Afro-Netizen: Two L.A. charter school teachers lose their jobs over a planned Black History Month presentation

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Two L.A. charter school teachers lose their jobs over a planned Black History Month presentation

By Carla Rivera
Staff Writer
L.A. Times

(Originally published on March 19, 2007)

Administrators at a Los Angeles charter school forbade students from reciting a poem about civil rights icon Emmett Till during a Black History Month program recently, saying his story was unsuitable for an assembly of young children.

Teachers and students said the administration suggested that the Till case — in which the teenager was beaten to death in Mississippi after allegedly whistling at a white woman — was not fitting for a program intended to be celebratory, and that Till's actions could be viewed as sexual harassment.

The decision by Celerity Nascent Charter School leaders roiled the southwest Los Angeles campus and led to the firing of seventh-grade teacher Marisol Alba and math teacher Sean Strauss, who had signed one of several letters of protest written by the students.

The incident highlights the tenuous job security for mostly nonunion teachers in charter schools, which are publicly financed but independently run. California has more than 600 charter schools, and their ranks continue to swell. According to the California Teachers Assn., staff at fewer than 10% of charter schools are represented by unions.

"I never thought it would come to this," said Alba, who helped her students prepare the Till presentation, in which they were going to read a poem and lay flowers in a circle. "I thought the most that would happen to me [after the event was canceled] is that I'd get talked to and it would be turned into a learning and teaching experience."

School officials refused to discuss the particulars of the teachers' firings but said the issue highlights the difficulty of providing positive images for students who are often bombarded by negative cultural stereotypes.

"Our whole goal is how do we get these kids to not look at all of the bad things that could happen to them and instead focus on the process of how do we become the next surgeon or the next politician," said Celerity co-founder and Executive Director Vielka McFarlane. "We don't want to focus on how the history of the country has been checkered but on how do we dress for success, walk proud and celebrate all the accomplishments we've made."

McFarlane said details of the Till case were too graphic for an assembly that included kindergartners. The principal, Grace Canada, could not be reached for comment. McFarlane, speaking for the school, said her review of the incident did not support the teachers' allegations that Canada had used the term sexual harassment to describe Till's behavior.

Afro-Netizen on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 at 01:25 PM in Publisher's blog | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c0dc653ef00e55053df7f8834

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Two L.A. charter school teachers lose their jobs over a planned Black History Month presentation:

The comments to this entry are closed.

Afro-Netizen

MSM Newsfeeds

Recent Posts

Twitter Updates

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Two L.A. charter school teachers lose their jobs over a planned Black History Month presentation

TrackBack

Comments

Site Search

Twitter Updates

Categories

Dimensions

More . . .

aN blogroll

Thanx for stopping by!