As legislation in Michigan attempting to criminalize teacher sick-outs creeps ever closer to passing in response to the direct action taken up by Detroit Public School (DPS) teachers standing up against the decrepit state of the city’s public schools, students and parents from the district are speaking out in support of the teachers’ actions.
DPS grad Charles Bell states:
“I support Detroit Public School teachers and their fight against emergency management because I know when we invest in our children we enable them to do great things. As a graduate of Detroit Public Schools, I remember seeing the old textbooks and experiencing cold classrooms. That is not how we should educate any child and I believe we must fight against any government initiative that harms our student population. DPS teachers taught me so much and encouraged me to dream. It is in part because of their dedication, that I have been able to defy the odds.”
Bell also filmed the video below in support of Detroit’s public school teachers:
DeAndre Stokes, both a DPS graduate and parent, states:
“I’m fully supportive of Detroit Public School teachers and their fight for better school conditions for our children. As a former student of DPS, I have seen the conditions first hand and they were deplorable. As a parent I want the best for my child and the teachers are only requesting the necessities for our kids. Since our schools are under state control and have been for a while why is this even an issue? It shouldn’t be and our kids should have a fighting chance in this world.”
Community activist and DPS advocate Kevin Perez states:
“I support the DPS Teachers because they need more support; they are the ones on the front lines – they are the ones who come out of pocket to cover many items that the state should take care of since the district is under state management. Also, because I find it atrocious the way the bureaucrats have treated them like chattel with their privatization schemes. DPS teachers know that the education of our children should not be for self-centered, profit motives.”
The statements of support for DPS teachers serve as a retort to state agencies claiming the teachers’ sickouts harm students and hassle parents’ work days by keeping students home ind the midst of the work week. The state attempting to make the sick-outs illegal would take away teachers’ only means for protesting the deplorable conditions the state, itself, has thrown Detroit Public Schools into since taking over the district, where rats, dead mice and black mold have been found, not to mention lack of heating and leaky ceilings dripping on students’ heads.
Are the sick-outs harming students and creating workday problems for parents, or a drastically necessary stance against the harm actually being inflicted by the state? These students and parents tell it like it is, from personal experience attending Detroit Public Schools, and guess what – they’re siding with the teachers. It looks like this is just one more ploy for the state to silence teachers, dissent, and sweep it’s age-old dirty tricks under the carpet. Luckily, Detroit isn’t having it.
Featured image via YouTube video screen capture.
