Bill 1497: Looks like Mayor Murray wants to run the school district now | Seattle Education

Bill 1497: Looks like Mayor Murray wants to run the school district now | Seattle Education:

Bill 1497: Looks like Mayor Murray wants to run the school district now

…and Representative Eric Pettigrew is more than happy to help. (More on him later.)

This should come as no surprise to those who know of Mayor Murray’s past in the State Senate when he sponsored a bill for mayoral control of school boards in our state.

With his push to control the preK initiative and convert the Office for Education into the Department of Education, he has steadily increased his control over issues of education in our city particularly with the use of levy funding for unending assessments of our neediest as well as funding charter schools.

Now he wants to control the district by appointing school board members to the Seattle school board.

This is called mayoral control or mayoral control lite in this case although it’s not so light. It takes a simple majority for the school board to pass proposals so having two swing votes can control quite a bit in our school district.

I also want to add that’s it’s undemocratic, allows a politician, and therefore their donors, to pull the strings, and has been an abject failure in other cities, See the NPEC review  Claims on Mayoral Governance Don’t Stand Up to Scrutiny

Speaking of abject failures, the Seattle Office of Education came out with their annual report last week to the Levy Oversight Committee that showed the students they are responsible for are not doing as well as students in Seattle Public School programs. (Start on page 22.) There seems to be more concern about the “data” and fancy graphs than actually supporting our children. That’s basically what Levy Committee member Greg Wong said in the meeting. I will have a detailed report on the levy and how funds are being handled  next week.

Getting back to mayoral control of school boards, should the Governor be allowed to select state legislators? Should the mayor also be able to select city council members? If not, then  why is it OK for the mayor to select school board members?

Let’s take a look at House Bill 1497 as sponsored by Eric Pettigrew. There are no additional sponsors at this time.

The critical excerpt:

…any first class school district having within its boundaries a city with a population of four hundred thousand people or more ((which)) shall have a board of directors of seven members, five of whom are elected and two of whom are appointed by the mayor of that city. A vacancy by an appointed member under this subsection shall be appointed by the mayor for the unexpired term.

Seattle is the only city in the state that has a population of 400,000+. Coincidence? I think not. But, for other cities in Washington State who think they’ll get a pass, think Bill 1497: Looks like Mayor Murray wants to run the school district now | Seattle Education:

Sacramento has the same problem with it's Corporate Mayor.

He Lost!

Strong Mayor? Why? Part 2 — The California Fix

Bill and Melinda Gates Enlist “Global Citizens” to Support Agenda - Living in Dialogue

Bill and Melinda Gates Enlist “Global Citizens” to Support Agenda - Living in Dialogue:



Bill and Melinda Gates Enlist “Global Citizens” to Support Agenda

 By Anthony Cody.

In their 2015 annual letter, Bill and Melinda Gates describe the way that technology will transform the lives of the poor. They also describe a new project that will enlist millions around the world as “Global Citizens” in support of their agenda. The overriding message that the couple would like to emphasize is one of hope. Tom Paulson wrote about the inside discussion that the Gates Foundation had with friendly media, and here is what he found out was driving the message:

“Our research has shown that people see, or at least remember, the stories that highlight waste and ineffectiveness in foreign aid more than they do the positive stories,” said Tom Scott, director of global brand and innovation at the foundation. “It’s harder to break through with the stories of success so that’s our emphasis.”

And that emphasis comes through loud and clear in this year’s letter.

Although Gates acknowledged just a month ago that the Gates Foundation’s emphasis on technological solutions to the problems of the developing world had not yielded the breakthroughs he had hoped, technology remains central to the foundation’s vision.

Genetically modified seeds, chemical fertilizers and improved roads will transform agriculture in Africa, Gates suggests. Serious questions have been raised about the wisdom of this approach, as replacing heritage seeds with GM ones locks farmers into dependent relationships with suppliers like Monsanto – which ispartly owned by the Gates Foundation.

According to this year’s letter, smartphones will allow those without access to schools to learn online. This section is entitled “Better software will revolutionize learning.”

Mobile phones will also allow the poor to borrow money, and the Gates explain,

Not having access to a range of cheap and easy financial services makes it much more difficult to be poor.

But in the next 15 years, digital banking will give the poor more control over their assets and help them transform their lives.

The key to this will be mobile phones.

When I investigated the research on micro-credit, I find that there are some small benefits, but it has not been transformative.

The Annual Letter carries a carefully crafted message, not subject to slips of the tongue. In off the cuff conversations, Gates is a bit less optimistic. In an interview with the American Enterprise Institute last year, Gates said this:

Well, technology in general will make capital more attractive than labor over time. Software substitution, you know, whether it’s for drivers or waiters or nurses… It’s progressing. And that’s going to force us to rethink how these tax structures work in order to maximize employment, you know, given that, you know, capitalism in general, over time, will create more inequality and technology, over time, will reduce demand for jobs particularly at the lower end of the skill set. And so, you know, we have to adjust, and these things are coming fast. Twenty years from now, labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower, and I don’t think people have that in their mental model.

So he has in his mental model a future where capitalism will make inequality greater, and technology will make jobs fewer – but nonetheless, manages to project a brighter future for the poor through the Bill and Melinda Gates Enlist “Global Citizens” to Support Agenda - Living in Dialogue:

Middle school students poised to quit standardized tests in droves :: News :: Philadelphia City Paper

Middle school students poised to quit standardized tests in droves :: News :: Philadelphia City Paper:

Middle school students poised to quit standardized tests in droves

By Daniel Denvir
Published: 01/21/2015 | 0 Comments Posted

Heidey Contrera (left) with her daughter, Natalie Contrera.

Parents of 17 percent of all students at Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences have opted their children out of controversial standardized tests, according to a statement from teacher and parent activists. In recent years, tests like the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) have played an increasingly larger role in judging not only student academic achievement but also whether individual teachers and entire schools have made the grade — or are deemed failures.

"It makes the children very nervous and it doesn't assess their intellectual ability," says Heidey Contrera, the mother of 8th grader Natalie Contrera. Her daughter is still working to master the English language after moving from the Dominican Republic in 2011. "She is nervous and restless, and gets a little depressed studying for the exams. Because she thought she wasn't prepared."

In Philadelphia and throughout the country, parents and teachers have complained that standardized testing has dominated too much of the curriculum, squeezing out time for non-tested subjects like art, music and civics. The tests' high stakes have also led to high-profile cheating scandals, including in Philadelphia. But Amy Roat, a Feltonville teacher and Caucus of Working Educators leader, says that parents are not being informed of their options.

"It is important for parents in PA and Feltonville to know they have a RIGHT to Opt -Out their child from standardized tests," she writes in an email to City Paper. "This information is not well-disseminated. Opt-Out is an important action for parents to consider, especially if their child has an IEP [Individualized Education Program] or they are an ESOL [English for Speakers of Other Languages] student."

Roat says that 90 parents at the middle school have signed letters affirming that "standardized testing is against our religious and/or philosophical beliefs" and that they "will be refusing all standardized testing" for their children, including the PSSAs and other assessments.

School District spokesperson Fernando Gallard says that Feltonville's principal has not yet received any letters, but he did relay information that a "staff member" may be circulating letters, particularly among ESOL and special education students, urging them to opt out. Gallard says that might be a problem though he is not sure if it would violate any district rules.

"If we have an activist teacher in the school trying to get parents to sign this, that's very troublesome," says Gallard. "On the face of it, it would just be highly unusual and, I would say, inappropriate. What's driving this teacher ... beside his or her own belief that testing is bad? I'd be concerned that she's targeting ESOL and special ed students, given that they are the most vulnerable of students."

