Posted on 04/17/2012 5:39:37 AM PDT by YourAdHere
A civil rights advocacy group is pressing Pontiac, Mich., charter school officials to reinstate a Black 26 year-old middle school teacher who was fired over what she says was her role in encouraging student support for the family of slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.
The plight of Brooke Harris, who twice has been named Teacher of the Year at the Pontiac Academy for Excellence Middle School, is becoming part of the firestorm that has evolved in the aftermath of the Feb. 16 shooting death of the unarmed 17 year-old in Sanford, Fla.
So far, an estimated 30,000 signatures calling for her reinstatement have been attached to an online petition generated by the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) Teaching Tolerance project, a rally supporting her was staged at the suburban Detroit school and, on national television when the charges were announced against Martin’s self-admitted shooter, Baltimore’s Empowerment Temple AME pastor Jamal Bryant voiced support for her.
"We stand with Brooke Harris, the middle school teacher in Michigan who was fired," he said.
“I’m confused, I don’t really know why I was fired,” Harris told Detroit CBS affiliate WWJ-TV. “I know the circumstances around it. I know it had to have something to do with the fundraiser my students [wanted].” Harris was suspended on March 27 and later dismissed by Superintendent Jacqueline Cassell after asking Cassell if a small number of students, at their request, could conduct a fundraiser for the Martin family. The event called for students to give $1 in order to wear a hoodie on a day already designated as an “out-of-uniform” day for students. Martin was wearing a hoodie when he encountered an armed neighborhood watch volunteer.
Cassell rejected the request and suspended Harris for two days.
When the teacher returned to the school to deliver materials for a literacy showcase she had previously organized, the suspension was increased to two weeks. She was fired after she asked for an explanation detailing her original suspension.
The SPLC, an Alabama-based nonprofit civil rights advocacy group, quickly came to Harris’ support.
“Young people have to feel empowered. They have to feel like they can be agents of change. I think her firing just sends the message: 'Don't cross the system- Don’t question it, accept the decisions that are made and move on.’ That is the wrong message to send to kids,” said Maureen Costello, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance program.
The education branch of the civil rights organization has rallied teachers and communities across the nation to put pressure on the school board to reinstate Harris.
“We talk with teachers all the time about the best ways to bring up issues that are difficult to bring up- but which we have to talk about, such as race, such as oppression and uncomfortable topics of all kinds and she did it right,” said Costello.
Pontiac Academy’s Cassell told ABC News that although she was raised during the civil rights movement, students could not afford to be sidetracked from their studies at this time. “In every situation, there are work rules. When rules are violated, there are consequences."
Trayvon Martin, who is Black, was shot and killed by 28-year-old George Zimmerman, a White neighborhood watch volunteer, while walking to the house of his father’s fiancée from a convenience store. After Zimmerman told a police dispatcher Martin was “real suspicious,” the neighborhood watch volunteer said he followed the youth and shot him during a physical confrontation.
Two months later Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder. He claims he acted in self defense.
Yep. They aren’t even pretending he is a ‘white hispanic’ anymore.
Doesn’t fit the agenda..
She’s a liar. She knows why she was fired. It wasn’t the fundraiser. It was her actions after the fundraiser. Leave it to the organization supporting her to pretend that violating policy and being insubordinate are not just cause for firing.
I despise people who think rules are for everyone but themselves.
There’s gotta be more to this story. Were they dating the same guy?
Could be.
Mo Dees is an anti-American, Pro Terrorist, Communist piece of s**t. And so are so all the minions who work at the SPLC and/or support him. If I was the head of DHS the SPLC would be at the top of the list of Pro Terrorist Organizations.
As such I'd have him and his pro terrorist commie front group, plus the cabal of communists around him and it, investigated 'six ways from Sunday'. I'd also have that mutt 'interrogated' until he BEGS to go to GITMO! That, or be disappeared to a Dungeon of some remote Prison in the heart of the Carpathian Mountains!
That #$&@ing sob is pure evil!
There’s more. A news item was posted here last week. This teacher was suspended 2 days for the fundraiser. She came back on to campus during the suspension. She was given additional suspension. At some point, she became insubordinate to the administrator and was fired.
Its important to note that Superintendent Jacqueline Cassell is herself black. I just scanned over the story and didn’t see it mentioned.
There is soooooo much more to this story.
Nobody gets suspended then fired for just asking permission to do something.
In the article, why is black and white capitalized?
In the article, why is black and white capitalized?
Just a stab, but I’d guess that ‘Fro magazine is an in-your-face, arrogantly racist POS rag publication.
Very good point.
We need A/V in every classroom to monitor and discipline these scumbag teachers that espouse their political views on our children.
A little more balanced story here.
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2012/04/16/news/local_news/doc4f8cc3f1752f0273910698.txt
From the opinions I’ve been reading locally, the superintendent is quite the “race warrior” herself and has been a real problem for white teachers as well.
I think this is a personality clash between two racists.
There is no cure for stupid.
I’m going to guess that having a “fundraiser” of that sort would be uncomfortable for the students who didn’t feel like contributing, and could be interpreted as extortion.
Yep. When I read that I thought ... WTF!?!?
On a side note: I went to that newspapers archives and found issues going back to 1950 and read a few issues going up to '68. Very interesting reading and nothing like today's garbage spewed by that 'community'. Overall, IMHO it was very balanced reporting.
“Young people have to feel empowered. They have to feel like they can be agents of change.”
Oh, puleeze.
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