Students Protest GRPS Policies
About 60-70 students gathered yesterday outside the administrative offices of the Grand Rapids Public Schools to protest two issues the students don’t think are in their best interest.
One issue is a proposal to consolidate all four of the GRPS high schools into one large graduation ceremony. The students we talked to said that they want the tradition of walking on stage with their school to get a diploma.
A half hour later, during the GRPS school board meeting, a student liaison to the board asked a question about this proposal to change graduation ceremonies. GRPS Superintendent Taylor said that this was a “rumor” and that he guarantees that students will walk and get a diploma, but he never said that each school will have its own ceremony.
The second issue that the students were protesting was the recent announcement that the school district will offer more online classes. Students told us that this means that some teachers will lose their jobs and they don’t support that. In addition, as Jakayla Holstein, a student at union said, “lots of students can’t concentrate as well with instruction from a computer screen, they need a real live teacher.” Danny Santiago, also a student at Union said that students are already skipping class and he thinks that having fewer teachers and class online will only increase the amount of student absenteeism.
However, if you look at the local news coverage from last night’s protest, most of the major commercial news agencies did not even address this second issue.
The WOOD TV 8 story makes it sound as if the students cause for concern “was rooted in confusion.” In the WZZM 13 story, more time is given to Superintendent Taylor and other school staff that to the students grievances. The WXMI 17 story states that the school district hasn’t come to a decision on the matter school graduation ceremonies.
The only major local commercial news agency to mention that the students were also protesting the issue of online classes was the Grand Rapids Press, which stated that the students were “saying they deserve to be taught by human beings.”
In addition, none of the news agencies bothered to ask the students how they organized this protest and what means they used to get the word out. One of the organizers, Paris Lara, told us that had just found out on Friday about these proposals, so he and others began to call people, text them and used a Facebook page that was created called the Grand Rapids Public Schools Student Union. Several of the students we talked to said they would keep pressuring the GRPS administration until their concerns were heard.
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- Parents, community members and students blast GRPS administration « Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy
- GRPS teachers, students, parents and community members speak up at Board of Education meetings to demand that teachers get paid what they deserve | Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy
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i think that they need to put this all to an end, and just give up; seriously they dont need to cut teachers and put kids online and also combine graduations; well i tell u what now; if they did that then not many people will graduate, cuz many parents will put them down, cuz they wouldnt want to go to a graduation will alot of hetic comotion,
I applaud the GRPSSU. This early activism encourages healthy political and organizational activism in a democratic environment. This is how it should be done. Starting now, these young minds are holding true and fighting for issues that are affecting their lives – these are the leaders of tomorrow.
the GRPSSU will be hosting another protest tomorrow at 8:30a.m. in front of Ottawa Hills High school Saturday, March 20th, 2010.
As a parent of GRPS student, I am concerned about relying on a failed system to education my children. Yet as a single mom, my choices are limited.
I am tired of sitting through meetings only to find that private donors are giving money to back expansions, fueling displacement of students. Then at the same meeting the lack of funds are fueling cuts program cuts, mass layoffs and school closures.
It all feels out of control.
correction: relying on a failed system to *educate
Also a parent of a GRPS student and proudly so. Bernard Taylor and the current proposals are disgraceful. My child is excited about learning, likes her (Union HS) teachers, has a good GPA, and yet wants to drop out and be home-schooled because of things like the miserably-failing online classes and the “letting go” of good teachers. She has AP classes that are not at all AP, classes where there aren’t enough chairs for the number of students in the class. It’s not the students’ fault, not the teachers’ fault. I see students who just want to learn, and I see teachers eager to teach them. Students don’t want to be treated like cattle, or dollar signs. Teachers just want the professional respect they deserve. The way my daughter sees it, if her classes = sitting in front of the computer all day, with no “real” teacher directing her study, she may as well stay home. We have the internet here, too. And the public library. It shouldn’t just be about money. There are places on this earth where school = sitting outside under a tree following a living educator who cares about imparting knowledge to kids who want to better themselves. I’d rather my student sit under a tree and learn from a dedicated teacher than sit in a concrete-block room with 90 other kids, pushing buttons like lab-rats in response to prompts from whatever software program won the contract/bid, no doubt based on on being the cheapest alternative. How do you ask a computer a meaningful question? How do you debate in a classroom where everyone is staring at a glowing screen? How do you tell the computer you just don’t understand the concept and would like it explained in a different manner because not everyone learns the same way at the same pace in response to the same type of instruction? Shame on you, GRPS. I can’t imagine any board memebers actually have children in the system they are bent on ruining. If this is the best you can come up with, you should step down in disgrace.