A Contra Costa County juvenile judge has ordered transgender teenager Jewlyes Gutierrez to enter a conflict resolution program known as restorative justice to deal with a battery charge stemming from a schoolyard fight last year.
The judge’s decision was met with relief from Gutierrez, 16, and her public defender, Kaylie Simon. The district attorney’s office had charged Gutierrez with battery after the incident, but last Thursday, February 6, Juvenile Judge Thomas M. Maddock granted Simon’s request for the restorative justice program.
The goal of such a program is to achieve reconciliation with the parties involved.
Last November a cellphone video of a fight between Gutierrez and three of her classmates at Hercules Middle/High School went viral on YouTube. All four 16-year-old sophomore girls were suspended for two days from school while the West Contra Costa Board of Education worked on revamping its sexual and gender harassment policies. A week prior to the fight the board signed an agreement with the U.S. departments of education and justice to comply with Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination.
Last month, Simon said that Gutierrez was “harassed and tormented … due to her gender identity.”
Gutierrez and her family members told the Bay Area Reporter in an interview last month that she has endured bullying for years. In the weeks leading up to the November 13 altercation, Gutierrez had reported previous incidents to school administrators with no response. She fought back, according to media reports, and allegedly hit one of her classmates who days before “spit gum in her hand” that was “full of salvia” and “threw it in my face,” she told ABC 7 News.
Three teenage girls allegedly chased and attacked Gutierrez.
Yet, a police report was filed and two months later Gutierrez was charged with a misdemeanor battery charge by Contra Costa County Deputy District Attorney Daniel Cabral.
When the charge was filed, Gutierrez’s sister, Valerie Poquiz, started a change.org petition in an effort to get District Attorney Mark Peterson to drop the charge against Gutierrez. That petition garnered more than 200,000 signatures.
Local officials and transgender advocacy groups reacted positively to the latest developments.
“It should have been that from the beginning,” said Charles Ramsey, a longtime board member of the West Contra Costa Unified School District. “The criminal charges that were filed seemed to be unfair.”
Ramsey called the incident “a real wakeup call” and he was appreciative that Gutierrez went public with her story, creating a nationwide conversation about bullying in schools, he said.
The Transgender Law Center, which also advocated on behalf of Gutierrez, also praised the judge’s decision.
“It’s wonderful to know that Jewlyes and the other students involved in this incident will be able to work together to find a resolution outside of the criminal justice system,” said Ilona Turner, TLC legal director. “Young people belong in school, not in jail.”
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal, community health director of the RYSE Center in Richmond, agreed adding that she believes the community-based restorative process will have a “better impact and outcomes” for Gutierrez and the other students as well as the community at large, she said.
Debra Gutierrez, Jewlyes Gutierrez’s aunt and adopted mother, declined to comment for this article on advice from Simon. Simon didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment from the Bay Area Reporter by press time.
Gutierrez will appear in court before Maddock again in May to report on her progress in the program. She and her advocates are hopeful the battery charge will be dismissed, according to a joint news release from RYSE and TLC.
