TONIGHT WE DOCKED THE REAL REFORMERS TO THE OWS AND TO THE 99% AND TIED THE ED DEFORMERS TO THE 1%.
I'll keep updating this post as new reports come in - check the UPDATED date and time to track them.
UPDATED: Thurs. Oct. 27 8:10 AM- REPORTS KEEP COMING IN. I CAN'T GET THIS STUFF UP FAST ENOUGH. LIVE STREAM INTERVIEWS POST MEETING WERE WONDERFUL - LOTS OF NEW PEOPLE INVOLVED.
http://nycpublicschoolparents.
Epoch Times: http://www.theepochtimes.com/
Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_
Fox News: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/
A NYPost editorial where we're "thugs"... ha. might be worth a few comments: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/
Gotham Schools: Walcott opening remarks while People's Mic goes on: http://vimeo.com/31119914
HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Raging Horse Blog: Occupy the Department of Education: Walcott Takes it On the Hop
Anna Philips, NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/
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| Great photo by Anna Philips |
Report from NY Eye: NEWS: On "Occupy the PEP"
NYCORE VIDEO: http://www.nycore.org/2011/10/10-25-11-occupy-the-pep-video/
NY1 Video from Lindsay Christ: http://www.ny1.com/content/
A teacher reports:
Hi everyone,Let's see how the press covers this. Note the important point L makes - that there were only very few people there to actually hear Walcott and Coleman talk. (See Leonie report on who Coleman is).
Tonight was the best (non pep) pep ever. The best meeting ever. It was amazing! I have no words. We shut it down, everyone got to talk, voices were heard, the people's mic worked like a charm, basically we rocked it.
The doe is definitely going to spin it but there were literally few people there who weren't there for the occupy the doe action. And we really made something incredible happen. The press was there in mass and everyone who spoke on the mic was truly amazing. I was ao deeply happy. There are no words.
I want to give a more thorough report-back but I don't know what to say! I guess just ask questions and I will answer them... I am having a hard time figuring out how to share the energy of the room. Beautiful. L
I couldn't make tonight's possibly historic events but was trying to follow the Tweets. I heard Keith Olbermann mentioned what occurred. Pics below. And for those teachers who are wary of putting their foot in the activist water due to fear of Tweed, there are many teachers in this protest who show no fear. There were 200 people this time. Let's double or triple this at the next
PEP Regular Calendar Panel Meeting11/17/2011 - 6:00 P.M.
The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts
35-12 35th Avenue
Queens, NY 11106
Up to now you really couldn't do this without the UFT which while walking out and doing some disruption in the past never tried to stop a meeting cold in its tracks. This protest had no UFT presence - they were marching over the bridge with political slug like Vito Lopez to support OWS. Irony of irony when corrupt politicians like Lopez are part of the problem.
Here is a video from Gotham:
Untitled from Elizabeth Green on Vimeo.
Here is an email about tonight from Leonie:
It was a wonderful evening, something to celebrate and relive. DemocracyHere is the Gotham Schools report:
lives! For those who missed it, we took over the PEP tonight at Seward Park HS and the entire meeting is being re-broadcast now at http://www.livestream.com/occupynyc
mic check
October 25, 2011
Protest derails DOE meeting on curriculum after just minutes
The possibility of a public comment session evaporated just moments into tonight’s Panel for Educational Policy meeting, after nearly 200 protesters drowned out Department of Education officials.
The panel had convened for a special meeting about the city’s new curriculum standards. But as Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott and the standards’ architect, David Coleman, took the stage at Seward Park High School, protesters aligned with the Occupy movement launched a chorus of complaints via “the people’s mic.”
“Mic check!” each protester would call out, commanding the attention of his or her compatriots. Then he or she would call out a statement, pausing after every few words so that others could repeat them, amplifying the statement without the help of a microphone.
“The DOE’s priorities! Are all wrong!” one protester shouted. “We would like! There to be a community conversation! a real community conversation! about the people’s priorities!”
“We want our teachers to be paid more,” yelled a 7-year-old, Anais Richard, who attends P.S. 11 in Brooklyn. “If these things are not done, then we won’t be able to be succeeded.” The people’s mic repeated her statement, complete with the misspoken final word.
Walcott delivered his opening remarks over the shouting. At one point, he said, “We appreciate the activism, and we look forward to having you participate in our discussion.”
But when Walcott turned the microphone over to Coleman, the tone shifted. (more…)
I'm putting up a series of tweets from Bryan Jones and NY1's Lindsay Christ which will give you a flavor- read in reverse order
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laid-off school aides were there, chanting "bring the workers back!" #OccupyEdu
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have to leave, sadly. best moments included Walcott walking in and out, not sure what to do while the crowd shouted "SHAME!" #OccupyEdu
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200 protesters, including teachers, parents, students, chant in auditorium while Walcott, David Coleman, PEP attend Common Core sessions
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What a moment. This movement, this feeling, is infectious. Very difficult to put this cat back in the bag. #OccupyEdu
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Amazing, just amazing. The whole room is repeating our speakers, Walcott is drowned out & the police have no idea what to do. #OccupyEdu
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People's mic has TAKEN OVER THE PEP!! #OccupyEdu
"Occupy the DOE! Occupy the DOE!" They are now marching out of the building.
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Protester: "This is our PEP meeting. And we hope the next PEP meeting will be ours as well." Chancellor Walcott wouldn't comment on that.
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Meeting tonight was moved to small breakout rooms upstairs. The protesters remain in auditorium, holding their own meeting. #OWS
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Speaker David Coleman was much more hesitant to speak over crowd. He tried then turned to Chancellor. Walcott called general meeting off.
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As soon as Chancellor began speaking, the crowd began protesting through the "People's Mic". Walcott keeps speaking, through a real mic.
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These aren't school safety officers outside tonight's education meeting. Cops with guns and handcuffs. Several officers. No OWS presence yet
Earlier story from Gotham Schools:
NEWS: Discussion of Common Core to compete with human mic tonight
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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.
Congrats!! Hope to be at the next one!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Where was Unity? Marching over a bridge...la lala lalaaaaa la...............row row row your boat gently down the steam, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream....
ReplyDelete"Dumb dumb dumb us down gently down the drain
unity unity unity unity, sells out again."
sells us out again...my apologies.
ReplyDeleteI am excited that the OWS organizing tactics were used so successfully at the PEP meeting and so impressed by and thankful for the work you did to gather all of these important resources. However, I am very concerned about your use of OWS terminology. Are the PEP folks the 1% in the true economic sense of the term? They may be appointed by Mayor Bloomberg (whose personal wealth may actually put him in the leagues of the 1%) but I think that the only appropriate way to borrow the OWS terminology is to refer to PEP folks as representing the interests of the 1% instead of the 99%. If we are not careful how we use language at this critical time in history, we risk seriously diluting messages. This is especially important skill and practice for teachers!
ReplyDeleteI thought this "TIED THE ED DEFORMERS TO THE 1%" pretty much covers the same ground - tie them to the 1% is the same as represent the interests.
ReplyDelete