NEW YORK—What was supposed to take place was the year’s first Parents as Partners meeting. Instead, as irate teachers and parents in the auditorium began to chant, half a dozen panelists departed and Schools’ Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott was left alone on stage. Without the ability to utter a word of his introduction, Walcott walked out of the Essex Street Academy auditorium to deafening chants.
Teachers and parents effectively shut down the Department of Education (DOE) public meeting on Tuesday night.
Walcott and other education officials were to introduce Common Core literacy standards—a curriculum adopted by 40 other states that focuses on math and literacy, while introducing a new testing system—and take questions from parents and teachers before breaking out to smaller meetings.
Instead, the meeting was taken over and speeches from distressed teachers and parents were echoed by an upbeat crowd. Parents and teachers spoke against the DOE’s approach to education where students are viewed as units, learning is gauged by data, and achievement tracked by high stakes tests.
“I’m here because I believe that schools are more than just sorting machines,” said one concerned attendee.
That voice echoed many others that are concerned with the DOE, Chancellor Walcott, and Mayor Bloomberg.
The protesters took turns speaking via a “people’s mic,” in a meeting similar to those in held Zuccotti Park by the Occupy Wall St. protesters. In a “people’s mic” the crowd repeats a speaker’s words in unison, amplifying the speech.
Teachers have been involved with the Occupy Wall Street protest since the beginning stages, said Justin Wedes, a part-time public school teacher and “full-time activist.”
“The important thing is not that we shut down their meeting,” he said. “That was just a prerequisite to do what we wanted to do, which is to have an open ‘mic-check’ in which people can voice their concerns and listen to each other.”
Police were aware of the meeting’s Occupy Wall Street connection, as barricades had been set up and dozens of officers were in the auditorium and outside the school.
One of the protest organizers announced that their next “general assembly” will be held on the steps of the DOE.
She approached Walcott as he was speaking to the press to pass him an invitation. Walcott ignored the offer and walked away.
Protests and walkouts have often occurred at Parents as Partners meetings, but according to regular attendees, they have never been shut down before.
