Newark Students Protest for Better Education
Nicauris Veras, Junior, Shabazz High School leads the charge
for a quality education.
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First let me clarify, this is not a news story. This week’s blog is based on a protest march I photographed last June, but never actually posted. The Newark Student’s Union had staged a number of sit-ins and student walkouts throughout the 2014-15 school year demanding the removal of Cami Anderson, as superintendent of the Newark public school system. Anderson, a friend of former Newark Mayor and current U.S. Senator Cory Booker, was appointed to the position, by Gov. Chris Christie in 2011, to oversee a school system that has been under state control for more than 20 years. Obviously, this is no longer a news story, six-months after the fact; however, the ultimate goal of Newark Public school autonomy is still relevant, and the battle, ongoing, in that respect, the post may not be news; however, it’s pertinent. I believe these images should be seen, and the subject broached, so I’m giving you some
Newark high school students from throughout the city pack
the City Hall steps and demanded the state appointed School Superintendent step
down.
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Approximately 1,000 students from high schools all over the city participated in the walkout.
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Last
spring, the Newark Student’s Union, in cooperation with NJ Communities, staged
a student walkout. Approximately 1,000 students from Barringer,
Central, Eastside, Shabazz, Technology, Arts, Science, Weequahic, Westside and
University high school, walked out of their classes and
descended on City Hall demanding her removal from the position she had held for
four years. The students, armed with chant sheets and energy bars,
passionately, but peacefully voiced their displeasure with her tenure and called
for her dismissal. The students marched from City Hall to the Peter W. Rodino
Federal Office Building, a block away, before moving onto the intersection of
Miller Street and McCarter Highway; where they sat on the road, tying up
traffic and blocking the route to the New Jersey Turnpike for a time, before
dispersing shortly before rush hour.
After
leaving City Hall, outraged students head to the Peter Rodino Federal Building.
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Student protests, or student activism, if you
insist, are not a new phenomenon; American students have used protests and
demonstrations to express their displeasure with various conditions for at
least the last 80 years. In the 1930’s The American Youth Congress, with the
support of Eleanor Roosevelt, called out against war and racial discrimination,
and demanded more youth programs. They were also fervently against the draft.
The women’s suffrage movement, at the turn of the last century, the civil
rights demonstrations of the 50’s and 60’s, the Anti- war demonstrations of the
late 60’s and early 70’s, and the still ongoing battle for gay rights are all
part of America’s proud tradition of dissention and students have always been
in the thick of it. America’s belief in dissention and speaking out is older
than America itself; after all wasn’t the Revolutionary War the largest, most
violent and most direct statement of dissention in American history? Yes, yes,
yes, some would insist it was the Civil War, but, for right now, climb down from
your soapbox; we’ll save that argument for another posting.
Jose
Leonardo, Vice President, Newark Students Union Fires up the crowd
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Perhaps
the most infamous incident in recent memory concerning student activism dates
back to1970. In May of that tumultuous
year, Iowa State troopers massacred four anti-war demonstrators and wounded
nine more at Kent State University. However, instead of frightening and
demoralizing the students; it galvanized them forming the scattered, individual
fingers among them into one unified fist and that fist descended on the
National Guard Armory demanding justice for those killed.
American
students have a long and proud history of speaking out against the Status quo.
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Shabazz High School student leads a chant.
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Newark students desperately and forcefully demanded better educational opportunities.
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Probably not; should the students have a voice
or should they adhere to the old adage, “if you are not old enough to vote, you
are not old enough to have an opinion”?
Not a chance. This is their future at stake here, and they will be the
ones who will have to deal with the consequences of our mistakes and misdeeds;
and without a quality education they will forever be, stuck climbing the
mountain of life wearing lead lined shoes and the albatross of our political
posturing and manipulation hanging from their necks. Kahlil Gibran could not
have stated it more accurately or succinctly than in his seminal work, “The Prophet”, when he wrote You may give
your children your love, but not your thoughts, you may house their bodies, but
not their souls, you may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like
you, for life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday.
Grace Tyler leads a call for quality education
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Not all of the protesters
were students.
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Protest slogans were
read from preprinted chant sheets.
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Nicauris Veras, Grace Tyler and another student confer on
strategy.
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Students take
their complaints to the Peter Rodino Federal Building.
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The students enjoyed widespread support for their cause.
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We Will Be Heard
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Until next time;
peace and love to you.
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A.T. Lee is a freelance photojournalist and essayist covering social and political issues in Northern New Jersey, NYC, and Washington D.C.