One hundred students at the Luis Munoz Rivera High School in Puerto Rico went on strike and paralyzed the school to protest the reassignment of several teachers, according to teacher-blogger Steven Singer.
“Students streamed out of their classrooms chanting in unison in the mountainous Utuado region of Puerto Rico earlier this month.
“They took over the halls and doorways of Luis Muñoz Rivera High School on Thursday, Sept. 10, locking their arms together to create a human chain.
“They paralyzed their school, shut it down, and allowed no one in or out.
“The reason? Not too much homework. Not lack of choice in the cafeteria. Not an unfair dress code.
“These roughly 100 teenagers were protesting the loss of their teachers. And they vowed to occupy their own school until the government gave them back.
“Six educators had been ordered to other schools, which would have ballooned classes at the Rivera School to 35-40 students per classroom.
“Government officials claimed the high school had too few students to justify the cost. However, with more than 500 young people enrolled, the school has more than double the island average.”
These students are fearless activists:
“The students including Vélez, 17, called an assembly to discuss the situation where they voted unanimously to take action. They blocked two gates and wrote a document demanding the Puerto Rican Department of Education revoke the decision to remove their teachers.
“Later that day, Sonia González, a representative of the Secretary of Education, met with students and signed the document promising to keep the teachers at the Rivera School. Three parents and one student also signed.”
Similar protests have occurred at other schools:
“What happened in the Rivera School is not an isolated incident. All across the island, communities are fighting government mandates to relocate teachers, increase class size and shutter more schools.
“This Tuesday at Pablo Casals School, an arts institution in Bayamon along the north coast, students protested the government decision to relocate their theater teacher, Heyda Salaman.
“About 100 students hung the Puerto Rican flag upside down and taped their mouths shut to represent the state of the government and the silence officials expect from the community.”
Eventually the government met with the students and relented, bringing back their teacher,
One student said:
“We have a good education and excellent teachers but the administration is failing their workers,” she said.
“The government is cutting rights and benefits to the teachers and employees and soon there will be no teachers. Maybe our schools get privatized and then only people with money will send their children to school.”
The government hss closed some 150 schools in the past 5 years.
Singer writes:
“Officials warn the government may be out of money to pay its bills by as early as 2016. Over the next five years, it may have to close nearly 600 more schools – almost half of the remaining facilities!
“The island is besieged by vulture capitalists encouraging damaging rewrites to the tax code while buying and selling Puerto Rican debt.
“Hundreds of American private equity moguls and entrepreneurs are using the Commonwealth as a tax haven.
“As a result, tax revenues to fund public goods like education are drying up while the super rich rake in profits.”
Thank you so much, Diane, for helping to publicize the plight of Puerto Rican students. What is being done to these children by their government is harrowing, but the response of these young people is inspiring. I am in awe of the courage and intelligence displayed by these children. They are showing all of us that corporate education reform can be defeated if we pull together with our communities and teachers. We are all being attacked. We must all fight back together.
Good for these students.
Candidates for the blog’s Honor Roll?
¡Que sigue la lucha!
Hi Señior Swacker:
As long as the partnership between governance and entrepreneurship is corrupted, educators will continue to struggle along with their students for their educational rights.
Will you attend NPE’s conference 2016 in North Carolina? I will not have a chance so far due to my own health issue. May
Puerto Rico has a long history of fighting for this country – for example, 20,000 Puerto Ricans were drafted in WW1 – since 1898 over 200,000 Puerto Ricans have served and protected the United States. It’s also considered our third border. Puerto Ricans are Americans, so it does not surprise me that they are willing to speak truth to power in this way.
Maybe the next NPE conference could be in Puerto Rico to show solidarity and support for this important and sometimes overlooked part of our country.