BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME:www.indybay.org PRODID:-//indybay/ical// v1.0//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:Indybay-18792623 SEQUENCE:18924852 CREATED:20161024T140500Z DESCRIPTION:Defend\nAnti-Fascist Teacher Yvette Felarca!\n\nCommunity\nOrganizing Meeting\nWednesday,\nOctober 26, 2016\n5pm\nNorth\nBranch - Berkeley Public Library\n1170\nThe Alameda, Berkeley, CA\n\nProtest\nand Speak-Out at School Board MeetingWednesday,\nNovember 2, 2016\n6:30pm\nRally outside2020\nBonar Street (at University), Berkeley California7:30pm\nSpeak out inside (fill out speakers cards before)1231\nAddison Street (around the corner from 2020 Bonar)\n\nBerkeley\nSchool Board Persecutes Teacher For Helping Stop Neo-Nazis:\nStop\nthe Witch Hunt Against Yvette Felarca and Interrogation of Her\nStudents!\n\nAnti-fascist\nactivist and teacher Yvette Felarca has been removed from her\nclassroom at Martin Luther King Jr Middle School in Berkeley,\nCalifornia, for helping stop a neo-Nazi recruitment rally on the\nsteps of the state capitol in Sacramento this summer.\nAfter\nMs. Felarca was stabbed and beaten by the fascists, terror threats\nwere made against her and the school if she's not fired. Instead of\ndefending the entire community, including Ms.\nFelarca, the\nschool district is capitulating to the neo-Nazis' demands by taking\ndisciplinary measures against her and removing her from her job.\nPrior\nto being put on administrative leave on September 21 the school\ndistrict reached back into her bank account after depositing her\nwages, and took them back out, suddenly challenging previously\napproved sick days and leaves already taken. \n\nSince\nthen, both current and former students have been pulled out of class\nand interrogated about her, without their parents' informed consent,\ntargeting immigrant and limited english speaking families in\nparticular.\nMs.\nFelarca has been teaching ELD (English as a Second Language) and\nHumanities at King Middle School for a decade. She is a member of the\nExecutive Board of her union, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers\n(BFT), and is a founding member of the Equal Opportunity Now/By Any\nMeans Necessary (EON/BAMN) Caucus, an organization working on civil\nrights issues. \n\nThe\nactions against Ms. Felarca are directly counter to the Berkeley\nschool district's historic embrace of the fight against racism and\nfascism. Three district schools are named after civil rights leaders\n- Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, and Malcolm X, and Berkeley was\none of the very first school districts to voluntarily desegregate.\nStudents\nfrom all grade levels - elementary, middle, and high school, as well\nas parents, fellow teachers from Berkeley and Oakland, and a diverse\nrange of community members have been rallying in defense of Ms.\nFelarca. Please join us in speaking out:\n\nCome\nto the school board on November 2, write to the board members, and\nencourage your unions, collectives, and congregations to speak\nout and write\nletters and resolutions in\nsolidarity with Yvette Felarca.\nDemand\nthat she be reinstated immediately, repaid her full wages, and the\nharassment of her and her students be stopped!\nWrite\nto: boardofed@berkeley.net,\nSuperintendent@berkeley.net,\nCC:\nyvette.felarca@ueaa.net\n\nDefend\nYvette Felarca! Non-sectarian defense of all anti-fascists!\nAn\ninjury to one is an injury to all!\n\n\nMore\nDetails and Background:\nGrievance\nof Yvette Felarca:\nhttps://occupyoakland.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Grievance-of-Yvette-Felarca1.pdf\nPress\nconference with Yvette Felarca and her lawyer, September 28:\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHhVxvNt3vY\nSeptember\n21 school board meeting, public comments\nby Yvette Felarca, her students who demonstrated how she helped\nempower them, parents who praised her teaching style and expressed\nconcern about recent racist activities in the schools, fellow workers\nwho wondered about the implications of the district’s actions for\nother teachers, and community members who told personal stories about\nfascism in their own lives:\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg2giLt6Fu4\nOctober\n5 rally outside the school board meeting, and public comments inside\nby\nmore students,\nparents, teachers, and community members speaking in defense of Ms.\nFelarca. When\nboard members refused to disclose their personal positions on whether\nshe should continue to teach, and instead scurried off into a second,\nunagendized "closed session", the community held its own\nmeeting in the board room, with many more speaking out:\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdwuri1LFYI\nOctober\n19 school board meeting, more public comments\nin defense of Ms. Felarca, including a description of an\ninterrogation by a student, remote participation from a former\nstudent who called in from Mexico City, and a standing ovation from\none of the student representatives on the board:\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az4GFkzEfSo\nReport\nof what happened in Sacramento, and the neo-Nazis involved:\nhttp://antifasac.weebly.com/home/blood-in-the-valley-why-people-put-their-lives-on-the-line-to-run-nazis-out-of-sacramento\nMore\nabout the fascist organizers of the Sacramento rally:\nhttps://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/06/27/violent-clashes-erupt-sacramento-between-white-nationalists-and-antifascists\nDetails\nabout neo-Nazis converging in Berkeley prior to their attempted rally\nin Sacramento:\nhttps://itsgoingdown.org/big-nazis-on-campus/\nArticle\nabout racist events at Berkeley High School over the last couple of\nyears,\nincluding racist pages in the yearbook which had to be recalled, a\nnoose hanging from a tree, and a terror threat citing the KKK on a\nschool computer, which resulted in a walkout by the majority of\nstudents:\nhttp://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/11/04/racist-threats-posted-on-berkeley-high-library-computer/\n\n\n\n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/10/24/18792623.php SUMMARY:Community organizing meeting: Defend Anti-Fascist Teacher Yvette Felarca! LOCATION:North Branch - Berkeley Public Library\n1170 The Alameda, Berkeley, CA URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/10/24/18792623.php DTSTART:20161027T000000Z DTEND:20161027T023000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR