Teachers, students and community activists in California have waged a war against the Oakland school district after officials proposed a controversial plan to tear down 15 primary schools. colored skin.
The two educators took the matter so seriously that they vowed to fight “to the death” with a hunger strike that began a week ago.
Medical teams had to assist Oakland Community School Program Director Moses Omolade and Westlake High School choir and dance director André San-Chez early Tuesday morning — the eighth day of the hunger strike. — after they have a health problem, CBS Bay Area 5 reported.
In a statement, San-Chez told the Oakland school board, “If I die, I want the board to know my death is in your hands.”
Omolade and San-Chez began a hunger strike February 1 — refusing to eat until the Oakland Unified School District board votes Tuesday night on the fate of the schools, The Chronicles of San Francisco reported.
“We won’t eat until you’ve finished all school closures,” Omolade said, according to Oaklandside.
“I feel charged by my community,” says Omolade Democracy Now in an interview. “I am feeling — obviously — physically weak, but mentally very strong. I feel leveraged to roll back the systemic racism that has occurred in our community. “
Under a plan laid out at a January 31 board meeting, 15 schools in the district will either close permanently or merge with others, with officials citing a fiscal shortfall that schools have to face. School district officials say enrollment at the schools has declined and assert their financial futures are tough.
“While we do not deny that these changes are difficult and painful for African-American and Latino families, we look forward to building on improvements in school environments and school outcomes. practice through these changes,” the district official said in a letter to the school board, according to NBC Bay Area.
“We know that our students, staff, and families all agree that we need a school district to thrive,” Oakland Unified School District spokesman John Sasaki said in a statement. . “However, not everyone necessarily agrees on the best way to get there.”
But some community members don’t buy into those financial arguments, arguing that the schools’ monetary problem actually stems from resources being channeled to the district’s charter schools.
School board superintendent Mike Hutchinson – who opposes the closures – said the decision to merge the schools came too quickly and was made without enough community discussion.
“If we’re going to make a decision, a long-term decision, about which neighborhoods still have public schools, it needs to be a vigorous participatory process,” he said, according to CBS 5 San Francisco. “At this point, there is no community involvement and no discussion, even among the school board, to do this.”
Educators have voiced that the move will put too much pressure on teachers, who will be forced to manage classes that are simply overcrowded.
“Why we do this is very straightforward and clear,” Omolade told Democracy Now. “Racism has been rampant in our communities for too long. … We are trying to close without community involvement. It’s not something we’ll be advocating for; that’s what’s happening right now. Administrators are trying to close predominately Black and brown schools that don’t involve us. So we are deciding to push back. We are deciding to make a fuss and an uproar about why they chose to close our school. Budgeting, especially when only 2 percent of the budget is on Black and Brown bodies is not acceptable.”
The future of the schools will be voted on February 8 in a special meeting of the Oakland school board. Community members hope that the hunger strike and public motivation will influence the board members’ decisions.
Members of the Oakland Unified School District did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
