The Los Angeles Unified school board passed an emergency resolution late Tuesday, Oct. 6, condemning Azerbaijan’s “unprovoked” attack on ethnic Armenians in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, as board members became the latest local officials to weigh in on the ongoing conflict overseas.
The board also voted unanimously in a separate resolution to give students the day off on April 24 of each year, starting next school year for Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.
Los Angeles is home to the largest Armenian diaspora, and a number of students served by LAUSD are of Armenian descent.
Protests have taken place throughout L.A. County in recent days in response to the violence that erupted in Nagorno-Karabakh last week. The region lies within Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenian forces. Both sides have blamed the other for the clashes.
But the LAUSD board made clear that members stand with the Armenian community.
“I am pleased that my colleagues joined me in calling out the outrageous and immoral attack on Armenia,” board member Scott Schmerelson, who sponsored the resolution, said in a statement. “Innocent Armenian civilians are dying as a result of this unprovoked attack on their country by Azerbaijan. It is important for people around the world to condemn the outrageous aggression.”
The resolution put forth by Schmerelson also called on the California State Teachers Retirement Fund to pull out of investments associated with the Republic of Turkey and for the Trump administration to unequivocally condemn Azerbaijan.
Earlier in the evening, during a discussion about giving students a day off to observe the Armenian Genocide, board member Jackie Goldberg said it’s critical for students to learn about the systemic killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Turks during World War I — an event which the Turkish government has never recognized.
By allowing students to have the day off, “we are saying to the community that cares about this so deeply that we want to make sure that your children and your families do not have to choose between going to schools and commemorating an important and vital historic event, an event that all of us should have learned from, perhaps (sic) might have prevented the Holocaust that came some years later,” Goldberg said.
LAUSD board members now join other local elected officials in publicly stating their support for the Armenian community. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti has also condemned the latest violence overseas.