District 5 candidate Taylor is latest to respond to allegations against PGCPS administrators

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Sherine Taylor, a candidate for the PGCPS School Board in the 5th District, is the latest to respond to allegations of administrators suppressing student dissent at Northwestern High School—

Good evening

Sherine Taylor, candidate for School Board in 5^th District.  Really, I mean come on now police, locking down the school, using police to block exits and holding student’s leaders in custody. 

What is going on within the school system that we feel that police force was needed when students are only exercising freedom of speech?  These students were standing up for what they believe was right, they wanted a better school and better education.  These are the type of things we should all stand for and demand for all our students in Prince George’s County.  What happened to Freedom of speech, Civil Rights?  I DO NOT support the acts of the administration and the force used while students were attempting to have a peaceful demonstration.  Administration could fo handled this totally different and had a better outcome. 

Our goal within Prince George’s County should all be the same, which is to make sure our students have a safe school, environment  that will encourage learning and provide them with the best education possible. 

My goal as candidate for School Board 5^th District will be to continue to support our students and see to it that they have the means, and tools needed to get the best education humanly possible.

Thank you
Sherine Taylor, District 5 Candidate

www.electtaylor.com

–
Sherine Taylor
People for Taylor
Candidate for School Board 5

Micah Watson, latest candidate for School Board to voice concerns over student voice suppression at Northwestern

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Micah Watson, a candidate for the PGCPS School Board in the 4th District, is the latest to respond to allegations of administrators suppressing student dissent at Northwestern High School— This statement has been published unedited.

Thank you for letting me know about this incident.  I was not aware of it, and have not heard from any other sources about it.  It speaks to my greatest frustration with PGCPS, and one of my main reasons for running: lack of communication with the stakeholders of our public school system. That means families, parents, teachers and students.  I would not support the administration reviewing students’ tweets without probable cause, and would not support taking any action against anyone based on a tweet except to prevent harm or potential harm to a person or property, bullying, or some other serious consequence.  I will read the petition before deciding whether to sign it, and I want to know more about this.

Best regards,
Micah Watson, District 4 Candidate, cell 240-603-9366.

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School Board Member Henry Armwood wades into student dissent suppression

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PGCPS District 7 School Board Member Henry Armwood responds to allegations of administrators suppressing student dissent at Northwestern High School— This statement has been published unedited.

I completely support the actions of the Principal of Northwestern High School. The principal is responsible for the safety of all students and staff. He must maintain an environment conducive to learning. If he had not intervened to stop the protest by up to 300 students, and a student had been injured or arrested, I would demand he be held accountable.

The right to have grievances addressed is important. However you have a responsibility to address them properly and exhaust legal avenues of redress before resorting to disruptive and dangerous actions. These students did not go to the student government, the principal, Superintendent or the Board of Education to have their grievances addressed. The action proposed would have disrupted the education of more than 2400 students and broken the law requiring students to be in school during school hours. That is the law. Martin Luther King excercised his right to protest. However he also used legal means to protest and if neccesary, then disobey an unjust law. He also made it clear that you must also accept the consequences of your actions.

Henry P. Armwood Jr.

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Dist. 7 School Board Candidate Fellows slams school administration on suppressing student dissent

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Candidate Carletta Fellows, who is running for a seat on the PGCPS Board of Education in District 7 against incumbent Board Member Henry Armwood, responds to allegations of administrators suppressing student dissent at Northwestern High School—

To Whom It May Concern,

Below are my responses to the questions posed.

• Do you support the response of the administration? If so why? If you oppose it or have concerns what are they?

• Will you sign the petition some PGCPS students have organized demanding their leaders suspensions be lifted athttp://tinyurl.com/pgcpsstudents

• What other thoughts do you have?

1.  I do not support the response by the administration.  My concerns (see response in #3)

2.  Yes I will sign the petition to demand that the suspensions of those student leaders be removed and erased from their permanent records.

3.  Speaking as a school board candidate for district 7, I am disappointed in the actions of the Superintendent and the School Administration.  I applaud the actions of the 300 students challenging what they consider to be horrendous conditions at Northwestern High School.  I applaud their utilizing higher order thinking to peacefully challenge the educational system in Prince George’s County.  I believe the proper solution to this problem should have began with a dialogue with student organizers of the demonstration.  A task force should have been initiated to investigate the legitimacy of the students claims.

If these 300 students were committing acts of violence, using/selling drugs or involved in salacious behavior the community would be outraged. Suspension as a form of discipline would be appropriate.  However, in this situation, the community should be applauding the “civil rights demonstrations” of these students.

The fundamental questions that has to be raised is; Who does Northwestern High School belong to?  Does Northwestern High School belong to the Superintendent?  Does Northwestern High School belong to the School Board?  Does Northwestern High School belong to the Teachers and Administrative Staff?  Does Northwestern High School Belong to the Unions?  Does Northwestern High School belong to the Contractors who sell goods and services to the school?  Finally, does Northwestern High School belong to the parents of students attending Northwestern High School?

