MLK students protest switch to charter school
STUDENTS at Martin Luther King High School walked out at noon yesterday to protest the Philadelphia School District's decision to convert their school into a charter school.
STUDENTS at Martin Luther King High School walked out at noon yesterday to protest the Philadelphia School District's decision to convert their school into a charter school.
It was the third such protest in a week against the district's Renaissance Schools initiative, aimed at turning around low-performing schools.
The King students rallied outside the school, in East Germantown, with protest signs while shouting slogans such as "No charter! No charter!" before school security officers told them to leave.
"We don't want our school to change," said Sayana Brown, 14, a freshman. "If Martin Luther King were here, he wouldn't tolerate this!"
One student, Tyciana Johnson, 16, held a sign that said "New Staff + Us = failure."
"We like our teachers," said Shawnese Campbell, 15. "If we get new teachers, we can't relate to them because they don't know us."
On Tuesday, students at South Philadelphia's Audenried High protested plans for their school to be converted to a charter, and on Feb. 11 students at West Philadelphia High demonstrated against being converted into a "Promise Academy."
In all, the district plans to convert 18 schools into either charters or district-run "Promise Academies." All of the schools' teachers will have to reapply for their jobs, but no more than half can be retained.
Breyanaa Berney, 16, said that the students like their teachers and that teachers at King yesterday "were trying to pull us in the classroom and told us not to walk out."
"They care about us and they want us to learn," she said.
Shana Kemp, a school district spokeswoman, later approached some students who had been talking about losing favorite teachers and told them they would have a chance to reapply for their jobs.
"Those good teachers you want . . . will probably stay," she said.
Students said 50 to 100 of their classmates showed up for the protest. Regarding the number of protesters, Kemp said only that "at least two dozen" of the nearly 1,000 students enrolled walked out.
Once the school is converted to a charter school, students will have a longer school day and year and will have to attend class at least two Saturdays a month, said Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Jerry Jordan.
"Kids want to have their weekends," said Campbell, echoing the concerns of some protesting students who didn't like the idea of staying at school late or having classes on Saturday.
Students said much of the their anger springs from the district's failure to talk with them before deciding to convert King.
"They didn't give us a chance to talk about this or hear why they were doing this," Berney said.
The district will host a community forum on Tuesday night in King's auditorium from 6 to 8 to discuss the conversion of the school.
