Last Thursday afternoon, January 21, on E. 79 St., across from the mayor’s mansion, parents, students and teachers peacefully protested against the Bloomberg Administration’s proposals to force mass closings of public schools and their takeover by charter schools. They were exercising their constitutional right under the First Amendment to publicly demand that these policies that undermine the public school system and deprive their children of an adequate education be stopped.
Meanwhile, a reporter on the scene caught on videotape the actions of police who were taking photographs of the protesters from the roof and inside a private school across the street. In 1985, the federal court ruled that it is illegal and a violation of civil rights for the New York City police to take photos of protesters, unless they have cause to believe that a crime may be committed. The city signed a consent agreement that year, restricting police surveillance according to these rules, called the Handschu Guidelines. In the case of this peaceful protest, there was no such cause. The video is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbNRt-5OZ68
The protesters are asking for a full explanation as to why the pictures were taken and how the police plan to use the photos. The protestors also want to know whether any videotaping of them was done. Finally, they are considering filing a complaint with Judge Charles S. Haight Jr., the federal judge who has continuing jurisdiction over the enforcement of the Handschu Guidelines.
More
The press conference asking some questions:
Part 1
Part 2
Teachers and those concerned about education really have NO rights.
Meanwhile, BloomKlein are doing a great job with the city's schools--NOT. From the NY Teachers.net board:
We all know BloomKlein does what it wants and feels no need to
justify anything.
I worked in a large (1600 kids in an 800 capacity building) middle
school. We always did ok, stayed off SURR and out of corrective
action till 2001. Then we were in corrective action. Large classes
were our biggest problem- I had 36 kids on year, 38 in another. The
principal was old school and knew little about instruction but
picked admins who did. The school was always quiet and under
control. Most of the teachers were good. You never saw kids in the
hallway, excessive rowdiness, graffiti.
Long story short, we were "restructured" on a whim in 2004. We were
not SURR. Ironically, class size became even bigger because
classrooms became offices. We did ok at my school but the two new
schools were an unmitigaged disaster- kids having sex in stairwells
(not from my school) vandalizing, one kid took a crap in the
hallway. The kids who went through those two new schools got
totally screwed because the admins and teachers could not control
the building. These things did not happen when we were one large
school. I would imagine that it was also cheaper to run a large
school with one principal and 3-4 APs vs. 3 principals and 5-6 APs.
After five years, one of the schools is STILL a mess and the other
is better, but only marginally. Turnover in both schools is very
high and those teachers regularly seek jobs with us (and kudos to
my principal who will take experienced teachers- a few are
returnees from pre-restructure.)
As others have said, Bloomberg wants to put charters in. That's the
rumor in my school now, that we will get rid of our 5th grade and
allow a charter. He also needs to place his Principal Academy
people. Two of the four principals who have gone through the other
schools in my building are/were from the PA and both are abysmal.
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