The Occupy Chicago City Hall
movement continues
Thursday morning, 01-05-11, 11am
the 5th floor (outside the Mayor's office)
More than 200 people ranging in age from infants to senior citizens in their 70s began a sit-in outside the fifth floor City Hall office of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at noon on January 4, 2012. The sit-in, organized by KOCO (the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization) and a number of allied community groups, teachers, parent and religious leaders, promises to remain at City Hall until Emanuel rescinds the threat of school closings and turnarounds this school year.
KOCO education organizer Jitu Brown (above right, wearing KOCO shirt) spoke with reporters before helping lead the chants as the January 4, 2012 sit-in began outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office on the fifth floor of Chicago's City Hall. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
The organizers say the city has ignored their ideas for improving schools and is turning over public education at some schools to profit-driven school management companies.
http://abclocal.go.com/...
Lots of groups have held lots of nasty protests outside the mayor's office through the years. But this may be the first really good one for this mayor, and it ought to be interesting to see how everyone responds.
Last month a group of other school protesters pretty much tied up a Board of Education meeting.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/...
Sit-in at city hall continues. police presence increased.
http://chicagoist.com/...
"We would hope in the 21st century, people don't have to get arrested simply to have an audience with the mayor on how to improve their schools," said Kenwood Oakland Community Organization's Jitu Brown.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
The more than 200 people heard from a variety of teachers and parents from schools facing closing or "turnaround" under plans released early in December by Jean-Claude Brizard, Mayor Emanuel's hand-picked "Chief Executive Officer" of Chicago's Public Schools.By early afternoon Chicago Teachers Union editor Kenzo Shibata had posted the first lengthy report on the events and a video that is nearly 15 minutes long.
UPDATE: Speakers outlined demands of sit-in as the famous fifth floor of Chicago's City Hall echoed with the chants, prayers, songs and spirit of the Civil Rights and Freedom Ride eras
Several speakers gave information at the news conference, which began slightly after 11:00 a.m. Shannon Bennett, one of the leaders of Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), said “We have done our due diligence” and reported on 18 months of work on developing a school improvement plan for Dyett High School and its feeder elementary schools (Price, Fuller, Robinson, Mollison and Reavis). Unlike the Board of Education's plan, Bennet said, the community plan would not displace any teacher, staff or students. A KOCO fact sheet distributed during the news conference says, “This plan, grounded in reputable research, decades of education experience and genuine parent, student and teacher input creates a ‘village’ culture with Dyett and its feeder schools, to create excellent neighborhood schools to properly serve students and families who have been historically underserved. This plan is called the Bronzeville Global Achievers Village.”
Bennett told the people in attendance at the start of the news conference (including three Chicago TV news outlets – Fox News, WGN and ABC-Channel 7, none of which aired a report on the story) that despite four meetings with the Board of Education to discuss this plan, the Board’s CEO, Jean-Claude Brizard, has not replied, but instead has allowed the Board to continue its policy of destabilizing schools that serve students of color in the South Side Bronzeville neighborhood.
Bennett also said that KOCO and its supporters have made three requests within the past month to meet with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, but the mayor has yet to respond. Addressing the absent mayor, and explaining why protestors would stage a sit-in in front of the mayor’s office on the fifth floor of City Hall until he speaks with them, he declared: “You will not be allowed to be a mayor for only some people… in an apartheid fashion.”
The second speaker was Betty Dancy, grandmother of three students at CPS schools in the Bronzeville neighborhood. She told how her grandchildren have great potential, but are suffering from a lack of resources at the schools in their community. She told the crowd that the proposed closing of Dyett High School would deprive the community of the second high schools it has lost in the past 12 years. She pointed out that when Martin Luther King High School became "King College Prep" the majority of students from the community, including one of her grandchildren, we told they are not eligible to attend King, which requires certain test scores for admission.
She contrasted Dyett with other schools neighborhood where the Board has showered many more resources but has limited the enrollment so many neighborhood children cannot attend. Despite the extra money and the selective enrollment, these schools that the Board has taken over have failed to achieve better academic outcomes. Dancy demanded that the Board stop its destructive policies, and declared to the crowd: “We will win this battle.”
The third speaker was Steven Guy, grandparent of a student at Fuller Elementary, which is facing "turnaround" if the Board's plans go through. Mr. Guy pointed out the unfairness of the Board labeling neighborhood schools as “failing” when it is the Board’s policies that is making it hard for them to succeed.
The fourth speaker, Rev. Krista Alston identified herself as a community activist who is on the Local School Council of Price Elementary. Price is slated to be closed under the Board's proposed plans. She gave details on the "Bronzeville Global Achievers Village" school improvement plan. She told how the plan would motivate students and give them an opportunity to learn about world cultures, and how Dyett High School would build on the knowledge and interests the students develop at the feeder elementary schools.
The next speaker was Michelle Porter, a teacher at Tilden Community Career Academy High School, which is just west of the Bronzeville community and is facing "turnaround" by CPS. She told why it is unfair for the Board to single out Tilden as one of its “turnaround” schools where the entire staff is scheduled to be fired at the end of the school year. She said that in the past year, through hard work the school has moved from Level 3 probation (the lowest level of academic achievement, according to the Board’s measure of test scores and similar data) to Level 2. She also told how the school earned a multi-million dollar school improvement grant, but the Board for months denied Tilden the opportunity to spend any of the grant money, and instead declared the school to be a failure in need of a turnaround takeover by the Board.
The sixth speaker, Robert Schubreth, a teacher at Marquette Elementary School, described the commitment of teachers who choose to teach in the inner city, and said they don’t deserve to have resources — and then their jobs — taken away.
