Skip to content

Lakeview Elementary protest draws hundreds of protestors in Oakland

on June 23, 2012

On Saturday afternoon nearly 200 protestors showed up for a 1.7 mile march organized by a coalition of community organizers, Occupy Oakland supporters and Lakeview Elementary parents to protest the closure of five Oakland elementary schools by the Oakland Unified School District.

The march, which began at Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland, meandered its way around Lake Merritt before leading to Lakeview Elementary School, one of the schools shut down last week.

Protestors directed their ire at the Oakland Unified School District, calling for Tony Smith, its superintendant, to resign over the closure of the schools. The OUSD earlier this week issued a statement saying that the school closures were necessary due to spiraling costs, cuts in state funding and the effects of declining enrollment.

However, some of the protestors who marched Saturday saw the school closures as part of a broader nationwide trend in which state governments are systematically cutting funding from public schools, leaving vulnerable communities exposed, with speakers like Deesha Moore describing the cuts as an “attack” on the poor.

“Low income does not mean low class. We want our children to have an education here in Oakland, California,” Moore said, adding, “If you can’t afford to transport your children on a road-trip, how can you afford to transport them to schools outside your neighborhood on a daily basis?”

“We have a rationing of education in this country,” said Tim Terry, a Lakeview alum and one of the community organizers who addressed protestors at Frank Ogawa Plaza at the beginning of the march. “This week alone, 1,000 kids were foreclosed on. The five schools closed comprise four African American schools and one Latino school. School closures are affecting the neediest communities.”

Lakeview Elementary has been occupied by community organizers who set up a small tent city here after it closed on June 15, and Saturday’s march gave momentum to ongoing efforts by protestors and parents to establish a new volunteer-run school on the campus, with teachers and parents coming after the protest to sign up to become part of the People’s School for Public Education.

“The police have tried to remove us, but they are really frightened that they are going to create another mess,” said Ann Boulard, one of the volunteer teachers who has been teaching classes at the school since its closure. “The Oakland Unified School District owns the property, but it is a public institution, so this is our school.”

At least 70 students have showed up for classes since the school was reopened, according to Boulard, who has been a teacher for 40 years.

Lakeview Elementary students lead a protest against school closures.

Protestors chanted “You say cut back, we say fight back”, carrying placards reading “Tony Smith runs OUSD” and “Save Oakland Schools” among other slogans, mostly directed at the school district and calling for Oakland Unified School District superintendant Tony Smith to resign.

“We will continue running the public school as long as there is a need,” said Joel Velasquez, a parent and community organizer whose 10-year-old son was among the people leading the march. Occupying the school “is just another way of educating the people about what is going on.”

Velaquez’s son, Zaquiel, 10, who was a Lakeview student before its closure, has been camping at the school with occupiers for a week. Zaquiel had been at Lakeview for 6 years.

“My parents are doing everything they can to keep the school open,” Zaquiel said, adding they were also looking for an alternative school for him to attend next year if the city follows through with its decision to close the school permanently.

Some Oakland residents questioned the community organizers’ decision to march from Frank Ogawa Plaza, the seat of Oakland’s City Council, saying protestors should direct their grievances at the Oakland Unified School District and march to Governor Jerry Brown’s office in Sacramento instead.

“It should be illegal for the state to take away tax dollars from the schools,” said Jason Blackmond, an Oakland resident who works for the city. “These people need to get up and get on Sacramento’s case. The state needs to give our money back and take care of those schools. They should converge on Sacramento and march on Jerry Brown’s office. ”

Velasquez agreed with the criticism, but said the movement to preserve public schools from further cuts and closure would begin from a community level and then move to the state level.

At the end of the day, the crowd of protestors disintegrated into clusters once the speeches at Lakeview were over, as organizers began serving food at a barbeque set up in the playing grounds of the school while parents made inquiries about enrolment and signed their children up for classes.

“I will be bringing my son here because his friends are here,” said Sulailah White Anderson, whose 10-year-old son Jamal White addressed the public at the end of the protest and made a plea against school closures. “I don’t know what to do with myself,” Jamal told the crowd and took a long pause. “The closure of schools means we cannot be with our friends. There is nothing more fun than playing and learning at the same time.”

https://vimeo.com/45173505
Protestors march to Lakeview Elementary to oppose school closures in Oakland.

10 Comments

  1. […] Read the rest of the story by Tawanda Kanhema at Oakland North. […]



  2. […] Read the rest of the story by Tawanda Kanhema at Oakland North. […]



  3. […] Read a rest of a story by Tawanda Kanhema during Oakland North. […]



  4. livegreen on June 24, 2012 at 8:48 pm

    I don’t understand the ” “If you can’t afford to transport your children on a road-trip, how can you afford to transport them to schools outside your neighborhood on a daily basis?”. For most students who attended Lakeview, it was not their neighborhood school. That was one of the very criteria for closing it. Therefor the protestor seems to agree with Tony Smith.

    Oakland North, you also have chosen to cover only one side and not the reasons for the closure or even the objective criteria that went into the decision. Or the reason there were school closures to begin.

    Deciding to cover only one side of an issue is the definition of bias (whether it is intentional or through negligence). I might not get a “Staff Pick” for pointing out the truth, but the truth it is none the less.



  5. Mr Freely on June 25, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    Isn’t one of the reasons for closure is low attendance. How do the “protestors” respond to that issue.

    Did the members of Occupy Oakland make up the mass of the members of the march?



  6. Oaklander on June 25, 2012 at 3:16 pm

    Is that a bunny? Seriously?



  7. Mr Freely on June 26, 2012 at 6:52 pm

    It’s the rabbit lady!



  8. […] #Parents protesting the closure of five Oakland elementary schools that predominantly serve under-represented minority groups have built an encampment at Lakeview Elementary, which they have #occupied for the past ten days despite being ordered to disperse by the school district police force. On June 23, nearly 200 protestors showed up for a 1.7 mile protest march. […]



  9. […] potluck and screening marked the second time the public had open access to the site: the first was a march that started at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza—which has become synonymous with the Occupy Oakland protests—and ended at the elementary school […]



  10. […] Tawanda Kanhema’s story on Oakland North. Economy, protest, schools, USASource: Tawanda […]



Oakland North welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Oakland North assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.

Photo by Basil D Soufi
logo
Oakland North

Oakland North is an online news service produced by students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and covering Oakland, California. Our goals are to improve local coverage, innovate with digital media, and listen to you–about the issues that concern you and the reporting you’d like to see in your community. Please send news tips to: oaklandnorthstaff@gmail.com.

Latest Posts

Scroll To Top