Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/9051
Average Joes and Janes become LEFT: Students at a March 4 rally outside San Francisco City Hall, where more than 12,000 students, educators, elected officials and community members joined in to protest the unprecedented cuts to public education. BELOW: Mike Noce, president of the Mt. Diablo Education Association, wears an emergency drill vest to a March 4 rally signifying the disaster the state cuts have unleashed on California. er, Assembly Member Joan Buchanan and others decried the cuts. In a noon rally in Alameda on the steps of CTA photo by Dave Earl Carpenter and communities.” Near the podium, teachers held a mock bake sale with cupcakes going for $1 mil- lion each. Monte Gardens kindergarten teachers Lauren Jamieson and Denise Dob- son held protest signs declaring “Education Cuts Never Heal” and “Schools Are Not Broken — They’re Broke!” Noce and other teachers wore “disaster attire” in- cluding hard hats and or- ange vests for a disaster drill held later that morn- ing in the district to call at- tention to disastrous cuts — one of at least seven Bay Area districts to hold disas- ter drills on March 4. Mt. Diablo Superinten- dent Steve Lawrence, PTA representatives, state Sen. Mark DeSaulni- BELOW: At Monte Gardens Elementary School in Concord, members hold a bake sale with $1 million cupcakes. OPPOSITE: At a San Francisco rally, performers support education with songs about saving education. the school district office, Vogel joined Alame- da Education Association President Patricia Sanders, Alameda Unified Superintendent Kirsten Vital and school board President Ron Mooney in warning that the state must pro- tect education from more blows. Nearly 150 Alameda educators could be laid off, and state cuts are increasing class sizes and rais- ing the threat of furloughs for educators next year if a June parcel tax is not approved by voters. Scores of Alameda High School students used their lunch hour to add to the protest with chants, cheers and handmade signs with messages like “Education Is The Future” and “My Edu- cation Matters!” Public schools are “the cornerstone of a true de- mocracy!” Sanders shout- ed as the crowd of reporters, participants and passersby listened in. She said after- ward of the rally, “It showed real unity. It showed the community how important education really is.” In Oakland Unified, where more than 120 teachers face pink slips and students face program cuts, Oakland Education As- sociation Pres- ident Betty Ol- s o n-J o n es sp oke a t a news confer- ence at the Eli- hu Harris State citizen journalists for a day On March 4, unprecedented numbers of concerned Californians let the world know we are not going to stand for any more funding cuts to California’s public schools. Starting early in the morning, Twitter was buzzing with news of protests happening up and down the state, making it a “Trending Topic” in Los Angeles and San Francisco, all because of the people actually participating in events. Live pictures and videos were broadcast by individuals posting to their Facebook pages, YouTube and Twitter. Quickly, the traditional media ran with the story of activist students and teachers, and by the afternoon, major homepages such as CNN.com and Huffingtonpost.com were featuring these live videos and stories from the trenches. Our voices certainly were heard! Office Building. Oakland teachers then boarded public mass transit for a ride to the huge 5 p.m. San Francisco Civic Center rally co-sponsored by United Educators of San Francisco and many concerned com- munity groups. More than 12,000 teachers, parents, stu- dents and other education supporters packed the peaceful San Francisco rally as television cameras swarmed the huge event, including cameras looking down from TV news helicopters. UESF President Dennis Kelly spoke with many others from a flatbed truck, and was enthusiastic a day later about the rally’s outcome. “What we did collectively on Thursday should be an inspiration and an example for ourselves and others,” said Kelly. “We all came together as a body to demand the end to the injuries we have suffered. That message and that energy must continue. The sight of the sea of people from the deck MARCH 2010 | www.cta.org 9 CTA photo by Mike Myslinski CTA photo by Mike Myslinski