SUMMER MOVIE RE-RUNS: 'Out You Go!' video of May 22, 2013 Chicago Board of Education meeting airs for Fourth of July showing police state tactics to suppress dissent during the Board meetings and censorship of the TV broadcast of the meeting afterward.... Courtesy of Labor Beat
Out You Go! is now on Cable TV as well as available through You Tube. In "Out You Go!", Labor Beat investigates two specific incidents at the recent and notorious Chicago Board of Education meeting of May 22, 2013, when it asphyxiated the greatest number of public schools in U.S. history. Using exclusive footage, we examine what happened when two respected community activists at different points during that board meeting were physically manhandled out of the meeting -- for speaking the truth. We interview them to hear what they experienced during these affronts, and what it was they were trying to say and why they were saying it. The URL for "Out You Go!" for those who can't get a hotlink is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyVrSQURGH4&feature=youtu.be.
As of the Fourth of July 2013, the "Out You Go!" video had 181 viewings. Given how important the story is not only for Chicago, but for anyone who wants to understand the vicious hypocrisy of corporate school reform under former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (and the Board of Education and Chief Education Officer he has appointed using his mayoral control powers) needs to watch "Out You Go!"
During the first "Public Participation" speaker at the May 22, 2013, Board of Education meeting, Shannon Bennett of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) began to speak in opposition to the Board's plans (which were on the agenda) to close 50 of the city's real public schools and co-locate and "turnaround" another dozen. Bennett's experience in the community and with the public schools exceeds that of all the members of the school board, but almost as soon as he began speaking CPS Security moved in and dragged him from the podium, snatched the microphone out of his hand, and dragged to podium back from the railing. Bennett can be seen speaking above while the TV monitor shows the Board's secretary staring into vacant space, as if nothing were happening. The re-focus of the video on Estala Beltran was part of the Board's plan to black out any protests. The official TV version of the meeting didn't show a second of Bennett's remarks. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.And it is back up on Chicago Cable TV for those who can get that service. The schedule is below, along with an encore rewind: Advisory Referendum on Elected School Board victory from Nov. 2012.
Chicago - CAN TV cable tv Channel 19:
Thurs., July 4, 9:30 pm
Fri., July 5, 4:30 pm
Thurs., July 11, 9:30 pm
Fri., July 12, 4:30 pm
Evanston - ECTV cable tv Channel 6:
View Live Stream at: link
Mon., Aug. 12, 5:30 pm
Wed., Aug. 14, 7:00 pm
Sat., Aug. 17, 12:30 am
Mon., Aug. 19, 5:30 pm
Wed., Aug. 21, 7:00 pm
Sat., Aug. 24, 12:30 am
In both cases CPS, in its version of the meeting they put on cable TV, edits out these scenes of physically removing speakers, so the public would forget what happened. We show you exactly where these edits were made.
We watch as Erica Clark, a CPS parent and important Parents 4 Teachers activist for a number of years, explains why she decided to read the names of all the 49 schools being closed. George Schmidt, editor of Substancenews.net, who narrates us through parts of the video, notes that this was the only time during the meeting when the closed schools were actually named. When the board finally referred to the schools as they voted them out of existence, they only gave them names like "EX 9, EX 10". Impersonal numbers like those tattooed on the arms of Buchenwald prisoners. And they didn't even let Erica finish reading all the names.
We also watch what happened when Shannon Bennett, Deputy Director of the highly respected Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), has the microphone yanked out of his hand by CPS Security, the podium dragged away from him and himself shuffled out of the meeting by a phalanx of guards. Shannon Bennett was in the middle of telling the board that they were not legitimate and had no right to toss Chicago school children onto gang-controlled streets to walk to schools now further away. We get his version of what happened and what he was prevented from fully stating.
Erica Clark notes that what happened at the May 22 board meeting will now only drive home more forcefully that the era of a Mayor-appoint school board in Chicago must come to an end.
(For the Chicago cablecast of this show -- beginning on July 4 on CAN TV Channel 19) Labor Beat will also replay our video about the successful city-wide advisory referendum for an elected school board, which got an overwhelming 87% YES vote last November.)
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