Chicago Teachers, Supporters Converge Downtown to Protest School Closures

[limpyhobbler]

Source: nbcchicago.com

Still in shock over Chicago's decision to shutter 54 public schools, hundreds of teachers and their supporters descended on downtown Wednesday to protest the closures.

Marchers began at Daley Plaza and were heading north on Clark Street to Randolph Street and then were expected to head west to LaSalle Street to City Hall and on to CPS headquarters. Officials said the doors to City Hall will be locked at some point, so a planned rally outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel's 5th floor office seems unlikely.

Protesters were asking en masse for a moratorium on school closures. As of 4:45 p.m., the Chicago Police Department estimated the crowd was somewhere in the range of 700 to 900 people.

"While the District contemplates how many neighborhood schools they will shutter this year, taxpayers who have had enough of these top-down, draconian measures are strategizing about how to elevate their voices in the school closing fight," the union said in a statement.
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Read more: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/CTU-Downtown-March-School-Closings-Chicago-200205531.html

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Protesters are currently being arrested. There is a helicopter livestream at the NBC link.

There is a street view live stream at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/samwiseoccupies

See also article on Salon.com...
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/27/mass_protests_hit_chicago_over_school_closures/

[chervilant]

1. Of course they're being arrested!!!

This is the New America! All protesters are now classified as domestic terrorists!

How have we come to this?!?

BTW, I am returning to school to become a certified math teacher in Arkansas, and I hope that the Arkansas Board of Education doesn't find SOME way to conflate math with religiosity!

[ReRe]

2. One God, two Gods, three Gods, four....

.... five Gods, six Gods, seven Gods more!

Do you ever remember them arresting GWBs protesters? Or those humdinger Tea-bagger protesters? Heck no. And they came packing heat! And they even built a special cage for the Democratic protesters and herded 'em all in there like a bunch of cattle. We're living in curious times. Curious treacherous times, indeed.

[madfloridian]

3. recced and kicked.

[xtraxritical]

4. I got a great education from the public school system in Chicago, I'm mystified at the stoopid.

[blkmusclmachine]

5. STOP RAHM/RHEE/OBAMA

[Judi Lynn]

6. In Chicago, thousands march to protest proposed school closings

In Chicago, thousands march to protest proposed school closings
Wed, 27 Mar 2013 23:50 GMT
Source: reuters // Reuters
By Renita Young and James B. Kelleher

CHICAGO, March 27 (Reuters) - Thousands of demonstrators rallied in downtown Chicago on Wednesday to protest the city's plan to close 54 public schools, primarily in Hispanic and African-American neighborhoods.

The closings, which the school board plans to vote on in May, would be the biggest one-time shutdown ever by a U.S. city. Wednesday's demonstration, organized by the teacher's union, drew parents, students and other critics of the plan.

Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, encouraged parents of the roughly 30,000 children whose schools will be closed later in 2013 to simply ignore the city's action at the end of summer vacation.

"On the first day of school, you show up at your real school," Lewis said at the rally in Daley Plaza.

More:
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/in-chicago-thousands-march-to-protest-proposed-school-closings