Detroit teachers denounce legal witch-hunt
“This isn’t just our fight, it’s for public education across the country.”
On Monday 200 students, parents and teachers rallied in front of the Michigan Court of Claims to oppose the efforts by the emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools (DPS) to criminalize the teacher sickouts.
Despite enormous pressure from school officials, hundreds of students at Cass Tech, Renaissance and Communication and Media Arts high schools also walked out of school as well in a spirited display of support for teachers. Many carried handmade signs.
Monday's rally
Well aware of the deep support for teachers and the bogus evidence concocted by the district to victimize the teachers, Judge Cynthia Diane Stephens rejected the appeal for a temporary restraining order and tossed out a legal action against individual teachers.
After the hearing, the World Socialist Web Site spoke with several of the 23 teachers fighting the legal witch-hunt by Emergency Manager Darnell Earley.
Sarah Jardine, a teacher summoned to court who wrote a widely-read open letter
Sarah Jardine, named in the complaint, is a teacher of Adapted Physical Education for Students with Autism. Her open letter appealing for support from DPS parents helped galvanize support for the teachers. She told the WSWS she was relieved there was a “temporary” reprieve from legal action. Explaining the anti-democratic methods used by the district to select teachers in the lawsuit, she said, “They used statements we made in the media against us and plucked them out of the news. They used our free speech against us.
“The problem is we have no ability to bring our concerns to anyone at this point. We have no democratically elected school board. We’re under emergency management, and when they don’t hear us, there really is no other option for us than to do something in protest that is dramatic so that the people can hear our concerns—they certainly aren’t being heard by the emergency manager.
Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Darnell Earley
They took the open letter from Pam [Namyslowski] and my letter and decided to use them against us. Pam got a personal visit by Darnell Earley to her classroom to meet her. Five days later he used the letter she had written to sue her. So obviously they are not acting in good faith. Everything they do seems to be for PR and media spin. But, for our part, we’re acting on behalf of the kids.”
Commenting on the fact that teachers initiated the fight independently of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT), she said, “Teachers decided to move in a grassroots way. They tried to use 23 individual teachers as a way to scare more than 3,000 of us. The truth is, those people named were just plucked out of 3,000. This is not something that you can attribute to any leader but really the people of the Detroit Public Schools—the teachers and the staff rising Detroit teachers denounce legal witch-hunt - World Socialist Web Site: