[Peace-discuss] Defend TukwilaTeachers

[Jan & Durl Kruse]

>>> Message from Sam Smith (teacher at University High School) via  
>>> Niloofar.
>>>
>>> PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!
>>>
>>> *Urgent Call for Solidarity*
>>> Defend Teachers Threatened With Termination for Antiwar Student  
>>> Walkout
>>>
>>> BRIEF BACKGROUND:
>>> On November 16th, over 1,000 students in Washington State walked out  
>>> to protest the war in Iraq and the presence of military recruiters  
>>> in public schools. Students at Foster High School in Tukwila,  
>>> Washington organized and 150 walked out, saying "Money for Schools,  
>>> Not War."
>>>
>>> Foster students rallied at the school flagpole, marched down to the  
>>> I-5 overpass, and then marched to the Tukwila City Hall. The march  
>>> and rally were student generated and entirely peaceful.
>>>
>>> In reaction the Tukwila School District has done the following:
>>>
>>> ·    Suspended one Social Studies teacher, Brett Rogers, who  
>>> supported his students in a student generated democratic movement
>>> ·    Threatened administrative action against five other teachers
>>> ·    Threatened to discipline students for exercising their First  
>>> AmendmentRight to free speech
>>>
>>> When Brett Rogers was asked if he had a personal stake in the war,  
>>> he said: "It's an illegal war and my cousin is deploying December  
>>> 4th, and I'm not happy about it."
>>>
>>> Please call and email the Principal and Superintendent now!
>>>
>>> Tell them they need to:
>>> Reinstate the teacher Brett Rogers who has been put on  
>>> administrative leave!
>>> Drop the disciplinary hearings against all six teachers who face  
>>> investigations!
>>> Support the initiative and moral fortitude of students who took a  
>>> stand against the effects caused by this war to their communities!
>>> Take no disciplinary action against students who participated in the  
>>> walkout!
>>> We request that you flood the school administration with phone calls  
>>> and emails. Tell them to halt all disciplinary action against  
>>> students and the Tukwila Six!
>>>
>>> CONTACT:
>>> Foster HS Principal George Ilgenfritz:  (206) 901-7905
>>> <mailto:ilgenfritzg at tukwila.wednet.edu>ilgenfritzg at tukwila.wednet.edu
>>> And Interim Superintendent Ethelda Burke:  (206) 901-8000, (206)  
>>> 901-8006,
>>>
>>> <mailto:burkee at tukwila.wednet.edu>burkee at tukwila.wednet.edu
>>>
>>> Please send a copy of protest emails to us at
>>>
>>> <http://us.f313.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose? 
>>> To=tukwila.teachers.solidarity at hotmail.com>tukwila.teachers.solidarit 
>>> y at hotmail.com so we can count how many protest emails have been sent  
>>> in.
>>>
>>> If they refuse to answer your call, call Foster HS Assistant  
>>> Principal Daryl Wright (206) 901-7902 and Foster HS Office Manager  
>>> Darlene Aguiluz(206) 901-7915.
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>> -------------------
>>>  MORE BACKGROUND INFO:
>>> On Friday, November 16th, more than a 1,000 students in Washington  
>>> Stateparticipated in a nation-wide student walkout to protest the  
>>> war and military recruiters in schools. This included around 150  
>>> students at Foster High School, just south of Seattle.  Foster is  
>>> part of the Tukwila School District, of which 71% of the student  
>>> body is low-income and eligible for the free and reduced-cost school  
>>> meals. Since the beginning of the Iraq War, the U.S. military has  
>>> been assigning ever greater numbers of recruiters to lure young  
>>> people into signing up for this bloody, costly and illegal quagmire  
>>> in Iraq, especially in marginalized schools like Foster High School.
>>> Student made signs, walked out, marched to an I-5 overpass and the  
>>> TukwilaCity Hall for a civic and peaceful assembly. Now the  
>>> principal and school district superintendent have begun a witch-hunt  
>>> against students and at least six of their teachers and threatened  
>>> to suspend students who walked out. The students took a bold stand  
>>> against the war and these teachers have stood up for their students,  
>>> some of the most disenfranchised in the state, both inside and  
>>> outside the classroom. Students who walked out are threatened with  
>>> truancy, and their teachers' jobs are on the line. Now, who will  
>>> stand up for these students and teachers?
