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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDyett Hunger Strike Enters FIFTH Week: 'We Are Prepared to Die' (School Privatization, Chicago)
By Ted Cox | September 14, 2015 1:49pm | Updated September 14, 2015 5:19pm
@tedcoxchicago
Dyett High School hunger striker Cathy Dale insists, "We are prepared to die."
CITY HALL ...
Several of the now 15 Dyett hunger strikers returned to City Hall Monday on their 29th day without solid food to call on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to at least have a "respectful conversation" with them over the future of the Bronzeville school in Washington Park.
Since Aug. 17, a dozen hunger strikers have been demanding that Chicago Public Schools accept the proposal put forth by the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School to convert it into a Global Leadership and Green Technology academy.
Ted Cox says the situation is quickly becoming dire for protesters:
They have rejected CPS' move to turn it instead into a neighborhood open-enrollment arts high school.
"A compromise happens when two people come together and they work out together something that's agreeable to both parties," said Jitu Brown, a leader of the hunger strike, Monday at City Hall. "There was no compromise."
According to Brown, he was told about the CPS plan 15 minutes before it was presented by Chief Executive Officer Forrest Claypool. Brown said he asked to continue to negotiate, but Claypool responded, "We're moving forward."
"That's not compromise," Brown said.
Brown said an art school "doesn't make sense," in that "the arts is not a growth industry," while green technology is growing.
"Don't give me crumbs and tell me it's a cake," Brown said. "Why should black children always accept less?"
...
Brown said he has lost 36 pounds on the strike.
"We are prepared to die," Dale added. "We're not going to go away. We're just not going to go away."
"This is a very, very serious health situation for these individuals," said Dr. Peter Sporn of Northwestern University. "Really it's on the mayor now for this to end."
"This is a life-threatening situation at this point," added Erin Raether of Nurses for Social Justice, who has treated some of the hunger strikers during their fast. "They didn't look like this 29 days ago."
...
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150914/downtown/dyett-hunger-strike-enters-fifth-week-we-are-prepared-die#
#FightForDyett
ChicagoTeachersUnion ?@CTULocal1 55m55 minutes ago
Doctors, nurses ask mayor to step in as Dyett hunger strike hits 29th day #fightfordyett #savedyett #wearedyett http://ow.ly/ScGhX
Irish hunger strikers only lasted for 46-73 days. Many of the #FightForDyett hunger strikers are elders and can't go much longer. #edchat
I truly believe @RahmEmanuel will let #FightForDyett hunger strikers die if we don't put pressure on him to do the right thing! #edchat
.@ChicagosMayor opens a north side school addition while #Dyett12 are facing death by starvation for public school resources #FightForDyett
"School closings are a #hatecrime" Are the Dyett hunger strikers on the verge of a victory? http://bit.ly/1UQ5MxS @dailykos #FightForDyett
Time to stand against school privatization #FightForDyett #WeAreDyett Call Rahm 312-744-3300.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/dyett-hunger-strike-20150909
DenisePouchet retweeted Teachers for Justice
Teachers and parents should not have to die for decent schools for their children! #FightForDyett
RT! TOMORROW 9/15! TWITTER STORM FOR DYETT! Help us get #FightForDyett trending from 7pm - 9pm Chicago time!
Alderman Burns is confronted and flees.
The #FightForDyett hunger strikers and supporters confront the man who could have honored their proposal for the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology...
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)Call every last rotten complicit official and please, FIGHT PRIVATIZATION
azmom
(5,208 posts)I will make some calls.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)but Rahm and his cronies aren't budging and the national media are ignoring it.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)slipslidingaway
(21,210 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)slipslidingaway
(21,210 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)It looks like this is about it being a green tech magnet school (what the protestors want) and it being a neighborhood art-focused school (what the district wants).
ancianita
(36,133 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)I don't get how people like that even sleep at night
ancianita
(36,133 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)daleanime
(17,796 posts)What kind of nation are we if we are not willing to invest in our children?
Catherina
(35,568 posts)whose eager brains are eager to learn, explore, invent and what are we giving them?
GO Bernie. With every passing day my resolve to see that man in office grows so strong I don't know if it's possible to grow any stronger.
ancianita
(36,133 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)ancianita
(36,133 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Stop this damned school privatization effort! It benefits no one but a few profiteers!
Catherina
(35,568 posts)So many scoundrels selling their souls for profit, they deserve to spend the rest of their lives in jail and the profits they stole put back in the communities they're destroying.
It's crime like this against the poor that convinced me there's no choice but Bernie this election. What he wants to do with education can start undoing this mess.
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/16804/CTU_report_CPS_chicago_closing
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)Me too. And I'm a cynic who expected bad things from him.
ancianita
(36,133 posts)Catherina
(35,568 posts)They're moving full speed ahead with privatizing city assets. Burns ugh. Brother Malcolm had choice words for that kind of person.
ancianita
(36,133 posts)scrambling for strike delay and more money the state owes. Rahm is on the DL about charters but his proxies in the appointed board, political bureaucratic patronage machinery and PR offices, are in place.
In Chicago the fight against corporate insurgency of public assets never ends. Not for over 100 years.
For all his sins, history will not view him well.
(Found out he was once in the Israeli military, so intel still flows.)
In the meantime, we are so fucked.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)I think the powers that be know this which is why they thought they'd entertain us with a Bernie run. They didn't realize how serious we were. The UK realized it with Corbyn's win which only energizes.
I totally agree with you. If we don't find a way to clean house and reverse this, we're totally fucked and for a long time.
ancianita
(36,133 posts)Vinca
(50,303 posts)I think hunger strikes are the absolute stupidest form of protest. Most people who hear about it won't care one or the other whether the person decides to starve themselves to death. You will do zero for your cause if you're dead, but you might accomplish something if you are alive.