Roundtable: Trouble at Lincoln High, Council Race Heats Up, Getting Californians To Vote

Welcome to our discussion of the week's top stories, I am Mark Sauer. Joining me at the roundtable today our education reporter Regi -- Mario Cramer City Hall reporter David Garrick of the San Diego Tribune. Hello Mark. Also Megan Burks. Hello Mark. We are glad you are here today. It started as what is described as a playful thing of slap fight between classes, that was a regular occurrence at Lincoln High. Things escalated in the incident last month has brought long-standing tensions to the surface at the troubled school in southeastern San Diego. Mario, start. What is the slap fight? It is a lighthearted clowning thing that got out of hand? Yes, that is what it sounds like. There was a group of kids that would play slap fighting games every day around lunchtime. I do not of that happened every day. I have heard that it happened a couple of times. The brawl, or whatever term you want to use. It sounded like there were kids playfully fighting in the quad around lunchtime. One thing led to another and it got escalated. A police officer -- He stepped in and got involved. He stepped in and got involved in that is when it escalated further from there. We will get to some of the details on what happened. I wanted to point out that there is a security video and cell phone video. That has not been made public. We are not? That is correct. Right now, the videos are in the custody of the district attorney. The district attorney is not allowing that footage to be released. It could clear up the confusion of what led to what. Who punched the officer first, and whether the officer tased the student before he was punched. The surveillance could clear that at. And there are reasons -- we have talked before. About videos and why district attorneys are reluctant to release them. Court orders etc. We will to happens in this case. It was a call to release the video. Who wants it? Soon after the fight ensued, and it was broken up, and the day following, the superintendent called for the video to be released promptly. She spoke too soon. The district attorney put a halt to that. She said nothing will be released until our investigation is completed. The NAACP and students at the school -- NAACP also called for that. It does not look like that will happen. Let's look a little closer at this confrontation between the officer and the student, Jessie Duncan. How old is the student? I think at is 16 or 17. I want to say 17. This is from prosecutors. There is a court case now. Reporters have been allowed into juvenile court to hear details. What is the prosecutor saying of the events? The prosecutor is saying that after there was a slap fight. Were sheer Abby arrived on the scene. Students are dispersed. Brandon -- Jessie Duncan -- Another angle of the story. Jessie Duncan went into the parking garage. The police officer followed him and there was a confrontation. It resulted in a student being tased and -- Duncan is charged with four counts of assault on a police officer. Great bodily injury and resisting arrest. A result of that. What happened to the officer, Bashir Abi? Bashir Abi is still on leave. He had injuries. The prosecutor has said that he is wheelchair-bound and has nerve damage. He was missing some feeling in his arm. As of now, I do not believe he has returned to work. Recently, he has filed a lawsuit against the students who allegedly punched him. He actually filed a complaint, which is a precursor to a lawsuit. Against the students, as opposed to the district. They can amend that. A lawsuit is in the works. He is a San Diego unified police officer. That is a separate police force. Armed police officers in the schools. I do not know if a lot of people realize that tell us about this force. Where the officers there? We do not think a lot about school police officers until something like this happens. Then we are jolted into realizing that there are real police officers on campus. Yes, these are real police officers. To have the same powers and authorities. The San Diego city commissions their own police force and they go through the Academy. The district trains them. They are armed. They are there every day. Yes Do they have pepper spray with them? I believe some of the students were pepper sprayed? They have tasers. We know that for sure. Just one side point, there has been a call from the community to release the video. There are reasons why the video is not been released yet. There are some basic things that the district can say about when and why the officers use tasers or pepper spray. The guidelines and say what they are. So far they have refused to release that. Other reporters have filed public records requests for the guidelines. Let's focus for a moment on Lincoln High itself. It was called one of the more segregated schools by a judge many years ago. This superintendence has characterized Lincoln as the heart of the struggle in America. What does she mean by that? Lincoln has been a lightning rod, as far back as 1977 when a judge determined it was one of the school that was minority isolated. Not much has changed in terms of segregated for racially isolated student. It still has that perception around it. I think what Sue Martin was getting ads -- when we get Lincoln right, we get schooled in America right. Lincoln is one example of a school or all of the issues of protected problems of poverty, and the question of how do you turn a school around that is losing enrollment, struggling to get academics up. How do you reverse the trend at a high poverty school? What she means is that when she gets an answer to that, it can be applied to other schools. And other communities. Lets talk about the numbers. They are pulling kids out of that school in droves. Let's talk about the numbers. It looks like they are down from 2300 enrollment in 2007 down to 1450. You Lincoln is a huge school. When it opened in 2007 it was a brand-new campus. It has room for 2700 students. Now, enrollment is around 1400. Parents are fleeing. It is a school that parents avoid most. They start out in a cluster, kids go to kindergarten in the