We Interrupt This Crisis—with Our Side of the Story: Relationships Between South Los Angeles Parents and Schools (2004)

School Bus anastasiya badun 91BnisXLy4 unsplash scaled

When South LA Parents Told Their Story to the Schools That Weren’t Listening

What This Report Is and Why It Matters

In October 2004, CADRE and the Justice Matters Institute (JMI) published We Interrupt This Crisis with Our Side of the Story, a landmark parent-led research report documenting the fractured, often hostile relationships between South Los Angeles parents and the schools their children attended. It was the first major research product of CADRE’s early organizing, and it established a defining principle that guides CADRE’s work to this day: parents are not the problem. They are the solution.

The report emerged from a collaborative research project launched in early 2003 in which CADRE parent members examined both their own lived experiences and existing education research to build a conceptual framework for understanding parent-school dynamics in South LA. It was written in the voices of CADRE members, all South LA parents, with policy and research support from JMI.

At its core, the report documented a painful reality: South LA parents, Black and Latino families, were consistently excluded, blamed, and disrespected in the very schools meant to serve their children. Schools operated as institutions that imposed decisions on families rather than working with them. Parents were not informed partners. They were obstacles to be managed or ignored.

But the report was not only a critique. It was a call for a fundamentally different kind of relationship, one built on mutual trust, respect, and shared power. CADRE parents named what quality schools in South LA must look like: places where parents’ voices are heard, where children’s strengths are recognized, and where social, racial, and economic justice are not aspirations but lived realities.

This report matters because it marked CADRE’s public arrival as a parent-led research and advocacy organization. It demonstrated that South LA parents could not only identify systemic problems. They could analyze them, name them, and demand solutions. It also laid the intellectual and moral foundation for the campaigns that followed: the fight to end school pushout, reduce suspensions, and transform school discipline across LAUSD.

For parents navigating schools today, this report remains a powerful reminder that the struggle to be seen, heard, and respected in your child’s school is not new. And neither is the determination of South LA parents to fight for something better.

PDF DOWNLOAD

Also available in Spanish: Interrumpimos esta crisis, Descarga en PDF

Key Highlights

  • Documents the experiences of South LA parents, primarily African American and Latino families, who felt excluded, blamed, and disrespected by their children’s schools
  • Presents a parent-led research framework developed by CADRE members alongside policy research from the Justice Matters Institute
  • Exposes the power imbalance embedded in how LAUSD schools engaged (or failed to engage) South LA families
  • Articulates CADRE’s founding belief: that community organizing is a central strategy for achieving racial justice in schools
  • Calls for schools to build genuine relationships of mutual trust and respect with parents in the communities they serve
  • Frames quality education as inseparable from social, racial, and economic justice
  • Laid the groundwork for CADRE’s subsequent campaigns on pushout, suspension reform, and human rights in education

Who This Resource Is For

  • South LA parents and caregivers who want to understand their history of organizing and advocacy
  • Parent organizers and community leaders building movements for educational justice
  • Educators and school administrators seeking to understand the impact of exclusionary school culture on families
  • Researchers and students studying parent engagement, racial equity, and grassroots organizing in education
  • Advocates and policy partners working to center family voice in school reform

Publication Details

Title: We Interrupt This Crisis with Our Side of the Story: Relationships Between South Los Angeles Parents and Schools
Authors: Community Asset Development Re-defining Education (CADRE) and Justice Matters Institute (JMI)
Year: October 2004
Available in: English and Spanish

This report is part of CADRE’s broader work to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline, outlined in our Theory of Change.

Tags
Share

Related Resources