[IMC] Immediate Press Release: Seattle Public Schools Convenes Kanagroo "Hearing"

Thu Dec 12 05:24:43 UTC 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE! / FROM: THE MORE 4 MANN COALITION

*SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS*

*CONVENES KANGAROO “HEARING” *

*AGAINST THE MORE 4 MANN ARRESTEES of Historic Africatown*

Seattle Public Schools appears to continue doing everything it can to
pretend that African Americans in Seattle don’t exist.

For several years now, a broad coalition of Seattle’s African American
community and its supporters have been (alongside the Federal Justice
Department) calling out this School District for its over-50-year-long
record of absolute failure to serve the educational needs of its African
American constituents. The More 4 Mann coalition even mobilized volunteers,
free of charge, to activate an impressive array of programs in the public
Horace Mann School Building, which the District had not used since 2009.

This August, the District claimed that it wanted to embrace and enter into
partnership with this pro public education grassroots civil initiative, and
engaged the More 4 Mann Coalition in several months of dialogue. The
District and the Coalition convened a community task force that issued a
progressive set of recommendations in favor of African American inclusion
and involvement, both intellectual and manual, in the renovation of the
Horace Mann Building, as well as in the curriculum and programming to be
provided in that building when its renovation is complete. The task force
also recommended a series of mitigating measures to prevent any complete
displacement of the Africatown community from that historical address,
either during OR after renovation. The District then signed a letter of its
intent to adhere to these task force recommendations.

Apparently, an old guard faction within the District then proceeded to
reassert power, countermand the pragmatism of the Superintendent from LA,
and to dictate his next actual moves as well as those of the Seattle
Police. Electricity to the building was unilaterally shut off on November 9
th, which interrupted many of our programs. Those programs which managed to
continue were then also interrupted on November 19th, when Seattle Police
raided the building without eviction notice or search warrant, unilaterally
arresting three programmers (including a task force member) and one member
of the general public who happened to be visiting the building at the time.

While under arrest, these four were all handed an “Exclusion” flier by a
representative of the District, which claims that they are forbidden to
attend any School District meeting or set foot on any District property for
one year, but that they may appeal this decision to an internal hearing
process under “Board procedure F44.01”. This is clearly an attempt to
prevent the More 4 Mann Coalition from presenting public grievances to our
government, especially as it came only six days after another SPS
“Admonishment” flier, which threatened to exclude a More 4 Mann task force
member from School Board meetings if he made any more public criticisms of
the District´s powerful and influential, but apparently incompetent General
Counsel Ron English.

Naturally, our coalition and its attorney have appealed these SPS fliers
and demanded a public hearing. The District agreed to set this hearing for
3 PM tomorrow, Thursday December 12th, at the John Stanford Building.

*However, the District has just informed us this evening, the night before
the hearing, that not only have they already, in effect, rendered their
decision as to its outcome, but that… *

*THE PERSON WHO WILL RENDER THIIS HEARING’S DECISION IS THE SAME PERSON WHO
AUTHORED AND SIGNED THE SPS FLIERS THAT WE ARE APPEALING!*

While we cannot consider this to be a legitimate hearing under such
conditions, we shall still attend it to show our respect for civil
procedure as community volunteers behind the School District’s stated
mission of education and opportunities for all.

We therefore encourage all members of the press and the public at large to
show up and witness this kangaroo court in action:

Tomorrow, December 12th, 2013, 3PM

Safety and Secuity conference room on the first floor of the

Seattle Public Schools

John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence

2445 3rd Avenue South

PRESS CONTACT: Ms. Nikkita Oliver, 206-850-8802 or email
nikkita.oliver at gmail.com

-- 
Nikkita R. Oliver

William H. Gates Public Service Law Scholar

J.D. Candidate 2015
206.850.8802 | nikkita.oliver at gmail.com

Spoken Word/Teaching Artist
206.850.8802 | konikkita at gmail.com

    [image: Law.jpg]
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within
you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to
change the world."
- Harriet Tubman

The information in this electronic transmission and any attachments is
confidential.  It may be protected by attorney-client privilege or be
privileged work product or proprietary information.  This information is
intended for the exclusive use of the intended addressee.  If you are not
the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, review,
disclosure, dissemination, distribution, copying, or taking of any action
because of this information, is strictly prohibited.  You are requested to
notify us immediately by telephone or email and to delete all copies of the
message from your mail folders. Thank you for your cooperation.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/imc/attachments/20131211/040373d2/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 3795 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/imc/attachments/20131211/040373d2/attachment.jpg>