Dec. 1 call to action
Board of Education: ‘Recognize our rights!’
By
Mia Cruz
New York
Published Nov 22, 2006 12:30 AM
The New York City Board of Education (BOE) has been the key
factor in the miseducation occurring in the city’s public
and charter schools. Thanks to the curricula approved by Joel
Klein, students learn how “White colonists helped
Africa” and how “Hezbollah was involved in
9/11.” This kind of misinformation has led to hate toward
and discrimination against certain cultures.
If the teachers are trained to teach this false history, then the
students are taught to believe it. One of the rights in the New
York City students’ Bill of Rights, written by the Urban
Youth Collaborative (UYC) Student Union, states that we students
should be taught about the history and diversity of the
schools’ student populations. This means Black students
learning about Black history, but true history, not white
colonial lies. Any person of color knows that white colonists
never helped the people of Africa—they tortured, raped and
murdered them.
Joel Klein also implemented school safety laws which make cell
phones and iPods “contraband” in school buildings.
He’s implemented “roving scanners.” This not
only enforces the ‘electronics ban’ but also inhibits
a learning environment.
We have a right, as students, to study in a safe and
nonthreatening environment, according to the student Bill of
Rights. This right directly counters the roving scanners policy
by the BOE. Roving scanners is a recent manifestation of
‘school security’ which had security officers showing
up one morning, without informing the student body or parents,
with metal detectors and handcuffs on the belts of every officer.
This violates the Bill of Rights in another way, infringing on
the right to have students and parents involved in the
school’s decision making process.
We students are fed up with the violation of our rights, privacy,
security and confiscation of our personal items. We are calling
for students, parents, teachers and advocates to come out and
demand student rights, including protection for all small schools
and better equipment and trained school security officers for
larger schools. No longer should students feel like prisoners at
a place of learning.
Come out on Dec.1
Dec. 1 is Rosa Parks Day. This marks the 51st anniversary of
Parks’ courageous arrest for refusing to give up her seat
on a segregated Montgomery, Ala., bus. Before her, many young
women were arrested for the same reason. Even though Mrs. Parks
was the one to make headlines, it was the youth who inspired this
courageous act.
Last year in October, students of color in France realized the
racism of their society and rose up. This only came after the
death of other youth of color. This uprising made headline news
because the youth are powerful in numbers. Youth put a stop to
business as usual in France. And for one day, we need to put a
stop to business as usual in New York City!
Dec.1 is a day of commemoration and a day of strike. It is a day
of impunity. This is so we can take off, celebrate and stand up
for our civil rights without the harassment of being marked
absent. We need to stand up for our rights as the civil rights
movement and the students and youth of France so courageously did
in the past.
We will gather at the northern end of Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn, at
11:30 am. We will march across the Brooklyn Bridge, and we will
tell the Board of Education how it feels to have our student
rights violated! They need to know what happens to us when the
BOE picks a school to scan and allows students to be harassed,
physically, sexually and mentally. No school, no work, no
shopping on Dec. 1!!!
The writer is an organizer with FIST-Fight Imperialism, Stand
Together, youth and student group. For more information about
FIST, e-mail [email protected]. To contact the
writer, e-mail [email protected].
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