As a family that has been personally impacted by IUSD, I am writing this to ensure our voices are no longer ignored.

INGLEWOOD, CA

By: ✍🏾 EyeOnInglewood Founder & Writer Halimah Ginyard 

www.eyeoninglewood.com

Recent headlines proclaim a milestone for Inglewood Unified School District, after nearly 14 years under the longest state takeover in California history, the Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD) is poised to regain local control. State and county officials are celebrating the district meeting 153 rigorous standards in student achievement and financial management.

But for Inglewood parents, residents, and voters, this bureaucratic "victory" comes with an urgent warning.

When the state exits, the excuses exit with them. For over a decade, community members could point to unelected state-appointed administrators for the district's systemic shortcomings. Moving forward, the power rests entirely in the hands of local elected officials. If the active school board and district leadership fail our children, the responsibility falls squarely on them and on the voters who put them there.

Regaining local control is not a time to relax; it is the exact moment Inglewood residents must take school board elections seriously and demand radical accountability for how our children are being treated.

Special Education Is a Crisis and A Pattern of Neglect

While the state claims the district has met baseline administrative standards, families on the ground tell a vastly different story—particularly when it comes to special education.

Recent district forums exposed severe community frustration over missing special education services, irregular student progress reports, and a profound lack of communication from leadership. Even more alarming are the safety vulnerabilities for special needs students. Parents have come forward documenting staff negligence, including a chilling incident where a 6-year-old special education student was able to wander completely off an unsecured campus.

The systemic issues run deep. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California and the Inglewood Teachers Association (ITA) recently took the extraordinary step of filing a formal complaint with the California Attorney General. The complaint alleges that the district’s aggressive school closure timeline which shut down nearly half of Inglewood's schools disproportionately harmed students with disabilities by stripping away specialized resources and closing the very campuses that served the highest concentrations of special education students.

General Education and the Treatment of Our Children

The crisis isn’t contained to special education; the general student body is facing a hazardous learning environment marked by understaffing, steep chronic absenteeism, and shocking instances of unchecked bullying and violence.

The treatment of children within IUSD campuses has drawn recent media scrutiny. At Woodworth-Monroe Academy, a disturbing, recorded incident surfaced showing a 10-year-old girl being cornered and brutally beaten in a school restroom by a group of peers who taunted her. Despite the victim's mother filing multiple prior reports with the school police regarding ongoing harassment, the family felt systematically ignored by administrators until video of the assault sparked public outrage.

Furthermore, teachers and community advocates have openly blamed the district for failing to implement basic preventative safety measures. The sweeping school closures forced the consolidation of different student populations onto remaining campuses without proper safety or transition plans. The fallout has been severe, including high-profile physical altercations and a student stabbing on campus.

According to an ITA survey, an overwhelming 84.6% of surveyed educators expressed active safety concerns at their work sites**, noting that teachers are frequently kept in the dark about campus violence.

The True Test: Is Our Power To Vote

The state's exit means that the guardrails are down. The decisions regarding which schools stay open, how budgets are allocated, how special education plans are enforced, and how campus security is maintained will be decided right here in Inglewood.

We cannot afford to treat school board elections as an afterthought. Future board members will inherit a district with the highest teacher-to-student ratios in the county (33-to-1) and a severe student safety deficit.

Inglewood residents must use the upcoming elections to vet candidates with absolute scrutiny. Active officials must be held to a higher standard. We must demand leaders who will protect our children, fully fund special education, guarantee campus transparency, and listen to the desperate warnings of parents and teachers.

Local control is finally back—now it's time for the community to show what real accountability looks like.

Do you have an IUSD story?

Your voice matters. 

Please send your experiences to eyeoninglewood@gmail.com