Saluting the parents at Lazear Elementary
We believe that parents have the power to enact real change in schools, and perhaps no school reflects that more than the Lazear Elementary in Oakland. The empowering story of parents taking a school district to task by pulling their kids out of school after a teacher, who had accumulated numerous serious complaints but is not being removed from the classroom, can be found here. The teacher was reported to be taking smoke breaks during class, and, as recently as two weeks before the strike, had picked up a child by his collar to reprimand him, leaving bruises around the child’s neck. After a year of complaints and no action, the parents took to the picket line, and demanded that the teacher be removed. Of the 300 students in the school, only 60 arrived for school the day of the strike. And the school district took notice.
Lazear Elementary School has been the site of an attention grabbing education strike before, when in 1995 over 500 students were kept out of class for three weeks to protest the abysmal condition of facilities at the school. The New York Times reports in June of 1995 here.
These Oakland parents are the pioneers of what we are working for today. In 1995, they started a parent revolution. They were tired of bureaucracy, tired of waiting for good educators, and tired of not being heard. And the nation took notice. Olga Gonzalez, a lead organizer in the 2010 campaign, spoke to this at the rally, “When we unite, it's for a good cause. We're not disruptive parents. Our children deserve the best quality of teaching." We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves. Parents are the most powerful vessel for real change in our schools because they are motivated by a single focus, their children. And, just as Olga said, parents will not stop fighting for great education.
This powerful story gives parents everywhere a reason to believe that bureaucracy cannot, and will not, stop education reform in California. The teacher has since been placed on administrative leave, and the parents are satisfied with the results. But Olga Gonzalez and the other protesters wonder why it took such a drastic act to call administrators to action, “"We didn't want to pull our kids out of school. I think this was the only way we were heard.” If we had schools and school districts that were actually created to serve children, parents would never have to pull their kids out of school in order to get an abusive teacher removed from the classroom.
We would like to thank the parents of Lazear Elementary School for being the pioneers of this movement in 1995, and demonstrating its power in 2010. Ultimately, parents and teachers can and must march together for reform, as they are at Locke High School, Washington DC, and many other locations. But parents only get one shot are giving our children a great education, and we will do whatever it takes to ensure that they do.