>>>
>>> One teacher was put on administrative leave on Monday, November  
>>> 19th. On Tuesday, November 20th, at least five more were delivered  
>>> memos notifying them that the Tukwila school district was  
>>> "investigating reports of possible misconduct relating to you in  
>>> connection with the student walk-out." These teachers were further  
>>> notified that they were not to discuss "this matter with any  
>>> District students or staff" under threat of being terminated.  
>>> Several of these teachers were completely unconnected with the  
>>> walkout, but because they have been previously marked out as  
>>> individuals that speak their minds, they are being lumped into the  
>>> teacher hunt. "Investigative interviews" are to begin this Tuesday.
>>>
>>> ·       With a "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2001 provision forcing  
>>> principals to give up the private contact information of young  
>>> people to military recruiters, students and teachers have the  
>>> natural right to protest.
>>> ·       With a bloody and illegal war, where the soldiers that are  
>>> killed and maimed are disproportionately minorities and victims of  
>>> the "poverty draft," students and teachers of Tukwila have the  
>>> natural right to protest.
>>> ·       With more than $500 billion dollars and the lives of more  
>>> than a million Iraqis having been utterly wasted on a failed war,  
>>> with schools in marginalized areas falling apart, we should all be  
>>> protesting with the slogan: "Money for Schools-Not For War!"
>>> ·       With 75% of the American people polling against the war  
>>> according to the latest Washington Post poll, and a Democratic  
>>> Congress still making excuses for why it can't cut off funding to  
>>> bring the troops home, we must support the young people who speak  
>>> out against their future being bombed away.
>>> ·       And we MUST support their teachers whose only misconduct was  
>>> making their lesson plans truly relevant to the lives of their  
>>> students.
>>>
>>> If this Principal gets away with this attack on these workers and  
>>> students, it will embolden more bosses to try to further undermine  
>>> workers' rights, wages, and benefits, and it will intimidate more  
>>> people from speaking out against injustice-this is an attack on all  
>>> students and workers. These teachers are union members of the  
>>> Tukwila Education Association, and there are measures being taken to  
>>> try to ensure their defense through this channel, BUT A STRONG  
>>> COMMUNITY AND NATION-WIDE RESPONSE IS CRITICAL!!!
>>>
>>> How can we give thanks to those on the REAL frontlines of freedom in  
>>> America?
>>>
>>> Call and email the school officials above!
>>>
>>> And please forward this alert to supportive organizations and  
>>> individuals!
>>> ------------------------------------------------
>>> YET MORE BACKGROUND INFO:
>>> The memo from Interim Superintendent to at least 6 teachers  
>>> essentially says:
>>> In the next couple days, we will summon you to a meeting because we  
>>> are"investigating reports of possible misconduct relating to you in  
>>> connection with the student walk-out."  There could be disciplinary  
>>> consequences pending completion of this investigation.
>>> You are not to discuss "this matter with any District students or  
>>> staff," or else you could be terminated.
>>> You have the right to have a union representative present with you  
>>> during the investigative interview in case you feel your rights  
>>> might be violated.
>>> The administration is clearly trying to isolate the teachers and  
>>> students from one another to try to divide them and weaken them.   
>>> They are trying to use the tactic of divide and rule.  They are also  
>>> blatantly violating the teachers' right to free speech.
>>>
>>>
>>> The teachers have been careful to abide by the Interim  
>>> Superintendent's directive not to talk with any District students or  
>>> staff about these matters.  But nothing in the Superintendent's  
>>> letter said teachers could not talk with their union representatives  
>>> or community supporters.  In fact, the letter explicitly says they  
>>> could talk with the union.
>>>
>>> Some teachers who received letters were simply on their lesson  
>>> planning hour and therefore were not scheduled to teach class when  
>>> the student walkout happened.  These teachers went outside just to  
>>> see what was going on when the students walked out, but they did not  
>>> walk out or promote the walkout.  So the school has no evidence  
>>> against some teachers who received the threatening letters.
>>>
>>>
>>> It appears the administration is targeting these teachers in a  
>>> political with-hunt because they have spoken their minds in the past  
>>> over other issues.  For example, two of these teachers were banned  
>>> in the past from sending out school-wide emails because they spoke  
>>> their minds in school-wide emails that the administrators did not  
>>> like.
