Unforgetting History of Agency and Resistance: Fremont Students and Parents Take Action Against State-Sanctioned Discrimination

• In Event: Resisting Educational Abandonment in Los Angeles: Recovering a Critical History of Activism in Williams

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to recover an unacknowledged history of activism enacted by students and parents from Fremont High School in Los Angeles involved in Williams v. State of California. This case was historic as it led to the codification of new state-wide standards and accountability mechanisms to ensure all students in the state were provided the necessary basic conditions for learning.

The story of resistance contained in this paper is evidence of the re-imagined education students and families believed they merited and what they demanded of the state. Given today’s threats to defund public education and the disproportionate impacts this would have on low-income children of color, the findings and lessons from this paper are timely and urgent, demonstrating the strength of collective action.

Theoretical Framework
This paper draws on transformational resistance (Solórzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001) to interpret the involvement of Fremont students and families in Williams. Transformational resistance theorizes that actors have a critique of social oppression and are motivated by social justice. Moreover, this conceptualization recognizes the social consciousness that precipitates action.

Methods
Using qualitative archival research methods, this paper centers on the students and parents from Fremont High School in South Los Angeles involved in the lawsuit. To recover this history of activism, this work was guided by two questions: 1) Who were the students and parents from Fremont involved in the Williams lawsuit? 2) What issues of educational inequality did they seek to transform?

Data Sources
Fourteen declarations filed by Fremont High students and parents and the deposition of the sole student deposed for the lawsuit were analyzed for this paper. The First Amended Complaint and other documents were also analyzed. These documents helped us piece together a larger history of agency and resistance embodied by students and families in their fight for a fair and just education. 

Results and Conclusions
The parents and students involved in this case epitomize transformational resistance (Solórzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001) through their strong institutional critiques and their desire to end these social conditions through action.

These instances of agency and advocacy along with depth of awareness of the harms made by conditions at schools and critique of institutions and institutional actors exemplify the transformational resistance (Solórzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001) embodied by plaintiffs.

Moreover, bringing forward their struggle for educational justice opens the opportunity to engage in dialogue about the wisdom, critical consciousness, and power of students and parents who have historically been framed as inferior, culturally flawed, and the cause of poor educational outcomes (Valencia, 2010).

Significance
Risking retaliation for taking photos and making official statements to substantiate the inexcusable conditions in their schools, Fremont High students and parents exercised their agency and resistance. Their activism obstructed the normalization of inequitable treatment and unjust conditions in California schools. This history serves as a reminder about the power of collective legal action to challenge discriminatory policies and practices in the public education system and transform mainstream perceptions and treatment of youth and families of color.

Author

• Diana A. Porras, California State University - Long Beach