Students ‘die-in’ protest school closures

Silent rally outside mayor’s office against funding cuts

Advocates and students held a silent “die-in” protest outside Mayor Martin Walsh’s office Nov. 19 to rally against gun violence, school underfunding and the recently proposed closures of several Boston public schools.

Organized by Monica Cannon-Grant, founder of the nonprofit Violence in Boston Inc., about 100 students gathered outside City Hall at 1:30 p.m., holding signs that asked, “How many more?” and “Am I next?” before proceeding to enter the building and sit outside the mayor’s office on the fifth floor for 43 minutes  one minute dedicated to each of the 43 victims of fatal gun violence in Boston this year so far.

Protest organizer, Monica Cannon-Grant hands out posters to students outside City Hall. photo: Catherine Mcgloin

“Enough is enough,” said Cannon-Grant to the crowd gathered on City Hall Plaza, many of whom were students from the Excel Academy in Chelsea, the first groups of students to arrive at the protest. “We’re tired of thoughts, we’re tired of prayers, we’re tired of hearings. We want action,” she said.

Anti-gun violence advocates from March Forward Mass, Black Lives Matter Boston and Teen Empowerment also attended the “die-in” to support the collective’s demands: fully-funded public education; a reversal of the decision to close the West Roxbury Academy, the Urban Science Academy and the McCormack Middle School in Dorchester; the creation of a youth-led violence prevention plan; funding for youth employment; and support for those traumatized or affected by gun violence.

On the link between gun violence and school closures or underfunding, Cannon-Grant said, “My belief is that they’re in direct correlation with each other.”

“When you close schools that occupy predominantly young people of color, they’re often funneled into other schools that are already over-populated, and some of them give up altogether and decide not to show up, which means there’ll be more young people on the streets,” she told the Banner. “Every time this city proposes cuts, communities of color take the hardest hit.”

The state of education

A report released by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center in Boston this summer showed that the state was underfunding public education by $1 billion a year.

BPS officials announced in October the closure of the West Roxbury Academy and the Urban Science Academy, which share a building in West Roxbury, that was deemed unsafe by the city’s Inspectional Services Department. The McCormack Middle School in Dorchester is also set to close and students at the McCormack will be re-assigned to Excel High School in South Boston, which will expand to accommodate the middle school students. Both decisions are part of the second phase of BuildBPS, the city’s ten-year, $1 billion investment plan for refurbishing and modernizing BPS schools.

Hoping to secure a meeting with the mayor, Cannon-Grant said BPS students had not been prevented by school staff from participating but were told that they may be penalized. She said students had the option to “die in” at their schools and livestream their individual protests, rather than risk the consequences of joining them at City Hall.

One student allowed to participate by staff at Chelsea’s Excel Academy, was 15-year-old Sarah Kehli, a former student at Dorchester Collegiate Academy Charter School before it was forced to close in 2016. “If we’re not going to get support from the government,” she said, “it’s the youth’s job to speak up and make a change.”

“I think the best way to do that is with the young people speaking up against what’s wrong, because most of the power, whether you believe it or not, is with the young people,” said Kehli. “If we can stand up together as one, I feel like we can beat all these bigger problems. We got this.”