“You’ve got to give the kids credit for standing up and getting involved in democracy,” said state Rep. Rodney Hubbard (D-St. Louis) regarding the dramatic student sit-in at City Hall in protest of a proposed state intervention in the administration of St. Louis Public Schools.
“But the adults misinformed the kids.”
Last Wednesday afternoon around 3 p.m. about 16 students from across the district staged a sit-in at City Hall. The students camped out in the office of Mayor Francis G. Slay with a list of 10 demands they wanted Slay to address before they would agree to vacate the premises.
The participatory democracy – and incipient journalism – in their action was evident. Some students used the sit-in as a real-life civics and media lesson, videotaping the protest and streaming it online at www.web.mac.com/debbiemac1.
Howard Hughes, a senior at Roosevelt High, said of the mayor, “He can just show his face and clear up at least four of these demands, like ‘Have a conversation with SLPS students.’” He can take care of that one just by coming in and speaking to us.”
Slay would later meet with students and discuss their concerns.
The misinformation in question, Hubbard said, concerns both the substance of the students’ main argument against state intervention and the likelihood that their activism would have any impact on the state decision.
“The adults know what is going on,” Hubbard said. “This should have been done six, seven months or a year ago if they wanted it to make a difference.”
The students’ argument against the intervention was based in the fact that for the state to intervene, the district would have to lose its accreditation – which the students argued would ruin their hopes for college scholarships and admissions.
The state is expected to make a determination on the district’s status as early as tomorrow. A second direct action for the students to travel to Jefferson City to meet with the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) was organized yesterday.
“If the schools lost their accreditation, I couldn’t go to the college of my choice,” said Devin Jackson, a sophomore at Gateway High, echoing a sentiment expressed by all of the students at the sit-in.
According to many education officials, this is not correct.
In fact, University of Missouri, Saint Louis University, DESE and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers said the district’s accreditation status would not impact scholarships or enrollment of students who are accepted to the respective schools.
In addition, Charles Brown, an African American who is assistant commissioner of urban education for the state but is currently on leave to serve as superintendent of Wellston Public Schools, said the activists have unfairly depicted the state education officials as opposed to the best interests of the district.
“If you talk to any state board member, you will see that their thrust is that public education is the core of this state and country,” Brown said.
Brown also predicted that state intervention – which he oversees, in a more thorough form, in Wellston – would not undermine the elected SLPS school board as much as activists claim.
“If you chop off the head, it doesn’t work,” Brown said. “The state doesn’t intend to chop off the head. It intends to provide some cover to the head, to provide some clarity as to where it should go.
“The total board has not stepped up to do that. The state board clearly intends to bring clarity, balance and harmony.”
Which adults informed or misinformed the students regarding accreditation is to some extent an open question. Hubbard – a legislative activist for school choice – said he overheard state Rep. Jamilah Nasheed talking about the action on the floor of the state House of Representatives before it occurred. Some observers saw the fingerprints of radio host Lizz Brown and attorney-activist Eric E. Vickers. Vickers is working against the state intervention and acknowledged “there was sort of ‘old head’ guidance given to the students,” but says the sit-in came as a surprise to him.
The students at the sit-in wore uniform, themed shirts; when asked, they said school board member Donna Jones had provided them. When interviewed by the American, Jones made the same dubious points regarding accreditation that appear on the students’ list of demands.
“I started receiving lots of calls from concerned students and parents about the possible loss of accreditation and how it would affect students,” Jones explained her role in the action.
“I talked to students and gave them some homework to do. I told them to find out how it was going to affect them. Some students are going to have a difficult time.”
Superintendent Diana Bourisaw’s statement regarding the action also raised these points, saying one of the issues in “the impending unaccreditation of the St. Louis Public Schools” is “potentially causing difficulty in the ability of our students to gain acceptance into college, or problems in obtaining scholarships.”
Mary J. Armstrong, president of St. Louis & Related Personnel Union – Local 420, sounded precisely the same themes in her statement.
“The Danforth-Freeman Advisory Committee report grossly failed to address the negative affects of stripping the district’s accreditation and an ultimate state takeover would have on high school seniors’ collegiate scholarships and overall future endeavors,” Armstrong said.
Donald M. Suggs, publisher of the St. Louis American, served on the Danforth-Freeman Advisory Committee, and for years the editorial stance of the American has urged a thorough reform of the district, including the contingent intervention by the state recommended by the advisory committee.