Gallard emphasized that only by citing a religious rationale can parents choose to opt their children out of the testing. The district has not questioned the smaller number who have Middle school students poised to quit standardized tests in droves :: News :: Philadelphia City Paper:

Parents Can Opt Out - United Opt Out National

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National: 

Click Here to go to the Website- United Opt Out Team

Peg with Pen: Stand Between the Children and Those Who Wish to Harm Them

Peg with Pen: Stand Between the Children and Those Who Wish to Harm Them:

Stand Between the Children and Those Who Wish to Harm Them

#UOO15

Recently I wrote a post entitled "It's Time to Break the Rules." I intend to keep my posts over the next few months focused on the common core aligned tests that are now coming to fruition in 2015.  As we reach the tipping point - breaking rules - acts of civil disobedience - are a necessity. 

At our fourth annual UOO conference this past weekend in Ft. Lauderdale, Barbara Madeloni reminded us of the importance of grassroots organizing as she stated: "Look down here. That's where the vectors of power are."  We must gain our strength and power from the local grassroots movements that surround us.  UOO's FB page has been soaring in numbers over the last six months as the word of opt out continues to spread through the nation. As all of us spread the word of opt out we are increasing the power of the masses  - we can reclaim our democracy, by beginning with the cornerstone of our democracy - our public schools.  No data = no profit.

This weekend, Ira Shor reminded us of the importance of protecting our children.  As an adult it is our job to stand between our children and those who wish to project harm on innocent young minds -  children  -  who come to school to learn, to create and to express themselves in a safe environment which should allow for risk-taking.

I question how we can stand by and watch the danger of high stakes testing mandates permeate our schools, and our children - without standing up for action - without standing between our children and those who wish to project this harm upon them. 

I can promise you  - if anyone dared to harm either one of my boys - I would stand between that harm and my boys - and I would project the greatest amount of power I possessed physically and mentally to stop that harm from touching my children. And I would ask for help from others if need be - and I can promise you - I would win.  As I say this, I must state that I feel the same way about the children within my school.  The time is now for us to harness this power within our schools as we bring together parents, citizens, students and teachers to create strategy to stop the cold and hard cruelty of corporate education reform.

We  must stand between the children and the harmful mandates that are being used to fail them mentally, emotionally, and physically.  Colorado's suicide rate has increased 16.7 percent from 2012 to 2013 alone.  We must question why countries, such as China and Japan, where high stakes testing is rampant, have such high suicide rates.  We must question - what is becoming of our country? And do we care enough to stop it? Or have we been placated by the consumerism that surrounds us? 

The majority of our public school children live in poverty - yet we feed them tests? 

At #UOO15 in Ft. Lauderdale Krashen continued to focus on the need for nutrition, health care and books for our children living in poverty. Krashen asks - does anyone really believe that as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, that test scores will improve?   

Does anyone really believe that this achievement gap is "new" information that could only be gathered via NCLB and RTTT?  We Peg with Pen: Stand Between the Children and Those Who Wish to Harm Them:

Empathy v. Criticism: How to Respond to Those Who Think More Testing is Needed to Improve Public Education - emPower magazine

Empathy v. Criticism: How to Respond to Those Who Think More Testing is Needed to Improve Public Education - emPower magazine:



EMPATHY V. CRITICISM: HOW TO RESPOND TO THOSE WHO THINK MORE TESTING IS NEEDED TO IMPROVE PUBLIC EDUCATION

 On Sunday January 11, 2015, a group of 19 civil rights organizations released a statement that outlined their shared principles regarding the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Of the seven recommendations, there is one that has many education activists a bit alarmed by the position these groups are taking,

“Annual, statewide assessments for all students (in grades 3-8 and at least once in high school) that are aligned with, and measure each student’s progress toward meeting, the state’s college and career-ready standards…”

In 2001 ESEA was reauthorized under President George W. Bush and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was birthed. For many teachers NCLB was the starting point for testing mania that has taken over public education today. Under NCLB public schools that received Title I funding were forced to test all students each year, make public the results of those tests based on race, and make adequate yearly progress (AYP) or risk being turned into a charter school. And of course the mandate came with no funding for schools that were already witnessing declining budget allocations in many states.

