offer to have follow-up hearing -- i'm sorry, follow-up conversations and maybe do our best to protect the privacy of the family. but i wish we would -- i wish we could have gotten a little bit more information from you today. >> well, supervisor, you did accomplish a big goal here, and that is to put out about how

the three young men were taken to the car. it's not falling on deaf ears, and i don't want you to think that i'm leaving here saying well, i told my side and you told your side, and it's going to be business at usually. believe me, we're taking what you said seriously. we're always looking at how we can do things better. we balance in the moment -- you know, we evaluate, we try to debrief situations. i hear you loud and clear. it's how can we do things better, how can we improve? we can always improve in so many areas, from the largest of policing to these areas. so your message is loud and clear, and we take everything that you've mentioned today seriously. i know you felt underwhelmed. we covered a lot of ground here da