The only viable solution is to bring together the stakeholders, who I listed above, who have interest in Northwestern High School.  The only viable outcome from this process should be how to make Northwestern High School an educational institution that is conducive to learning as well as being clean and safe with adequate resources to fulfill its educational mission.  

As a Candidate for School Board, District 7, I will make the issue about student participation in the educational process a major priority.  

Kind regards,

Carletta Fellows, Candidate

Prince George’s County School Board, District 7

—* Note- This article has been amended to reflect we originally posted Ms. Fellows was a candidate in District 5.

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Student PGCPS Board Member responds to allegations of suppressing student dissent

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PGCPS Student Board Member Faith Jackson responds to allegations of administrators suppressing student dissent at Northwestern High School—

Good Evening,

This is actually one of the first times I have been contacted regarding this matter. First off, as a board member, I know for a fact that I should neither respond to or comment on this issue, and that I will subsequently be disdained for doing so. However, I continue to remind myself that I was elected to the Board not by the Board, and that if I ignore the needs of students for whatever reason or because of whatever bureaucracy I have failed to fulfill the duties I was elected by my peers to complete. While I understand the authority and purpose of the school’s administration and its actions, I think the right to protest is essential to avoid tyranny. I, of course, have to hear both sides of the story, but think that sometimes extreme measures are necessary to prove a point and bring needed attention.  If there is any further discussion or appeal on this topic, I know that I face the risk of now having to recuse myself, but such is simply what comes with the territory. I plan to attend and hear from students at the upcoming student forum, and eagerly await any more contact. My duty is to serve and represent the students so if anyone has any further questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions I can be contacted at this email address, 240-472-3160, or via my twitter account, @KeeptheFaithJ. I thank you for contacting me, and hope to hear from students soon.

Educationally yours,

Faith Jackson

Student Member of the Prince George’s County Board of Education

“Keeping the Faith!”

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Online petition launched against PGCPS suppression, nationwide web fallout

Remember earlier when we blogged about a recent student planned uprising that was crushed by Dr. Hite and other Prince George’s County Public School Officials? Well that suppression has been making a lot of headlines lately all across the country.

After it was first featured on The Black Star Project and then here on our blog, the news just took off. Today the AFL-CIO Metro DC Council featured the story to their email list of thousands of union members and supporters. They also featured it on their website. The Midwest Peace and Justice Caucus of the National Education Association (America’s largest teacher’s union) also featured the story on their blog. Here in Maryland, the progressive blog Maryland Juice (arguably one of the states most popular progressive blogs) also ran the story.

Now student leaders are turning up the pressure with a newly launched Change.org petition (sign it today at http://tinyurl.com/pgcpsstudents) demanding the suspensions of their leaders be lifted and wiped from their records.

Fighting for your rights is a key American principal. The right to petition your government through peaceful assembly is a value that this nation was founded on. So we plan to ask, how do the candidates running for the Board of Education feel about this issue? Do they think students should be given the right to petition their government, the Board of Education and school officials, or should they just shut up and learn about the rights nobody expects them to exercise? We’re sending an email to them all and will let you know what we hear back.

By the way where are the Prince George’s County Young Democrats? The Student Board Member what does she think? We will be asking them too.

What do you think? Tell us your opinion and if you support the students go to http://tinyurl.com/pgcpsstudents and add your voice to their voice.

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Did @PGCPS engage in intimidation of student leaders?

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PGCPS Superintendent William Hite

On the National Day of Student Action (March 1st) a group of students at Prince George’s County’s Northwestern High School planned a walkout to protest what they called, “educational inequality, and advocating for quality and affordable education for all.” Specifically the expected 300 students who planned to walk out wanted to highlight unsanitary conditions in their school, enormous class sizes, cuts to the ESOL program. According to one source, administrators at Northwestern and in the central administration found out about the protest using twitter and Facebook and crushed it. Now the website Black Star Journal has launched an online movement demanding the system remove all suspensions and disciplinary acts taken against the student leaders.

Excerpt from the Article—

The Administration at Northwestern discovered the walkout plan early in the day by trolling Twitter and put the school on lockdown. Police blocked the doors and canine units waited in the school’s parking lot. They held student leaders in the Principal’s office all day, threatened them with expulsion, and at the end of the day suspended four students for 5 days requiring that when they return their parents must accompany them to classes all day.

Northwestern is a high school where a majority of the students are Black and Latino. The student organizers’ mission was to walk out for a better school and a better education. Instead the Administration violated their civil liberties, squashed these students’ free speech, and punished them for wanting to improve the school environment for themselves and their teachers. Instead of having a dialogue with students, the Administration at this school chose to make an example of several students and punish them harshly knowing this could affect these students ability to get into college.

http://blackstarjournal.org/?p=465

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