Since 2001 public education has been the target of education reformers who believe that more testing especially high stakes testing, and firing teachers based on test scores is what low-income, minority, and special needs children need to succeed. Unfortunately President Obama made things worse when he instituted Race to the Top which is NCLB on steroids…more testing, more charters, and more evaluation of teachers based on their ability to increase test scores. Many teachers have publicly left the teaching profession due to the excessive testing and impossible mandates. And more and more parents are choosing to opt their children out of standardized testingwhile some teachers are refusing to administer tests they believe are not an accurate measure of what a student has learned.

Despite the growing anti-testing movement, civil rights groups like the NAACP and Children’s Defense Fund, believe that testing is needed to ensure equity and fairness for all children. This belief is perplexing to those who see the damage excessive testing has done to all children. An article by Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post criticizes this decision by asking what are all those civil rights groups thinking? What is missing in the article is an attempt to find out why so many civil rights organizations believe that yearly standardized testing is the best way to close the achievement gap. For many parents of black and brown children, they saw NCLB as the first time schools were forced to admit that they were not doing a good educating their children. The mandates required each school to disaggregate the test scores by race and gender. This made it painfully obvious which schools were not producing satisfactory levels of achievement in minority students. We always knew there was an achievement gap between black and Latino students and their white counterparts, but now we can see what the gap looks like in every school. And now these schools have no choice but to make sure these students improve their scores or risk being labeled as failing and forced into an improvement plan.

On the surface this line of thinking makes sense. Before NCLB many schools could hide the fact that some groups of students were not doing well. Many parents believed that prior to NCLB some teachers and schools did not try to educate all students, especially students of color. Given the racial history of public schools this is not an outlandish conspiracy theory. Since public schools were legally mandated to end segregated schooling, disparities in achievement and equity have plagued black and brown children. Any student of color in the U.S. can describe to you at least one racist encounter they experienced in public schools. The fact is public education in the U.S. was not designed to serve children of color well. This does not mean that all teachers are racist, but it should shed light on why civil rights groups might welcome testing that appears to hold schools accountable for the education of all children.

Yes there is racism in public schools. There will always be some type of racism in every aspect of American culture and institutions. But the solution to dealing with racism in education is NOT mandated testing. Testing shows us that there is an achievement gap but that gap cannot be closed through more testing. The results of standardized testing tells us more about the income level of families and less about what a student has learned or how good Empathy v. Criticism: How to Respond to Those Who Think More Testing is Needed to Improve Public Education - emPower magazine:

Parents Can Opt Out - United Opt Out National

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National: 

Click Here to go to the Website- United Opt Out Team

BATs Letters to Senator Lamar Alexander and the H.E.L.P. Committee Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

BATs Letters to Senator Lamar Alexander and the H.E.L.P. Committee

From Jan. 16-Jan. 21 members of the Badass Teachers Association emailed the H.E.L.P. Committee regarding Testing and Accountability.  This Blog post took up 85 pages and contains the heartfelt love and passion that teachers have for children and teaching.  The letters in this post represent teachers, parents, and retired teachers from Ohio, Tennessee, New Jersey, New York, and many more states.   

Dear Senator Lamar Alexander,

I am a third grade teacher in Washington State and I have been teaching for ten years. 7.5 in the classroom full time and 2.5 as a substitute teacher . For every year I have taught third grade in the past ten years I have given the a standardized test to my students. At first it was the WASL, then the MSP, and for this year it is the SBAC. Every year I have on average of 23-26 students, this year I have 26. My 26 students are a diverse group of students who love to learn, are eager to do well in school, and love to be creative.

