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Students defend Dewey from closure in afternoon walk-out

Bolstered by the city’s unflinching plan to close John Dewey High School this June, students from the South Brooklyn campus added a walk-out to their growing resumé of protest actions this afternoon.

Dewey students and faculty have rallied and chanted in front of the school and at Department of Education meetings since January,  when Mayor Michael Bloomberg first announced his eleventh-hour plan to close Dewey and 32 other schools. They are building off momentum from protests staged two years ago, when the city flirted with a possible phase-out of the school. Instead, the city opted to funnel extra funding and staff to the school through the federal “restart” reform model.

Now, the city says it will use use another federal reform model, called “turnaround,” at the school. But that model requires the city to first close the school and replace half its staff. If the plan is approved at the April Panel for Educational Policy meeting, Dewey’s current ninth-, tenth- and eleventh-grade students would attend a new school replacing Dewey in the fall.

Today’s walk-out was inspired by a city-wide campaign begun by the advocacy group the Grassroots Education Movement called “Fight Back Friday.” Other school communities have participated in Fight Back Friday protests, including Herbert H. Lehman High School and Schomburg Satellite Academy, a transfer school where teachers and students also planned to walk out today.

Dewey teacher Phil Luchun also posted a video this week decrying the closure plan and listing Dewey’s positive traits. Among them: its above-average college-readiness rate (29.7 percent), its film and financial literacy classes and its robotics team.

Students in the video say they are “sad” and “furious” about the closure. The video concludes with a photo of Cathie Black, the former schools chancellor, and a call to action: “Call 311,” the final text panel reads, “And ask, ‘Why is Dewey slated for closure?’”

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002397245457 Mary Conway-Spiegel

    Thank you for posting the film and the article.  Dewey, like many other PLA schools (and even “A” schools up for closure) is a great place for children to learn, to grow, graduate and succeed.  Many in the media promote the perception on the part of the general public that these 33 schools are “failing.”  They aren’t.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002397245457 Mary Conway-Spiegel

    Thank you for posting the film and the article.  Dewey, like many other PLA schools (and even “A” schools up for closure) is a great place for children to learn, to grow, graduate and succeed.  Many in the media promote the perception on the part of the general public that these 33 schools are “failing.”  They aren’t.

  • Shanudge

    :) I am very proud to be a staff member at John Dewey High School! 

  • Shanudge

    :) I am very proud to be a staff member at John Dewey High School! 

  • I noticed that…

    Great video!  Great kids!  Great staff!  It’s time for all the proposed closing schools to make their own video and to post them on GS and on Facebook.  Send a copy of the video to the mayor and to chancellor every week to remind them that through their administration children ended up last.

  • alena

    I love this video. It is soo true! John Dewey isn’t a bad school as public demands it to be!

  • SickofBloomberg

    Kudos to you and your colleagues!!!  Good luck!!!

  • Guest

    On another note, why are comments closed on the article about Tweed prepping turnaround schools?

  • http://gothamschools.org Rachel Cromidas

    Sorry, that was a mistake—comments are open again on that story now.

  • Guest

    Awesome video!! 

  • Shanudge

     Thanks!

  • Marie Mounteer

    This is great! We should fight back together! Stop Mayor Bloomberg’s assault on teachers and unions!

    http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-public-shaming-and-unjust-firing-of-teachers 

  • Michael M. (parent still)

    Great video!  
    Fight the closures!

  • michael

    It’s not just John Dewey we should be fighting for, but every school slated for closure. The mayor knows that by protesting one school at a time nothing will happen. All schools slated for closure, as well as every other school in the city, should be protesting together. Only then will things change. I’ve said it before, STRIKE.

  • Mitromney12

    we need more prisons not high schools for the monkeys.

  • Peter

    I’m a student at John dewey. Not a bad school at all

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