Charter Teachers Fired for Trying to Tell Emmett Till's Story During Black History Month

[Rose Siding]

Administrators at a Los Angeles charter school forbade students from reciting a poem about civil rights icon Emmett Till during a Black History Month program recently, saying his story was unsuitable for an assembly of young children.

Teachers and students said the administration suggested that the Till case — in which the teenager was beaten to death in Mississippi after allegedly whistling at a white woman — was not fitting for a program intended to be celebratory, and that Till's actions could be viewed as sexual harassment.

The decision by Celerity Nascent Charter School leaders roiled the southwest Los Angeles campus and led to the firing of seventh-grade teacher Marisol Alba and math teacher Sean Strauss, who had signed one of several letters of protest written by the students.

The incident highlights the tenuous job security for mostly nonunion teachers in charter schools, which are publicly financed but independently run. California has more than 600 charter schools, and their ranks continue to swell. According to the California Teachers Assn., staff at fewer than 10% of charter schools are represented by unions.

"I never thought it would come to this," said Alba, who helped her students prepare the Till presentation, in which they were going to read a poem and lay flowers in a circle......

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-newcharter19mar19,0,3137816.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[NoodleBoy]

1. more proof that charter schools are ineffective solutions to false problems

I went to a couple charter schools-- they were glorified day care.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. So they're saying that lynching is an appropriate response to

sexual harrassment? That if he precipitated the incident he is not a real victim?

Is their charter a KKK Charter?

[Nikki Stone1]

3. I wonder if the recent Long Beach case had anything to do with the decision

http://www.topix.net/content/trb/4262361806257786507924774966422199532237

"...The violence occurred on a predominantly white block known for elaborate Halloween decorations and fancy candy. According to police, a group of black youths - mostly teenagers but some as young as 12 - allegedly hurled racial insults at the women, threw objects at them and then knocked them to the ground with kicks, punches and skateboard blows. The attack was broken up by a black man who stopped his car and pulled the assailants away. But the women - two of them 19 years old, the other 21 - suffered injuries, including broken bones....

...Officials said the three white women were on Linden Avenue to attend the Halloween block party. Shortly before they were attacked, they had been subjected to catcalls from a group of mostly young black males, Johnson said. Moments later, the women were pelted with lemons and small pumpkins. Then the group of black youths shouted anti-white slurs before physically attacking them, Johnson said...."