neighborhood. Botanica to high school, they go elsewhere. We have a minute left on this topic. You interviewed Ms. Collins. Ms. Collins is vice president of the African-American educators Association. She is also a staff member and she is running for school board to represent this area. To Ms. Collins, this crystallizes all of the underlying issues that we have not dealt with one of those issues is that students and parents in those neighborhoods and schools feel a disconnection and a lot of representation, that is to be addressed. Whether it is the district officials, school board member presenting the area, or strong leadership. Where's the principal? The principle is there and has been quiet and deferred questions to the public spokesperson. I have heard that he has been taking one-on-one meetings with students. He has not been a public figure leading this conversation. There will be a lot to follow up on, I am sure. We will hear more from the community. The voting in one San Diego Council District to determine whether Democrats or Republicans take control of the Council. Sherri Lightner has turned out in District 1. It is crowded for her replacements. Where is District 1? It is unknown -- North coastal area. It includes universal city. Everywhere to Pacific Beach. There had been two main candidates to replace Lightner, and she is a moderate Democrat. It was going to be a head-to-head battle between Barbara Bree, and entrepreneur, and rate Ellis, a businessman. He is from Carmel Valley issues from La Jolla. Is going to be a Democrat versus a Republican. All of this change, as we said at the outset with the filing deadline, and now we have a whole bunch of candidates. It could be old-fashioned backroom politics. It is a hard question to answer. Nobody will go on the record. Who are these new folks? One is Sherri Lightner's husband. Instead of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, you have Sherry Lightner's husband, Bruce Lightner. He is a different party. He is a Republican. Then, a staffer in her office, Kyle Heiskala. Lewis Roderigo from universal city. He does not have a good chance to win. He is a one issue candidate. That brings you up on Regents Road. Folks will come out and vote for him. The issue is if there will be a runoff or not. The way that city Council elections operate, is that anybody who gets 15 percent -- if nobody gets 15 percent, then the top two vote getters have a runoff. If you made the argument that this was a political ploy, you would argue that the Democrats fear that in a primary, were more Republicans come out -- Especially when California may be in play. Arbor Bree, was in danger of losing to Ray Ellis. She may fare better in November. To add in three candidates increasing -- increases the odds for Barbara re. More time to campaign and more name recognition and a better voter turnout. Just for fun, Sherri Lightner's staff and her husband is running. Who to she endorse? She endorsed her husband. No offense staffer, but we have to go with the spouse. The name recognition that her husband has -- you have to figure that folks going to the polls in June, might give him enough votes these on the last name. This could push a runoff to prevent Ellis from getting the votes. Again, the run off is just the top 2. Some of these folks will fall by the wayside before we get to all of that. Let's get to the Council itself. Nominally, it is not a partisan race. You should not concern yourself with Dominic -- Democrats or Republicans. It does not say D or R on the ballot. A lot of folks will know this. Any cover City Hall, you see a lot of issues that fall on partisan lines. Minimum wage is an example. Minimum wage increase falls on partyline directly. Are a lot of other issues. Lot of folks believe that an action plan may not be as aggressive if Republicans had controlled the Council. The go back just a couple of years here, and there was a big Democratic strong arm. The registration of Democrats far surpassed the Republicans in the city of San Diego. That had not been the case for decades. We had a super majority with Democrats on the Council. All of that has changed now, right? They still have 854 majority. If you look at other races, it does not appear to be a party switch. It is possible. Lightner has held it in closed elections in 2008 and 2012. There is a question if Barbara Bree can win with Ellis. It could flip to have Republicans. Republicans could have complete control. That is quite a different change. It would not go with the registration, which is no longer a Republican city. It is about 3 to 2. There are more every day. Other folks say what their party is. Specially in District 1. That talks about agenda in various issues that come along upon party lines. The emphasis of priority at City Hall would completely shift. This is a critical race. Is it too early to handicap? Is likely to be a run off? Just using math, when you have 5, the chances of a runoff will go up. Because of Lightner's name recognition is because his wife has the same last name, and because the single issue candidate will get a lot of votes -- that matters to these people quite a bit. If you get 500 to 1000 people going out to vote, and makes it mathematically difficult for Ellis to get the magic number. Why is that such a sticking point for voters? It is a sticking point in Universal City. People want it because it will improve traffic flow. Others do not want it for property value concerns. And has been a long, complicated sticking point. A lot of people thought it was taken off of the table. The city is still studying it. It is supposed to come up later this year. It may come back. It is not an old issue being dredged back up. It is something to be decided later down the road. Councilmembers are powerful in these issues. Whether they are for or against the issue. I am wondering if there are issues are matters that would swing every Ellis was elected in this district? Is a something we know what happen if Republicans were in control? That is an interesting question. If he is elected, he would have met easier time with his agenda. You do not know what bold ideas he may have that he has not put