Indict the Detroit School Board on Endangering Students!

Oct 22, 2007

The Detroit Public School system has been in the process of being dismantled over the last number of years –all with the help of the district’s School Board.

Among those opposing these policies are two Detroit teachers, Heather Miller and Steve Conn; and Marie Thornton, a School Board member with a base in the Detroit community.

Today all three of these people face bogus charges brought by a hostile School Board president, some Board members and some of their supporters.

Marie Thornton has recently been brought up on assault charges, accused of shoving a guy at a school board meeting in September. Never mind the fact that for months she had been constantly insulted and threatened so much by this same man, a kind of hatchet man for the School Board president, that she had to take out a personal protection order against him.

Interestingly enough, this same man, Loyce Lester, is himself involved in a tax scandal. According to the Detroit News, he has falsified documents, pretending to have a degree from a school he never attended.

The two teachers were placed on administrative leave last June 25th, charged with endangering students by encouraging them to participate in a May 1st march and rally to protest school closings. If these teachers were so dangerous, why were they allowed to teach their students for another seven weeks of the school year before being charged!

No, if anyone poses a danger to students, it is the very officials of the School Board who have left students in decrepit buildings, and forced students to face yet more crowded conditions by closing still more schools.

It is the very officials who have looked at school monies as if it’s in their own wallets, doling out outrageous contracts to their friends, or overpaying for buildings, while closing schools and literally giving the buildings away to charter schools and other groups.

The School Board president and his cronies should be brought up on charges!