by DC Jobs with Justice | Oct 6, 2009 | Projects, Student Labor Outreach Project
More than 200 highschool students wearing all black walked out of classes Monday to protest the layoff of 388 school employees last week. Chanting “No counselors, no college!” students met at McKinley Technology High School and marched towards schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s office. “We are here because our education in on the line,†said one student. “We have no teachers. All our counselors have been laid off. I am a senior, I want to graduate, I want to go to college, I want to have a future but how can I do that without a school counselor.rnrnAt McKinley officers from the Metropolitan Police Department entered classrooms at around 2:45pm Friday to escort the teachers out of the classroom, “I was in class, the police came in, told my teacher to leave the classroom and escorted her to her car. We knew the layoffs were coming but we didn’t know who or when it would happen. It was very distressing,” explained Tamika DeBose, a student at McKinley Tech. As McKinley students gathered peacefully in the school courtyard on Friday, police attempted to disperse them, pepper spraying DeBose directly in the face. Another senior, Teyvon Cooke, began to voice her opposition to the layoffs when the police allegedly grabbed her neck, threw her on the ground, injuring her face and then arrested her, falsely accusing her assaulting a police officer. “Rhee mismanaged this situation badly,” said Kelvin Sherman, a 12th grader who filmed the incident and was expelled today after he shared the footage to with news stations. “At the end of the day it’s students who suffer.” rnrnRhee argues that...
