Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2004
Student walkout, posted at 9:10 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Exciting day at school today. I've been hearing about a rumored walkout today in support of teachers. I thought it was a bit silly, though nice. That was until yesterday, when the governor deemed the school system's financial plan as insufficient to score the loan they had offered to bail city schools out. This means things could get real bloody real soon, and that optimism that the news of the loan garnered has dissipated to my fatalistic view that I'll be laid off very soon.So, now it seems that the kids really do have something to protest, even though before the news yesterday it didn't seem like it. Kids walked out of classrooms at 9am this morning, and I hear shouting outside. They say they're going to march to the state board of education, demanding money for their teachers.
This school has a long and storied history of civil disobedience, so it's nice to see the kids as politically active. Not enough are, and only three of my students walked out, but I teach 9th graders, and their political mindset hasn't formed that much yet. I applaud them for not leaving just to get out of class, and I really believe that at least 2 of the 3 who did walk out had the best interests of the teachers at heart. The other, I think he left just to get out of class.
Some teachers are not giving the names of students who walked out. I told my students that an act of civil disobedience is an applaudable action, as long as the consequences are realized beforehand. That's part of the deal. Otherwise, it's meaningless. One kid who left started a signup sheet and wanted people to know that he left. He checked with the Principal beforehand, and the Principal said that the consequences would be dependent on in what manner the walkout was staged. He's trying out for baseball (one of 42 kids trying out for 20 uniformed spots), so I hope he's not suspended. I doubt he will be though, as he's a good kid who I'm sure quietly walked out without causing the disruption of anyone else's instructional time.
In all honesty, I'm not sure I'll give the names of the kids who did walk out. We'll see. I might defer to the veteran teachers on this one; I should have for the paycut vote last week and am trying to learn my lesson. I've never lived through what happens to kids who stage an act of civil disobedience, and for all I know, the book is unfairly thrown at them.
Nothing at all will surprise me about school or this school system. Over the weekend, someone drilled a one-foot diameter hole into a wall in the main office, breaking into the safe. The hole is so small that it seems someone made the hole, and made a child go through it.
It's all so weird. I hope this is the weirdest, worst year of my teaching career, because I don't know if I could handle much else.