More than 100 activists took to the steps of Tweed Courthouse shortly after 5 p.m. today to repeat the Occupy Wall Street-inspired protest-style that cut short an October Panel for Education Policy meeting.
Calling themselves “Occupy the DOE,” the protesters included a Baruch College professor, a trio of high school students from Paul Robeson High School, a Brooklyn College graduate student, and teachers from across the city. They mingled with veteran education activists from the Grassroots Education Movement and Occupy Wall Street organizers in front of the Department of Education headquarters for two hours while more than one dozen police officers looked on.
The protesters were there to hold a “general assembly” — the term for the regular public meetings that have become a fixture of the Occupy Wall Street movement and involve individuals taking turns speaking while listeners parrot back what they say to ensure that all participants can hear.
The protest was tame, but tensions between organizers and police rose at times when officers repeatedly reminded the organizers to keep off of the sidewalk in front of Tweed — a sidewalk that has been the host of countless protests and press conferences in the past — so pedestrians could pass.
Though the protesters did not propose an agenda at the meeting, the speeches touched on many oft-repeated themes, from a shortage of textbooks and locker space at schools slated for closure, to criticisms of mayoral control and the standardized testing system.
“Let me tell you some of the things that go on at a school with an A-rating. On days when quality reviewers show up, students are mysteriously suspended. students are put into special education classrooms for engaging in normal teenage behavior,” said a woman who identified herself as Sarah. “All of these students … are of color. Most of them are poor.”
The way to change the situation, she said, is “to take back the Department of Education, to take back the teachers union.” At that, crowd members lifted their hands and waved their fingers, a sign for applause used in the Occupy movement.
Karina García, a math teacher at the Facing History School, said she brings her high school students to Zuccotti Park, the locus of the movement, once a week.
“We have been inspired,” she told the crowd while a couple of her students looked on. “You show that the people have the power.”