BLM co-founder to speak at event with LA students seeking to defund school police

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Black Lives Matter (BLM) co-founder Patrisse Cullors is slated to deliver the keynote address at an event this week hosted by students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) who have pushed to defund school police.

Cullors is scheduled to deliver her speech at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Los Angeles on Saturday for the student organization Students Deserve, according to an advertisement for the event. Attendees are required to wear a mask and provide either proof of vaccination, an LAUSD Daily Pass or a negative COVID test.

"Students Deserve is working towards Making Black Lives Matter in Schools," the organization says on its website. "We want schools to divest from criminalization and policing. We want schools to invest in us as Black, Muslim, undocumented, indigenous, and queer youth in poor and working class communities of color. We follow the lead of Black Lives Matter in demanding that our schools defund the police and defend Black life."

Patrisse Cullors participates in a protest in Hollywood, California, on Sunday, June 7, 2020. (Francine Orr/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

In February 2021, the Los Angeles Board of Education approved a plan to cut a third of its officers, as well as to ban the use of pepper spray on students and divert funds from the department to improve the education of Black students.

BLACK LIVES MATTER CO-FOUNDER PATRISSE CULLORS TO STEP DOWN AMID QUESTIONS ABOUT FINANCES

In May 2021, Cullors stepped down from her role as executive director of the activist group’s central foundation amid questions about her finances.

Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors speaks at a campaign rally for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in Los Angeles, California, on March 1, 2020. (Photo by Ronen Tivony/Sipa USA)

Cullors' finances drew attention in April after the New York Post reported she had purchased four homes for $3.2 million. The report prompted Hawk Newsome, the head of Black Lives Matter Greater New York City, to call for an "independent investigation" into the foundation’s finances. The two organizations are not affiliated.

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Critics have pointed out that Cullors bought the pricey homes despite referring to herself as a "trained Marxist" in the past.

Questions about BLM's management of funds prompted Amazon to suspend its ability to raise money on the AmazonSmile platform last week. Clinton-connected lawyer Marc Elias has reportedly been brought in to the group's leadership to sort out its finances.

Fox News' Thomas Barrabi contributed to this report.