Norfolk, Va., protest ties school crisis to war

Norfolk March 24 protest. Photo: Al Long

‘”They say cut back, we say fight back!” demanded protesters outside Granby High School on March 24 in Norfolk, Va., home to the largest U.S. naval base. Called by the Committee to Stop Budget Cuts, the protest took place during a meeting of the Norfolk school board, which plans to close some local schools and lay off 410 staff members. Part of the Committee statement reads: “Tens of millions of people in the U.S. face terror on a daily basis with growing unemployment and underemployment; watching a loved one unable to obtain health care, notwithstanding the recent passage of a healthcare bill that still falls short of providing universal health care; parents putting their children to bed or sending them off to school hungry or malnourished; or families living in fear that at any moment the sheriff’s department will come to evict them from their home only to face life on the street.”

Along with calling for a bailout for the people throughout Virginia, the Committee demanded money for human needs, not war. Two local TV stations covered the demonstration as drivers in passing cars honked in agreement with the placard and banner slogans. Larry Hales, a national organizer with the March 4 Defend Education Day of Action and New York spokesperson for the Bail Out the People Movement, and Sue Kelly, a former president of the Virginia Education Association, spoke at the protest.