A battery charge has been dropped against a transgender teenager in the East Bay who was defending herself in a schoolyard fight last year, advocates said this week.
Jewlyes Gutierrez, 16, expressed relief upon learning that Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Maddock dismissed the charge May 1.
“I finally have the chance to relax,” said Gutierrez, a sophomore at Hercules Middle/High School, relieved that the weight that has been upon her for the past five months has been lifted.
Gutierrez is now looking forward to celebrating as a community grand marshal of the San Francisco Pride parade next month.
In January, Gutierrez was charged with misdemeanor battery after a November altercation between her and several other students was caught on video that went viral. The other students were not charged.
The fight was the result of ongoing bullying Gutierrez experienced that led to a build up where she lashed out at three of her peers in an effort to defend herself.
Maddock dropped the charge against Gutierrez after reviewing the case and determining that she had successfully completed the restorative justice program.
“We got ourselves back together. No more fighting, just no more drama. So we are good,” said Gutierrez.
Representatives of the West Contra Costa County Unified School District and her family are also pleased with the outcome.
“We feel really good that it’s finally over,” said Debra Gutierrez, Jewlyes Gutierrez’s adopted mother and aunt. “We are happy.”
Charles Ramsey, president of the Board of Education of the school district, agreed.
“I feel good that this was treated openly, fairly, and resolved,” said Ramsey, pointing out that the resolution is “something that showed that we can have compassion and that ultimately there wasn’t an injustice done to a young person.”
Advocates for Gutierrez expressed similar relief that she won’t face time at a juvenile facility, something they believed never should have been an option in the first place.
“I am relieved to hear that Jewlyes will not end up behind bars. Students belong in schools, not jails,” said Masen Davis, executive director of Transgender Law Center. “Restorative justice programs work, and should be the first recourse in a situation like this.”
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal, community health director of the RYSE Youth Center, who has been working with Gutierrez, hopes that the restorative justice program will be modeled in other school districts.
“What we would like to see out of this is that this is actually now a model that can be replicated in the school district. It’s a very concrete approach to addressing issues,” said Dhaliwal.
Davis agreed.
“What happened to Jewlyes is happening to many other transgender youth across the country who continue to face extraordinarily high rates of harassment and exclusion at school,” he said.
