Newark Students Wage War with Anderson
The rising tide against March's debut of the statewide PARCC test may have helped fuel the Newark Students Union Feb. 18 sit-in here at the Newark Public Schools' Central Office.
Up to 12 NSU students, parents and NJ Communities United college students-activists have been sitting in State District Superintendent Cami Anderson's office here a 2 Cedar St. since 8:30 p.m.
The group, according to eyewitnesses, had left en masse from the NPS Board of Education Business Meeting after Science Park High School Senior Kristin Towkaniuk and several students and organizers spoke during the panel's public hearing segment.
They left Conference Room 1010 for a down elevator - but got off at the former Two Guys Department Store's eighth floor. They then ran to Anderson's offices and plugged in their computers before NPS security and Corporate Counsel Charlotte Hitchcock could stop them.
The protesting students had begun announcing their action and appealing for support on social media when Hitchcock and NPS Director of Security Eric Ingold arrived from the board meeting. They told the protestors that they were "trespassing on private property" before calling the Newark Police Department.
One student replied, "Thank you," and rejoined the group's online broadcasting. Hitchcock returned a few minutes later to announce that protestors will have restroom access and that food will be delivered to them.
2 Cedar St., except for NPS employees and law enforcement, has otherwise been in lockdown.
"Local Talk" found six news vans and three more NPS security cars along Cedar Street more than usual 8:45 a.m. Feb. 18. Except for reporters and technicians keeping warm in their trucks, there were very few people standing outside the corner of Cedar and Broad streets.
"I told the guards I had to leave early on a family matter and that I'd return in the morning," said one unnamed high school senior. "I just came back. The guards aren't letting students, media, anyone but school employees, back in."
Board member Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson posted on her Facebook page 11 p.m. Feb. 17 that the protestors were "in good spirits and are live-streaming from Anderson's office. (Board member) Marques Aquil-Lewis bought them pizza."
Baskerville-Richardson added, however, that she, Aquil-Lewis, board member Donald G. Jackson and husband-labor organizer-Freeholder Wayne Richardson were waiting to "be allowed" to check in on the students Tuesday night.
There have also been questions, like in a similar sit-in last May, about whether the protestors are actually receiving food and/or drink. Pastor and former councilwoman Mamie Bridgeforth said that she was at first stopped from bringing food to NPS headquarters by guards and officials before they relented.
"Senior staff members have tried every trick to get them out," said NAACP-Newark Branch President Deborah Smith-Gregory outside 2 Cedar St. around 1:30 p.m. Feb. 18, "including starving them and not bringing them food the community has brought them."
There was one report circulating that Central Office staff members were calling the protestors' parents,