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Indybay Feature

Students Declare May 17 - TAKE BACK OUR SCHOOLS DAY!

by Nancypili de Pittas Califaztlan
On the 51st anniversary of Brown vs Board of Education, hundreds of Bay Area high school students walked out of their schools to attend Take Back Our Schools Day. They rallied in front of Oakland's City Hall and the State Building to call attention to continued inequalities in local public schools.
take_back_our_schools_day_005.jpg
A coalition of high school and middle school students calling themselves Organize Da B.A.Y. (Bay Area Youth) mobilized hundreds of their peers to march from schools across the East Bay to the Oakland City Hall to demand changes in the public education system.

Wave after wave of young people poured into Frank Ogala Plaza this morning, exactly one year after a group of parents, teachers, and students spent 26 days there on a hunger strike during the Fast for Education, and were guaranteed changes by the Governator.

They came on BART or Bus, were dropped off by supportive parents, or marched for up to an hour and a half through Oakland to meet up and spread their message of the need for educational equity with graffitti banners, t-shirts, silkscreened posters, and hip-hop chants.

While chanting:
"What do we want? Education!
When do we want it? Now!"
participants marched to the First Unitatian Church where workshops were facilitated by organizers on topics like the Williams Case, the No Child Left Behind legislature, Current Attacks on Education, The High School Exit exam, and How to Take Back Your School.

As the rally ended up a the State building a young Chicana wearing an "Education Is A Human Right" t-shirt screamed to the crowd from a makeshift stage on the back of a flatbed truck, "I got free CDs for anyone who can name our demands." Students surrounded the truck, raising their hands and begging to be called on. One by one, she brang up 4 students to the microphone and they articulated the demands that had been reiterated throughout the day in exchange for a conscious hip-hop mix CD.

1. Non-compliance with No Child Left Behind- this is hurting low-income students of color by punishing, privitizing, or closing low preforming schools instead of investing the added resources to increase student preformance.

2. Restore Local Control to Oakland Schools- State take overs of school districts take community control away from the students, parents, and teachers. We demand an immediate community accountablity board to govern Oakland Schools.

3. Fully Fund Prop 98 - Governor Schwarzengger stole over $2 billion from Cali schools and has continued the patterns of underfunding education while money continues to pour into the prison industry and the war economy.

4. No High School Exit Exam - We demand alternatives to the test that denies diplomas in order to hold studetns "accountable" yet provides no consequences for the state's failure to provide an eqaul education.

On May 3rd, 2005 the City Council unanimously endorsed a resolution calling May 17th in Oakland “Save Our Schools Day.” Over forty Oakland organizations and associations have endorsed May 17th as a day for students to “take back our schools.” The rally and conference was organized, in unity, by students and adults through Organize Da B.A.Y Coalition and the Community Coalition to Defend and Improve Public Education. For more info and photos, check out <http://www.organizedabay.org>

§Take Back our Schools Day - Crowd
by Nancypili de Pittas Califaztlan
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§Take Back Our Schools Day Crowd in Frank Ogala Plaza
by Nancypili de Pittas Califaztlan
take_back_our_schools_day_016.jpg
§Hecka Children Left Behind
by Nancypili de Pittas Califaztlan
take_back_our_schools_day_022.jpg
§Take Back Our Schools- Richmond High
by Nancypili de Pittas Califaztlan
take_back_our_schools_day_040.jpg
§Take Back Our Schools Day- Workshop
by Nancypili de Pittas Califaztlan
take_back_our_schools_day_047.jpg
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