Maybury Elementary Parents, Community Members Protest School Closing

Parents, teachers, children and community members protested the scheduled closing of two Southwest Detroit schools Friday and attempted to deliver a letter outlining their concerns to Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts.

Roberts recently announced DPS would close nine schools and convert four others into charters. Detroit's Maybury Elementary and Southwestern High School are on the list slated for closure.

But Southwest Detroit residents aren't ready to let the schools go. More than 80 percent of Maybury's students are Latino, and the school offers a bilingual education program that neighborhood parents say is essential.

Both Maybury and Southwestern faced closure under the district's previous emergency manager, but parents fought to keep them open. This round of school closings looks likely to provoke another fight.

A diverse crowd of about 100 people gathered at Maybury Friday at noon. Members of the Clark Park Coalition, Occupy Detroit and By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) attended the rally. Standing next to a large Occupy Detroit banner, activist Erik Shelly said his group wants to keep all Detroit schools open.

"We're here to protest austerity measures that are the same as are happening in Greece," he said. "They're trying to solve economic problems by picking on the weakest amongst us."

Edgar Lebron, a recent Southwestern High graduate said he worried about the possibility of gang-related violence if his former school is consolidated with Western International High School.

"We stuff a lot of these gangs into one school and a lot of people are going to get hurt," he said.

After the rally, some attendees packed into a bus provided by the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation and drove to DPS headquarters at the Fisher Building.

The coalition demanded Roberts meet with members of the Maybury Local School Community Organization, a parent-teacher group, and offer a response to a letter sent on Feb. 13 raising issues of cultural and linguistic sensitivity and offering alternatives to closing Maybury.

Gabriela Alcazar, a translator who went with two LSCO parents and their children to redeliver the group's letter to Roberts Friday, said they weren't allowed into his office.

"Security wouldn't let us up to the 14th floor," she said.

DPS Communications Director Steven Wasko said he couldn't confirm whether Roberts had received the letter, but noted Roberts had answered questions from Maybury parents at the time of the school closing announcements.

Speaking to Southwest Detroit parents' immediate concerns, Wasko said the district was working closely with police to minimize any possible gang violence and to ensure all schools in the area accommodate the needs of Spanish-speaking students and family members.

DPS has contracted an outside non-profit group, the Detroit Parent Network, to arrange customized meetings to answer concerns and questions from parents across the district.

Comments

[gotribe12]

11:01 AM on 02/27/2012

Detriot is a wasteland might as well through all the gang members in the same school and let nature take it's course.

[eceresa]

09:10 PM on 02/26/2012

Why should they be surprised that he wouldn't talk to them? The whole Emergency Manager system is based on the idea that they don't count. They're not allowed to vote for people to represent them anymore. Snyder and the Republicans in the legislature took their rights away from them. Why would Roberts bother to listen to them? If he or Snyder thought they were worth anything, Roberts's job wouldn't exist.

[Ashok Hegde]

01:16 PM on 02/26/2012

If these parents spent this much energy educated their own children, they would be in a different scenario. Michigan is broke...this is what happens.

[Ariel Bonzai]

11:43 PM on 02/25/2012

I can't say what is going on in Detroit, but In LA our schools have been infiltrated and captured by Gates and Broad who imposed mercenary superintendent on the district with the aid of the white chalk criminals who have bled the taxpayers dry and discriminated against the working poor for decades. Our community is being torn apart. parents are threatened with deportation, some are not welcome on campus or in the charade of board meetings and committees. War was declared against teachers who are being dismissed with the same compassion one employs in a shooting gallery . Deasy actually boasted about firing 800 teachers since he's arrived and has decided the scandal at Miramonte his staff enabled is cause for another spree of firings . 2 teachers a day have been arrested, some based on accusations made by students who are now adults, some are credible, others are BS. Either way,nthese teachers are ruined. And what dies this mean to students. They are obviously harmed. Some are heartbroken about the unfair housing of Miramonte staff to keep them from revealing the truth about their staff. Others are adept pupils who haveli led up the habits of our leaders and started to make up stories to punish teachers who didn't give them a grade they wanted or chastised them for chewing gum,is this what we want for education ?

[Jeff Peyton]

07:28 PM on 02/24/2012

Let's take an alternative route to school.
http://www.change.org/petitions/call-to-adopt-an-american-declaration-and-education-bill-of-rights