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September 18, 2013 Item 6 . b . 3 Report on meeting with Karen Leadership He was very disappointed that the school did not admit they did wrong, saying that not once have the Karen received a satisfactory answer from the Schools. He felt the school response was much better at the incident that occurred at the Fairview Alternative School. Perhaps the school learned from the first incident, he commented. They are aware that the school is doing education circles, but did not have any details about what those were or who was involved. The high school is trying a Karen/African American meeting which is a facilitated relation building exercise between the two groups. Both Mr. Vang and Mr. Khu mentioned several times "fairness" and "double standards." They gave another example of the school rule prohibiting the wearing of hats; however, it is inconsistently enforced. A Karen student was wearing a hat and when he was asked to remove it, he asked why the African American kids were allowed to wear hats. He then got in trouble. Grefenberg asked whether poor living conditions and health/safety issues at some of the apartment buildings within which many Karen families live were of concern to the Karen. He explained that he had heard from a representative of the Roseville Police Department that these were real problems but problems which the Police had little if any authority to resolve. Carolyn Curti raised the possibility that the rental registration proposal currently before the Roseville City Council might give the City some authority to address these issues. Mr. Vang raised concerns that this proposal may result in tenants being kicked out of their apartments if they raise questions or if they have more residents living in an apartment than are currently allowed. Some possible items HRC and KOM can collaborate on: 1. Participate in the September 16 City Council meeting discussion on rental registration. KOM will work on a position paper and likely have someone present their thoughts at the meeting. (This may mean looking at the bigger housing picture.) The HRC could be present to support the Karen representative and possibly raise some of the other issues raised at today's meeting. 2. Youth Commissioners: 1) Invite Karen youth to meet with youth commissioners to discuss ways to collaborate. 2) Encourage Karen youth to apply for a commission appointment in 2014. 3. Work with Kaying Thao to facilitate a conversation between school leaders and members of the Karen community, to air concerns and look for solutions.