The hunger strikers at Dyett High School in Chicago entered its 10th day.
The strikers want Dyett to be reopened as the only remaining neighborhood in their neighborhood, Bronzeville.
One of the hunger strikers passed out. The health of others is in jeopardy. I am worried about my friend Jitu Brown.
No word from the Mayor or his school board.
Peter Greene says it took the Chicago Tribune right days to report that there was a hunger strike in their city, and the reporting was condescending.
“Mind you, they didn’t cover it all that well. They reported the 13-student enrollment class without any context, as if it were the result of “plunging enrollment” and not a phased closure (with CPS encouraging students to get out of Dodge).
“They reported the two other proposals uncritically. They didn’t explain Little Black Pearl’s non-past operating schools, and I am becoming really curious about who is behind the athletic school proposal which is always only linked to Charles Campbell, the Dyett interim principal. They did not mention that CPS entertains his proposal even though it was late.
“The Trib reported the community proposal, but put “leadership and green technology school” in quotation marks as if this were some sort of crazy idea that community members just pulled out of thin air, as if it were like a school for chinchilla ranchers or underwater basket weavers. And Trib– you left off “global.”
“And the Tribune made sure to note that the group on hunger strike has always been tied to the Chicago teachers’ union (you know– Those People).”
Peter says: click on the Trib link so they know you want to read more.
Click on it. Peter’s idea must have worked because as I wrote this post, the Trib posted another report (see above, 6:11 EST).
And say prayers for our friends who are putting their bodies on the line for the children and the community.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I quit taking the Chicago Tribune sometime ago because of their one sided, myopic editorializing. They are corporate owned and push corporate agenda. This is common for the media. I just wrote a nasty letter to the publisher of our local “newspaper’ because of one sided editorializing.
Democracy cannot exist without quality journalism and since the bottom line has become making money, pushing for corporate welfare the welfare of the common people has disintegrated.
The media has denigrated our public schools beginning with “A Nation at Risk” and has gone downhill ever since.
Money talks: LOUDLY and has become the bottom line.
The Columbia Journalism Review had a most intriguing lead article a few months ago: “Who Cares if it is True”. That speaks volumes about the quality of our media.
I canceled my subscription to my local Northern California paper because of its union-bashing. Now I have no source of local news. I long for the days when newspapers were profitable –then one could have started a liberal competitor. I curse Craig Newmark and the other glib innovators who blithely wreck critical institutions. The market has failed; we need a tax-payer supported news service like the BBC –with local, state and national coverage. Imagine –middle-class jobs for legions of journalists and a better informed citizenry and more sunshine on shady dealings! Wouldn’t that be worth slightly higher taxes, my fellow citizens?
I have to say, the idea of combining Time Warner Cable with the Internal Revenue Service is a bit scary. On the flip side, it might scare me off TV entirely.
Ponderosa, I agree. Well said. Lee Enterprises just laid off its two best political/government news reporters in Montana and is publishing mostly police reports and press releases.
Here’s the original article: (with a local news clip from WGN, a station affiliated with the Tribune)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-chicago-dyett-school-hunger-strike-met-20150825-story.html
————————————
Activists Go Hungry in Bid to
Save Dyett High School
from Closure
August 25, 2015
For nine days, Jitu Brown has ignored the aching pangs from his stomach, the passing dizzy spells and sluggishness that comes from living without solid foods.
Brown, 49, is one of a dozen local activists refusing to eat to draw attention to the plight of Dyett High School in Washington Park on the South Side. The activists hope this latest tactic will force the Chicago Public Schools board to finally decide the fate of the troubled high school once slated for closure.
“We will not stand for the continued ignoring of our voices as African-American families,” said Brown, who is a leader of the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School, which started a hunger strike on Aug. 17. “We have worked on Dyett High School since 2009, and we have brought proposals to the Board of Education since 2009. It’s 2015, and we’re put inside of a process that we fear is rigged. That we know is rigged.”
By Tuesday, their battle drew national attention for how it illustrates the drastic steps residents take to save neighborhood schools.
On social media, dozens of education leaders across the country voiced their support. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Dan Montgomery, head of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, have agreed to join the group in a rally Wednesday morning.
lRelated
South Side high school could get new life after advocacy
Walter H. Dyett High School, 555 E. 51st Street, was targeted for a three-year phaseout that would have closed the school this year.
For years, it has been plagued by poor performance and low enrollment. Last year, the senior class had only 13 students.
But in October, after a series of demonstrations and public uproar, the district agreed to accept proposals from private community organizations to run the school for CPS. Charter schools were not considered.
Monica Haslip, of the Little Black Pearl workshop, has proposed taking over Dyett to expand a school affiliated with the workshop. She envisions enrolling up to 650 students at what would be a “comprehensive four-year visual and performing arts” high school, according to her proposal.
Charles Campbell, the interim principal overseeing the phaseout at Dyett, wants to reinvent the school around concepts from sports. His plans would serve 800 to 900 students.
