On Thursday, February 19th, Dare To Struggle attended the East Central ISD Board of Trustees meeting to shame school administrators for their complicity in the political repression of students.
During the February 13th walkouts, students bravely called for an end to deportations with urgency and passion. They courageously put the needs of the kidnapped ahead of themselves by shutting down business as usual, leaving school grounds and refusing to normalize the kidnapping and detention of their neighbors.
East Central admin, and specifically Assistant Principal Daniel Christian, met this act of bravery with utter cowardice, raining down harsh punishments on students. From expulsions and suspensions to sending one student to alternative disciplinary school.
In their actions, administration has squarely placed themselves on the side of DHS and ICE, effectively doing the job of repressing dissent for the feds and jeopardizing the futures of their students in the process.
Inside the board meeting, we spoke out about the unjust repression students are facing and pressured the board to answer why the school administration had given such extreme punishments.
In another act of cowardice, the Board quickly shut down our questions and had us escorted out of this public event by police officers that were in attendance.
They claimed we had not followed the proper procedures to be allowed speak.
The shady School Board outright ignored the content of what we were saying and avoided addressing their demonstrated complicity in the deportation machine.
However, in the days following this confrontation, several harsh punishments were reversed, demonstrating that standing up against repression is effective and necessary, but the work is not done. Currently some students are still in ISS and are facing stains on their educational records
Keep up the pressure on East Central until all punishments are reversed and expunged from student records!
If the school administrators repressed you for walking out, or if you’re a lawyer looking to stand with the people, hit us up. Come to the forum against political repression in Austin on February 28th. You do not have to go through this repression alone.
Donate to support activists building a movement against ICE here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-activists-building-a-movement-against-ice/cl/s?lang=en_US
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