>>>
>>> Iraq Veteran
>>> The husband of one of the teachers who received the threatening  
>>> letters is an Iraqveteran.  He went to Foster High School on  
>>> November 16th and spoke to the students from first-hand experience  
>>> about the truth of the Iraq War that the government and corporate  
>>> media are actively hiding from the American people, and he walked  
>>> out with the students.
>>>
>>> As the Iraq veteran left the building, he was confronted by a  
>>> security guard who identified himself as a police  
>>> officer/veteran/federal marshall who said: "Don't even start with  
>>> me, I'm a veteran."
>>>
>>> The school administration is disciplining a teacher whose husband is  
>>> a veteran whose life was put at serious risk in Iraq and who has now  
>>> turned against the war.  This is very disrespectful to the veteran,  
>>> his family, and the working-class students who are being forced to  
>>> shoulder the burdens of this war.  The school administrators are  
>>> more concerned with trying to having power over teachers and  
>>> students than letting the communities who have been hit the hardest  
>>> by the war speak out against the war and the predatory military  
>>> recruiters in their schools.  This-after the American people voted  
>>> the Democrats into Congress to end the war, but the Democrats are  
>>> still making excuses about why they cannot cut off funds for the war  
>>> and direct those funds toward education and other desperately needed  
>>> social services.  When the leaders of our country will not end this  
>>> unjust war, then it becomes up to ordinary workers, parents,  
>>> students, and soldiers to end the war.
>>>
>>> The attendance secretary at the school also refused to excuse the  
>>> absences of students who had permission slips signed by their  
>>> parents to miss school, which is a flagrant violation of parent and  
>>> student rights.
>>>
>>> Principal George Ilgenfritz also told one student that she didn't  
>>> know anything about war.  (Ironically, the student is from an  
>>> immigrant Somali family who still has family in the war-torn country  
>>> of Somalia.)
>>>
>>>
>>> On the Tukwila School District's website, the following message has  
>>> been posted byInterim Superintendent Ethelda Burke: "We believe in  
>>> the historic mission of public education within our democracy.  Our  
>>> schools are expected to encourage and prepare students to be  
>>> productive citizens.   We believe the challenge is to transform  
>>> every child - to give every student a chance to become an  
>>> autonomous, thinking person and a self-governing citizen.  We are  
>>> all here to work together to provide the best education for the most  
>>> prized commodity of our fine city - the students of theTukwila  
>>> School District."
>>>
>>> Yet when the students participate in an act of peaceful civil  
>>> disobedience in the best traditions of Martin Luther King and the  
>>> Civil Rights Movement who challenged unjust segregation laws, now  
>>> the Superintendent is hypocritically trying to discourage students  
>>> from being "self-governing citizens" and standing up for what is  
>>> right.
>>>
>>> We need to match the determination of these courageous teachers,  
>>> students and theIraq veteran with all the support we can!  Please  
>>> take a few minutes now to call and email the Principal and  
>>> Superintendent at the numbers and emails at the top of this email!
>>>
>>> YouTube video of Foster High School student rally for  
>>> peace:<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOuLz3kKExI>www.youtube.com/ 
>>> watch?v=cOuLz3kKExI
>>> Report on Washington State Nov. 16th student walkouts against the  
>>> war:  
>>> <http://yawr.org/nov16/seattle.html>http://yawr.org/nov16/ 
>>> seattle.html
>>> Articles on Youth Against War and Racism student victories against  
>>> military recruiters in schools:
>>> <http://yawr.org/victory/victory.htm#tacoma>http://yawr.org/victory/ 
>>> victory.htm#tacoma
>>> http://yawr.org/victory/victory.htm#kennedy
>>> <http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article13.php?id=611>http: 
>>> //www.socialistalternative.org/news/article13.php?id=611
>>>
>>> Please forward this email widely to supportive organizations and  
>>> individuals who might be able to help!
>>> For more info, contact the Tukwila Teachers and Students Solidarity  
>>> Committee: <mailto:foster_nfo at hotmail.com>foster_nfo at hotmail.com  
>>> (253) 573-9252
>>>
>>> Please leave a brief message and we'll get back to you as soon as we  
>>> can.
>>>
>>>
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