But Brown and his coalition have been pushing for about six years to turn Dyett into a “leadership and green technology school.” They want to develop a science-based curriculum that would capitalize on the school’s location in Washington Park. Their school would focus on leadership skills and training students to engage in the political process. The group also wants to renovate the building into a LEED certified green facility.
A public hearing was scheduled earlier this month so residents could hear about the proposals and voice concerns. The district postponed that meeting to “remain focused” on its proposed budget for the coming year.
“Chicago Public Schools is committed to a community driven process that will identify a high-quality education option for the former Dyett site,” Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool said in a written statement earlier this summer.
When this month’s meeting was postponed, core members of the coalition stopped eating.
“Our group is resilient and they want to strike for as long as it takes,” said J. Brian Malone, who as the executive director of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization has rallied with the coalition.
11 arrested during City Hall protest over closing of Dyett High School
11 arrested during City Hall protest over closing of Dyett High School
ourishment. Members are tired, battling headaches and fatigue but determined to keep going, Brown said.
On Monday night, one member of the group, a 50-year-old grandmother, was hospitalized, Malone said.
“People’s lives are now on the line,” Malone said. “We have a woman in the hospital because all she wants is an open-enrollment high school for her grandchildren. The community has spoken. How much longer can we be ignored?”
The Bronzeville-based group behind the hunger strike has long allied with the Chicago Teachers Union, and has received support from union officers and organizers since launching the campaign on Monday. CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey joined the group during a brief sit-in at CPS headquarters last Thursday — demanding, without success, a meeting with Claypool.
CTU President Karen Lewis also expressed support for the effort this week, calling on Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Claypool to “end their plan to eliminate Bronzeville’s only neighborhood high school.”
“The fact that, in 2015, parents have to go on a hunger strike for a school is ludicrous to me,” said Jeanette Taylor-Ramann, one of the strike participants.
———
Here’s a good comment:
Tribune staff, I’m a re-located Chicago girl who now teaches in the public schools in another state. Please cover this story, it’s important! Why is the most coverage on this story coming through Twitter and social media?
eelombardi
at 9:44 PM August 26, 2015
I am confused why this school is referred to as the only CPS high school in Bronzeville when Phillips High School is also open.
Because that’s an AUSL “turnaround” school – one of those that boots kids out if they can’t keep up/follow orders.
From the article: “At the board meeting, newly installed President Frank Clark said the protesters are justified to push for answers.
“The issue around Dyett, I do agree, has gone on for a very long period of time,” he said. “We do need to reach a conclusion. It may or not be the conclusion that everyone wants, but a conclusion is necessary as soon as we can do that.””
Um hm. Yeah, CPS is really listening. I think we all know what “conclusion” CPS has already decided on.
Could not get the article without “digital access.” Not in Chicago but do support the people who are putting their hearts souls and bodies into the cause.
What reformer ever risked anything other than bankruptcy or jail (and not the righteous fight-the-man type of jailing) for their students?
Dyett parents and the community have made their CHOICE very clear, and they also have detailed plans on how to implement their choice, so why are Rahm and his appointed board not acknowledging and supporting their choice? Do they not believe in real choice? Can parents only choose from (rubber stamp) what the “reformers” have decided that they can choose from? THAT is the blatant lie of the sales pitch of “choice”. CALL OUT RAHM AND CPS FOR THEIR HYPOCRISY! Call Rahm’s office at 312-744-3300
I called the number. The phone rings and rings… no answer, no answering machine…
I sent an email to the Tribune authors since I did not see a comment section at the bottom (perhaps cut them off????) and this is what I said:
Why wasn’t this part of your story?
http://www.teachersforjustice.org/p/global-solidarity-support-for-dyett.html?m=1
And why was the name of the school in quotes as if it was not a real validated idea? And why didn’t you tell the story of how the school came to have only 13 graduating seniors before it was closed? Why is nobody telling the truth about what is happening to minority schools across the country? Reporters appear to be either too lazy to dig for the truth or too bought out by corporate money to tell the truth.
A democratic society deserves the whole story!
Karen Adlum
Who would have thought that people would have to go to such extreme measures to get public education in America? These mayors or governors should have to put to the voters to decide. They have too much power.
I hope everyone who cares about public education will write a letter to the Chicago Tribune so they know this story is important. Here is a link to do that. http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-submit-a-letter-to-the-editor-htmlstory.html
This is a really good piece on how this happened. They’ve been fighting this for almost 5 years:
http://sevenscribes.com/phantoms-playing-double-dutch-why-the-fight-for-dyett-is-bigger-than-one-chicago-school-closing/
This makes me just so sad for Chicago. Rahm and the rest of the Chicago thugs are (fill in the blanks). And the deformers say they do what they do because they care about our young. What lies.
Paramedics had to treat Jeanette Taylor-Ramann, the second striker to need medical care after giving up solid foods. These hunger strikers are doing something sacred for their schools and their community, said Dan Montgomery, the president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which represents more than 100,000 teachers and school support staff.