After years of Chicago Board of Education rubber stamp monthly meetings. On December 14, 2011 the community was actually heard, by the public and by the board. During the "public participation" segment of the meeting, a lone voice stopped the business-as-usual.
MIC CHECK!!
"Parents, teachers, students and communities reject CPS failed reforms.
We now know that only 18 percent of the replacement schools perform well.
Most of those are selected enrollment schools run by CPS.
Nearly 40% of the new schools are performance level 3, CPS' lowest rating.
We see through the sound-bites.
You have betrayed the public trust.
You have failed Chicago's children.
You pray at the altar of greed
And dare call it education.
We value people over profit.
Every life is precious.
Our children are not product.
But look at what you've produced
Children have died
Literally and spiritually
As a result of your policies
You have produced chaos.
Mayor Emmanuel you should be ashamed.
Brizard, you should be ashamed.
You should both be fired.
Stanford University says you have failed.
The University of Chicago says you have failed.
The Chicago Tribune says you have failed.
Most importantly, the people know you have failed.
The definition of insanity is to repeatedly do the same thing and expect a different result.
These are our children, not yours.
These are our children, not yours.
We are taking our fight to the mayor!
We are taking our fight to the courts!
We are taking our fight to the schools!
We are taking our fight to the streets!
These are our children, not corporate product.
These are our children, not corporate product.
These are our children, not corporate product!"
Coverage from inside the BoE meeting
Only in Chicago... The dramatic meeting of the Chicago Board of Education for December 14, 2011 (including the complete words of the now famous Mic Check that stopped Chicago's corporate Board of Education from meeting for nearly three hours)
http://www.substancenews.net/...
'Whose schools!? Our schools!' Angry public 'Mic Checks' Chicago Board of Education meeting. First You Tube video of the most momentous event to challenge corporate school board power in Chicago in 35 years
http://www.substancenews.net/...
'You pray at the altar of greed...' Substance video of December 14, 2011 Chicago Board of Education meeting shows context to the Mic Check and some Board security trying to stop reporters and cameras from covering the stories unfolding
http://www.substancenews.net/...
From the Chicago Sun-Times:
Adourthus McDowell, a Chicago Public School parent and member of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization, began the takeover by rising from his chair and interrupting a presentation by Chicago Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard on a new $660 million capital construction plan.
Using a 'mic check' technique borrowed from Occupy Wall Street protestors, McDowell read from a prepared text in short bursts so comrades planted around the room could repeat his words and thereby amplify them for the crowd.