In my classroom I have students reading at a middle school reading level and some who are still beginning to read and struggle with reading basic sight words. I have students who are able to do multi digit multiplication problems and others who still count on their fingers to solve 15-8. I have students in my room who are not at grade level and students who are well beyond grade level. Each one of my students deserves the best education they can get and when I take time out of teaching them to give them the SBAC this spring, or the myriad of other SBAC related practice tests prior to them taking the ELA and math SBAC.

As an educator I am all for assessments that are meaningful, inform my instruction, are beneficial for my use as well as beneficial for my students. The SBAC and other high stakes tests are not useful. Giving my students tests that can take up to several hours of one day, that I am not able to know the questions, or the answers, or even the results until after my students are no longer my students, is not what is best.

When, a student is sitting for a long period of time using a computer to test on, working to try to understand the questions, figure out logistically how to answer them and cite information from the text, as well as type responses, there is a whole lot that can go wrong. My students are 8 and 9 years old, they are learning how to type and for some still learning how to read.

The SBAC or any other high stakes test puts a huge spotlight on ONE day of their school year for ELA and ONE day of their school year for math. Their score can be affected by many things:

1. Lack of sleep from the night before.

2. Lack of a breakfast that morning.

3. Not being able to read at grade level and taking a test that is developmentally inappropriate.

4. Having a rough day, anything can upset a student in the morning and can affect their entire day and mood, as well as how they test.

5. A student who is ELL and is not tested in his or her own primary language.

6. A student who is on an IEP or 504 that is still given a test at their age grade level, even when they are in special ed and are below their age level peers academically.

This list can go on forever. I have students who have off days who normally do really well in the classroom. I have also had students who rush through their work just to get it done. I have students who stress over the smallest thing and want to get things all correct or shut down when things are too hard for them (perceived that it is too hard or it is actually too hard). My students are kids, young kids who are learning and working hard on a daily basis. We do a lot of great things and the biggest indicator of their success or lack of success to measure what they are learning are the daily observations or assessments I create, make, or give, not a high stakes test. My students are more than just a test score. They are students, they deserve to be learning in school not taking test after test.

In Washington State, we refused in the last legislative session to tie teacher evaluations to test scores and won. These types of tests that are created by Pearson; are setting up kids to fail, increasing the Badass Teachers Association:

Ms. Jia Lee, NY talking about opting out of testing at Senate Hearing on NCLB 1-21-2015. - YouTube

Ms. Jia Lee, NY talking about opting out of testing at Senate Hearing on NCLB 1-21-2015. - YouTube:



Ms. Jia Lee, NY talking about opting out of testing at Senate Hearing 

Published on Jan 21, 2015

Excerpt from Committee Hearing - Fixing No Child Left Behind: Testing and Accountability - January 21, 2015

Ms. Jia Lee , Fourth and Fifth Grade Special Education Teacher, Earth School, New York, NY talking about opting out of testing.

Full video can be seen here:

http://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=1ad5f642-5056-a032-52f2-57297bf23f2b

Parents Can Opt Out - United Opt Out National

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National: 

Click Here to go to the Website- United Opt Out Team

How the Top-Down Imposition of Unproven Charter Schools Is Roiling Parents and Communities | Alternet

How the Top-Down Imposition of Unproven Charter Schools Is Roiling Parents and Communities | Alternet:

How the Top-Down Imposition of Unproven Charter Schools Is Roiling Parents and Communities

A fight over education in Nashville might come your way next: It's a proxy for dangerous right-wing education ideas.

By Jeff Bryant / Salon

January 18, 2015

“We know we need to do something about students who are not achieving in our schools.”

That anxious appeal – along with its many variations – has become the refrain now firmly embedded in speeches and opinion columns about American public education.

Yes! Do something. About those kids.

Only this time, the anxious appeal is coming from Jai Sanders, an African-American parent in Nashville, Tennessee, who has a stake in the matter: The something about to be done is aimed squarely at him and his children.

