Jorge Rivas

Breaking News: LAUSD Students Being Arrested for Protesting Layoffs

Close to 400 Los Angeles Unified School District students are marching to the district’s headquarters to protest teacher layoffs. CutsHurtKids twitter feed is reporting four Black students have been arrested and removed from the premises.

Earlier in the week students from the Santee Education Complex marched to the headquarters building and yesterday, a few miles south, about 350 students from West Adams Prep and Manual Arts High School in South Los Angeles walked out. Students are protesting budget cuts that could lay off up to 2,500 instructors.

Dennis Danziger, a teacher at Venice High School, says “9th and 11th grade English classes are mandated by law to not exceed 20 students”. If 2,500 teachers are laid off, “next year [classes] will be ballooning to 35 to 38. Our classes of 35 will mushroom to 42 or more” he says. At the current rate, Venice High School has a 55% drop out rate. Danzigers says “If LAUSD fires teachers, APs, deans, college counselors, and librarians, and axes arts and vocational programs, those dropout numbers are likely to soar, sending undereducated teens into a national job market that’s losing more than 15,000 jobs a day.”

According to LAUSD District Profiles, 92.3% of the district are students of color.

Images via CutsHurtKids

Posted at 12:03 PM, May 22, 2009 in Education | Permalink | View Comments