The seventh speaker was Jitu Brown of KOCO, who described the many attempts made by community organizers to work with the Board of Education and the mayor, and how the organizers have received “no response.” As a result, he said, “We are going to sit as long as we need to sit… and we have more people coming!” Brown said that his group had met twice with schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, but that Brizard ignored their proposals when announcing his proposed closings and turnarounds. He said that the group had asked to meet with the mayor but had been ignored.
The final speaker was the Rev. Paul Jakes of the Christian Council on Urban Affairs. He announced that more than 100 members of the clergy supported this protest at City Hall.
“Our young people deserve fairness,” he said, and asked the city and the police to respect the protestors’ First Amendment rights. He asked the group to hold hands in a giant circle around the large hall outside the mayor’s office, and led a prayer calling for victory. “Let the mayor respond TODAY! Let the City Council respond TODAY!” he prayed.
The assembled protestors joined in singing, “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn us around! We’re gonna keep on singing. We ain’t quitting. Ain’t gonna let nobody turn us around. Education is a human right!”
With the songs of the Civil Rights years echoing down the hall from the statue of George Washington at one end of the hall to the entry to the mayor's office at the other end, people began sitting on blankets on the floor or on chairs they had brought for the sit-in they promised would continue until their demands were met.
Although many expect that the closings and turnarounds are already a "Done Deal", Chicago-style, the protests against the plans have turned out the largest number of protesters and some of the most militant demonstrations in recent Chicago history. On the night of December 13, 2011, dozens of protesters slept out in the cold and rain in front of CPS headquarters at 125 S. Clark St., and on the morning of December 14 people halted the meeting of the Chicago Board of Education and held a two-hour "Peoples' Board" meeting after the Board members and the city's top education bureaucrats fled.
A number of the protesters were young elementary and middle school students. Above, a group were wearing "Push Back Against Push Outs" tee shirts. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
The January 4 event began at 11:00 a.m. with speeches and comments. First to explain the history and purpose of the event was Shannon Bennett of KOCO. Bennet told the crowd and the press who were attending that KOCO and leaders across the community had worked for two years to develop a plan for the schools of Bronzeville, and instead of adopting the plan, Chicago Schools CEO Brizard, after meeting with the community and being presented with the plan, release the 2012 Hit List to include more Bronzeville schools than schools from any other community. Dyett and Price are to be closed, and Fuller Elementary is slated to be turned around, despite the fact that the most recent turnaround in Bronzeville, the AUSL Phillips High School "turnaround" has been a failure.
Bennett told the crowd, which grew during the press conference and speakers, that the event had the support of several community organizations including community leaders from North Kenwood, Oakland, and the Greater Bronzeville community and activists from the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO). Additional support was coming from the Chicago Teachers Union, UNITE HERE, Action Now, the Albany Park Neighborhood Council, The Logan Square Neighborhood Association, and Stand Up Chicago. Bennett and other speakers told the crowd that some of the demonstrators had traveled to successful school districts around the country during a two-year period to meet with education leaders to develop the "Bronzeville Global Achievers Village School Improvement Plan." The plan is being ignored by CPS officials and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
“The Board of Education and Mayor Emanuel have yet to respond to parents’ efforts to garner support and implement their plan and save their schools,” said Jitu Brown, education organizer for KOCO. “Instead of respecting the very community that helped put him in office, he has gone deaf and unyielding in his mission to turn our schools over to politically connected school operators without a proven record of school success. We want to tell the mayor that the honeymoon is over. Our community will not just sit back and take it. We are not his subjects to be done with as he wishes. Our children deserve equal access to high quality schools now.”
Among the speakers were Jitu Brown, of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), which issued an explanation of the event and a fact sheet challenging CPS claims about schools on the city's South Side.
One of the more unusual notes made public during the event was the account, by Mayor Emanuel, of his family's recent vacation in South America, which the participants in the sit-in used to demonstrate just how out of touch Emanuel is with the real problems of the real people of the city he governs. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, ion a report by Fran Spielman, Emanuel advised every child to be a member of the Emanuel famile. The part of the Sun-Times story is below:
Emanuel’s South American vacation ‘unbelievably good’
A tanned Mayor Emanuel talked about his family's winter vacation to South America during a news conference on the city's recycling efforts.
Some people go to Florida, Arizona or Mexico over Christmas break. Others go skiing. Most stay home and celebrate with family and friends.
Not Chicago’s new first family. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, his wife, Amy Rule, and their three children — Zach, Ilana and Leah — spent an exotic holiday exploring South America in a way that most people could not afford.
Tanned, rested, but no less driven, Emanuel returned to work on Tuesday and offered up an oral report: “What I did on my Winter Break.”
“The family went to Chile and Argentina. We went on a white-water rafting trip. Did about 70 miles of whitewater on the Futaleufu [River] down in Chile. Then, we went up in the Patagonian area and went fly fishing and hiking, then spent New Year’s Eve in Buenos Aries,” the mayor said.
“Every year, we try to take the kids to a different part of the world to see. When you … grow up again, you want to be an Emanuel child. It’s unbelievable.”
http://www.suntimes.com/...
As the South American vacation was unbelievably good, back here in Chicago; it is believably horrendous. Chicago has had an off-duty police officer murdered in cold-blood, a 18yr.od girl sexual assaulted, found naked, beaten, and left for dead on a sidewalk in Logan Square on New Year's Eve. Countless shootings and assaults and untold number of murders in our streets, and not to mention the drug war that is occurring in the streets of Chicago on a daily basis. However, Rahmbie is tanned and rested and wants Chicagoans to know when you.....grow up again, you want to be an Emanual child. It's unbelievable. Well Rahmbie, the children in Chicago may not have a chance to grow up due to the fact that the children are being killed in cold-blood in the streets of Chicago.
ru-connected
3:01 PM on January 3, 2012
CROSS POSTED @
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