Sanders, pausing briefly before assembling a bagel with lox and cream cheese, explains, “But what we’re currently doing is throwing solutions at the wall to see what sticks, without any research or any consultation with the people who are affected the most.”

His tone of voice doesn’t carry a trace of the anger or resentment that could be inferred from what he just said. Actually, Sanders exudes affability. With a green ball cap tipped slightly back from his cherubic face, he gestures broadly and smiles incessantly. His impossibly well-behaved 3-year-old daughter seated beside him only occasionally diverts him as she carefully navigates her bagel.

They live with mom and the rest of the family in the same house where Jai grew up – the third generation of Sanders to live in their home in East Nashville.

Sanders, who attended both public and private schools while growing up in East Nashville, has chosen, along with his wife, to send their children to their neighborhood public school, Inglewood Elementary. Inglewood was “the default for us,” he says.

An older daughter who attends the school has been identified gifted and talented which has enabled her to be included in a program where she is provided with an Individual Education Plan so she receives specific attention to her abilities.

Yet now Sanders finds himself and his family swept into a raging Music City controversy. Conversations about public education – where you send your kid to school, where other parents send their kids, and who gets to decide – have exploded into acrimonious bickering, full of charges and counter-charges.

The debate pits parents against parents, schools against schools, and communities against communities. School board meetings have turned How the Top-Down Imposition of Unproven Charter Schools Is Roiling Parents and Communities | Alternet:

Teachers Need Tests:

Teachers Need Tests — Just Not Common Core!

BY MARLA KILFOYLE AND MELISSA TOMLINSON

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Combined, we have over 41 years of experience teaching. Marla is a National Board Certified Teacher with 29 years of teaching in middle and high school. Melissa has been in education for 12 years, mostly in special education classrooms. We have used testing “data” for a variety of things throughout the years. In the good old days, teachers used testing outcomes to help kids, in fact, many still do.

Let’s take a simple spelling test that a teacher may give. The teacher gives the words out for a child to study that may have a certain trend. For example, kids may need to study words that have the “ph” (phone) sound. The teacher would give the kids a list of words to study that contain that sound. When the child takes the spelling test and does well, this outcome tells the teacher that the child will be proficient when it comes to spelling words with the”ph” sound. If a child does not do well on the test, the teacher will design some intervention strategy to help the child master that set of words.

The intervention strategy could be to have the child restudy just the words they missed and retake the test. The teacher could have the child use the words in a writing piece or sit with the teacher in an extra help session to go over the words. The great thing about the “good old days” is that the teacher got to decide the type of intervention strategy and tailor it to the child. Those days are long gone!

Let’s now examine how high stakes state tests are used by teachers. In the state of New York, currently, students are required to take and pass two history Regents exams to graduate. The two exams they must pass are the U.S. History Regents (Grade 11) and the Global History Regents (Grade 10). Both of these tests are 50 multiple choice questions, a thematic essay, and a Document Based Essay. The students have 3 hours to take the test. In the good old days, before “accountability” in New York State, teachers scored all parts of the test, and the data from those tests was kept available, in the school, for teachers to use to help children. By keeping the exams in school, teachers had access to them and could use them for remediation.

One New York teacher shared, “I had a young man about five years ago who had failed the Global History Regents, and he was due to take it again in June. He needed to pass it to graduate from high school. I was able to access his old Regents exam that he failed because we could keep the exams in the school to access. I was able to analyze his weaknesses, and work on that with him Teachers Need Tests:

Teachers and Company: Map Comparison: Level of Poverty to Level of Performance

Teachers and Company: Map Comparison: Level of Poverty to Level of Performance:

