BROOKLYN, N.Y., June 22 — “At a time when political attacks are met with little response, what you all are doing there gives others the example needed to fight back!” This was the message sent from a teacher in New Jersey to those involved in the struggle at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, and a reminder of how our political work can inspire other workers and students.
As reported in last week’s CHALLENGE (6/22), more than 150 students and staff demonstrated in front of Clara Barton to protest the investigation of two communist teachers who attended a union rally with students in Washington, DC, last fall. It’s no accident that communists are being targeted by the Department of Education (DoE). Communists build class struggle and class consciousness. We struggle to win our class to see its power so that we can build a mass party to fight for revolution. At this rally, the largest and most visible action at the school this year, we did begin to see our strength.
In our continuing efforts to build the Party, more than 500 copies of CHALLENGE were distributed at Clara Barton last week. Students greeted the paper with enthusiasm. They read it carefully, line by line. There was a lot of discussion about the cover story — why did CHALLENGE call principal Forman a racist pig? Some thought that we needed to provide a more thorough explanation of why we regard him as racist. The ensuing discussions both clarified that point (see below) and also addressed a broader one: that capitalist schools can never serve the needs of working-class students. Students also began to wear 700 buttons with the slogan: “SCHOOLS NOT JAILS”.
Forman is a willing agent of the DoE. His job is to exert control over the students while implementing the DOE’s budget cuts and other tools of inequality. In a school system that is more than 70 percent black and Latino, these cuts are inherently racist. A decade after the Campaign for Fiscal Equity first won its case against the glaring funding disparities between city and suburban schools, the cutbacks continue to get worse each year.
At Clara Barton, the systematic racism in U.S. education is especially obvious. Forman was previously a leader of two other schools that closed after he led them to fail. His move to Clara Barton is a clear signal that the DOE doesn’t care about the students at this school. Several classes are still taught out-of-license by teachers with inadequate training. Forman has shown no interest in creating more challenging classes in the social studies department. The same room once used for student leadership classes is now designated for detention. Instead of empowering students, he’d rather punish them.
In particular, the principal has done nothing for the huge population of students from Haiti at Clara Barton. The Haitian Club’s former advisor found himself repeatedly harassed after the activist group organized anti-racist assemblies and debates. Forman has obstructed the creation of a soccer team, which these students — among many others — have long wanted. The fact is, students from Haiti face harsher discipline than other students at Barton, and often feel picked on and harassed.
So there is absolutely nothing positive the racist Forman has done for Clara Barton.
Cutting Bagels A ‘Security Breach’?
In the middle of Regents week, as graduating seniors waited to have their exams graded, there was another attack on teaching staff. Forman used a surveillance camera to determine who had brought a bread knife into the teachers’ workroom to cut bagels, supposedly a rules violation. This teacher was called in for a disciplinary meeting, although Forman claimed that he was only “gathering information.” We boldly challenged him in this meeting by wearing a sticker produced that weekend: “Here is MY bagel knife! Now I’ve created a security breach too!” The principal ultimately backed down. But this small victory will not be the end of this war. After all, we know what the real “violation” is: our political organizing in the school.
Forman has made it clear that he will stop at nothing to lash back. He has shown us that the same measures used to oppress students — like the cameras installed throughout the school — can and will be used against teachers, too.
The principal began by attacking communists in October and is now moving against anyone who will stand up or speak out for their students. This pattern of harassment is not limited to Clara Barton, of course. It’s part of the DOE’s bigger plan to crack down on teachers, especially any who fight back. The two communist teachers received an unsatisfactory rating towards the end of the school year. They are continuing to fight the principal’s harassment. Throughout the system, investigators are being called in over the most trivial incidents while thousands of teachers face layoffs. The DOE is attempting to keep us in retreat just when we need to mount a more militant offensive.
We need to follow the advice from a veteran teacher: “We have to keep up the fight! They don’t know us if they think we’re backing down. We better make people see that an injury to one is an injury to all, and they will be next if they don’t stand up now!”J