forward, based on the fact that he is facing a 5 to 4 ratio. It is privatization -- it is hard to speculate. There could be more right-leaning ideas and policies that Faulkner could pursue. A few seconds left. I wanted to talk about the mayor race we have two levers. We have Ed Harris taking on the Republican. The strategy there -- It seems to be the question is, well Ed Harris get labor support? It is going to be a right leaning collection and I think it is unlikely there will be a run off. She was in assemblywoman. May be 50+1. In November, if something happens, like the stadium issue, it could be a thorn in his side. Nsekhe longshot. We will move on. Four months, the news has been to mom -- dominated by politics. Trump has been tested by many in his own party. The unlikely top two contenders are trump and cruise. We could nominate the first one in candidate. If all of that is enough to excite voters, I don't know what else would be. Maybe not if history is our guide. In 2014, California turn out was abysmal. Let's start there. What was the turn out statewide? For the general election in November it was 42.2 percent. That is not encouraging. That was a record low. Just wreck Gerd -- registered voters. That was a midterm. A lot of things were at state -- steak. Propositions in elected office. Congress is elected every two years. People just do not turn out. Your story this week, turn out is especially low with foreign-born residents. Residents who are foreign born, refugees, people who chose to travel here, people in the country on a green card -- turn out was 32 percent. That is compared to US-born electorate at 46 percent. Quite a bit lower. Among this lower turnout group there is a segment called super voters. Super voters varies depending on the research people who vote in nearly every election. 8 to 9 elections they vote. They vote quite a lot. They are usually there. In California, the percentage of voters who are super voters is 20 percent. This group in city Heights, the purse vintage -- percentage of super voted of East African emigrants. It is a small subsection. Super voters account for 30 percent of those voters. A lightbulb went off and I'm. If we could get refugees out to vote, maybe there will be a bunch of super voters and they can have a voice at the polls. Get this underrepresented section out. This project to get them out, is not to determine one way or another, it is to engage able to get involved. It is to engage them politically refugees and foreign-born residents tend to be democratic. At least people in city Heights. What do we know about the majority of super voters? Demographically, do they have anything in common? Back if you look -- If you look at super voters over all, it is 40 percent Republican, between 30 to 40 percent make $40,000 or more a year. Latinos make up a very small percentage of super voters. You can look at super voters and assume the things that we know about mail in voters. They tend to be older, wealthier and white. This week you talk to 2 women who live in the city Heights neighborhood of Peralta. They have different relationships. Let's hear from Noreen H. Green Young, black men being killed. There have been no consequences for that. The fact that you have to have millions, sometimes $1 billion to run for president. I do not vote, because I do not believe anyone deserves my vote. Now we will go to Mariam Ali. I do not vote. Who knows me? Who knows my needs? No one. Those opposite points of view, same neighborhood. Same street also. Very different approaches to voting. The director of the partnership for the advanced of African-Americans talked a little bit about this refugees come from a place where they have very little say in decision-making in the case of Mariam Ali, she had to flee her home before she could vote. The president that she would have said ported was overturned. Sheet worked for a couple of years at a refugee camp. She rise in the US and becomes a citizen in 2003. She was excited to have us day -- say. Of these refugees, how big of a populist are talking about? Statewide, we have resettled about 300,000 refugees since the 1980s. Here locally, the number varies between 70,000 and 100,000, since 1975. We heard from those two women on the same street. You talk to some other folks, talk to you about why they do and do not vote. What are the trends? Back for people who do vote -- For people who do vote, they want to have this day. You should probably be able to show the that you voted. They want a say in the way that their streets look. Whether their sidewalks are crumbling. They care a lot about racial equality in the policing issues that people have been talking about in the past couple of years. That is why they vote. Also, the minimum wage measure. Are people who do not vote, it is a mixture. And people who do not have time, or they are working two jobs. The bus makes it difficult to get to the polls on that day. Also, there people like Marion Green, who are fed up with the system and the politics that you are seeing in District 1. They think there is another way to create change with Noreen, she may sound radical, but she organizes people in the community and tries to create change by empowering people. Should also mention money in politics, at the presidential level. There is a lot of money in the local level also. And I talk to people, a lot of people have empathy. They are frustrated that money controls things. They feel their most -- vote does not matter. That is what Trump and Sanders are talking about. There is the money in the corruption and how much it fuels everything. I asked her if there were any circumstances under which she would vote? She said the system would have to look radically different. I asked if she would vote in November if it was Bernie Sanders versus Donald Trump? She said no, because it is a circus. We will have to leave it there. We will see what happens when voting does count in California. That wraps up the Roundtable. I like to think my guest, Mario Koran, David Garrick in Megan. A reminder, all of the story that we discussed today are available on our website KPBS dot COM. I mark sours. Thank you for joining us.