Map Comparison: Level of Poverty to Level of Performance

          Today we are going to consider two very similar maps.  The map at the top is a map of public school ratings based solely on the students test scores.  The map underneath is a map showing the percentage of poverty.  The similarities are striking.  You can almost overlay one on top of the other. These images give additional weight to the plethora of evidence found on studies of test scores and poverty. Childhood poverty is the highest its been in 20 years.  The United States has a child hood poverty rate of 21% overall but it is not evenly distributed.   Poverty is a significant factor in school performance.  The stress of living with want makes learning difficult as I discussed a few weeks back in the post calledStress, Poverty and Learning.  If we are serious about improving our performance we must address the handicapping conditions of poverty.  We need to abandon programs which are not working at least as well as the public schools had prior to their inception such as ASD and CC/PARCC and instead try something new.
          Take the lowest performing school in your state and update it.  Bring in wrap around services and teachers with masters degrees.  Pay the teachers handsomely and trust them.  Set up the school so the teachers will not be punished for the poverty of the students.  Create wrap around services with small class size and family interventions/assistance.  Test in three years.  Skip the wasted time and money for the annual test.  It's a reasonable hypothesis that you will have academic growth, happier kids, happier families, and happy teachers.  With the funds saved on testing the state can afford to pilot a true reform which is child centered.

           I would like to point out one surprising and, for me, thrilling exception on the map,  the state of Tennessee.  Our state has some of the lowest funded, highest poverty schools in the nation. Our teachers and students have performed above what anyone would expect. Tennessee has out performed all of the other high poverty states and we should be celebrating. Instead, we have succumbed to the Global Education Reform Movement.  There is little tenure protection in our 'right to work state'. GERM has caused teachers to be capriciously fired or subjected to constructed dismissal because the principal just Teachers and Company: Map Comparison: Level of Poverty to Level of Performance:

Seattle Police Assault Outspoken Teacher. Get Away With It. As Usual. | HorsesAss.Org

Seattle Police Assault Outspoken Teacher. Get Away With It. As Usual. | HorsesAss.Org:

Seattle Police Assault Outspoken Teacher. Get Away With It. As Usual.

by Goldy — Tuesday, 1/20/15, 10:30 am

Jesse Hagopian is an award-winning history teacher at Garfield High School, an author, an outspoken activist, and a leader of the fight against excessive school testing. And yesterday, near the end of the MLK Day march, he was assaulted by Seattle Police without provocation.

As Hagopian explains in further detail on his Facebook page:

I was marching for Martin Luther King day today–amazing march! At one point after the big main march, group of bike cops set up a line to keep us from marching. Some people walked through the line, but I didn’t. When my phone rang, I turned away from the cops and began walking away to answer the phone. A cop then ran up in my face and pepper sprayed me right in the face. The milk has helped a lot and I’m beginning to feel better. Wish we had a better world.

Hagopian is a public figure of sorts, a fixture at social justice rallies and protests, and a relatively frequent subject of media coverage. He’s not known to be violent in any way, but he is known to be a leader. So not having seen the incident, here’s my bit of informed conjecture as to what might have happened: The police recognized him, saw him reach for his phone, and suspected he might be organizing activities on the ground. So they disabled him.

That’s right. My guess is that the police pepper sprayed Hagopian in order to prevent him from using his phone.

I suppose it’s possible the officer in question is just an asshole who indiscriminately assaulted Hagopian for no apparent reason (or an asshole who recognized Hagopian and saw an opportunity to assault him just because), but in any case, the point is that once again an officer assaulted aninnocent person and got away with it.

And yes, pepper spraying somebody in the face is assault. If I were to walk up to you and pepper spray you in the face, I would be charged with assault. And if I were to walk up to a Seattle police officer and pepper spray him in the face I would certainly be charged with assaulting a police officer (assuming I survived the encounter). But police have learned from experience that they have near absolute impunity to pepper spray anybody, with no legal consequences whatsoever. It’s gotten to the point where they even laugh about it. Pepper Seattle Police Assault Outspoken Teacher. Get Away With It. As Usual. | HorsesAss.Org: