Seattle Press on Line - South End Students Demand Respect

South End Students Demand Respect

By Sara Longley

A Dunlap Elementary student at the walkout. Sara Longley photo.

Jun 06, 2002 -- Chanting "We want books!" students from five south end schools walked out of school on May 29. They carried signs with slogans like "Save our Schools Now!" and "The School Board must Serve the Community." When they reached the intersection of Rainier Avenue South and South Henderson Street, the group of around 300 students streamed into the street and blocked traffic for close to an hour.

The walkout was organized by Save Our Schools (SOS), a group of parents, students and other community members concerned about the plight of many south end schools. The five schools involved in the protest were Rainier Beach and South Lake high schools and Dunlap, Brighton and Graham Hill elementary schools. It was the high school students who reached the intersection first and rallied in the street. Later, a march of elementary school students, teachers and parents arrived from Dunlap.

The students were protesting a general lack of sufficient books, working computers, and extracurricular programs at their schools. "We want what North End Schools Have," read one sign, "Books, Good Teachers, Music, Arts, and most of all, R.E.S.P.E.C.T." At Rainier Beach, homework assignments are often photocopied out of textbooks for students to take home. "In our computer lab, like half the computers don't work," said Calista Phair, a sophomore at Rainier Beach High School and member of SOS.

While the protest was partly about material needs such as books and working computers, it also was firmly rooted in a perceived institutional bias on the part of the Seattle School District. "Rainier Beach has no arts, no band, no books," said Phair, adding, "We ought to be treated like the white schools in the north end."

Frustrated students take their demands to the street. Sara Longley photo.

The pent-up indignation of the speakers at a community rally that evening was palpable. Beatrice Clark, Phair's grandmother, spoke for Rainier Beach High School. "The District has been very slow in responding," she said, adding that administrators had known the school was in trouble for several months. "When we're having academic problems, failures, kids going to the same class three or four years, to me that's a crisis." She said the lack of books appalled her. "How can you run a school without textbooks? That's like going to McDonald's and they tell you they're out of hamburgers. You'd say, 'I thought this was a hamburger joint.' Well, I thought this was an educational joint. We want some books for our kids, and we want technology, and we don't want to have to send our kids to quality schools in the north end. We want some quality schools right here in our neighborhood." Her remarks were greeted with loud applause from the 150 students and community members assembled in the new Rainier Beach Performing Arts Center--a building that gets little use, due to the lack of a performing arts program at the school.

Lynn Steinberg, Seattle Public Schools spokesperson, said the responsibility is with the schools to provide specific programs. "Decisions about how money is spent are made at the school level," she said, adding that "the district spends more money per student at Rainier Beach than at any other high school." She said there are many reasons for the lack of books: some popular classes have added sections, so that the students outnumber the books. In one science class, she said, a decision was made to wait for the next school year to buy new books instead of buying books now and then having to replace them next year.

The district installed a new principal, North Beach Elementary's popular Greg Imel, at Dunlap Elementary. While acknowledging his good record, parents and teachers were unhappy with the district's process that shut them out of the decision. According to SOS, the community was allowed input into the hiring of Imel's replacement at North Beach. "It's all about the 'isms,'" said Tamu Nyasha, mother of a Dunlap first grader. "Classism, racism--even a little is too much."

In 2004, South Lake high school will have to move out of its current home at the South Shore school building. The small alternative school will be making way for the New School, a public K-8 school that will be mainly privately funded.

Beverly Goodman, parent of a South Lake student, took issue with the District's one-sided decision-making process. "We were told that we would no longer be able to remain in the building, that it was useless for us as a community to try and reverse the decision to place a corporate-funded school in that location," she said at the rally. "When the question was asked 'where does South lake fit into the process?' the people that we elected, that we trust to make decisions that affect our children's education, responded that they forgot South Lake." She added, "Who is in charge of our public education--private enterprise, or us, the community? As students and parents at South Lake we are not asking, we are demanding, that our school remain in this current location once that building has been renovated."

Steinberg said, "The community is telling us they want this school. We have a waiting list already for a school that isn't even open yet." She added, "Superintendent Olchefske is absolutely committed to a thriving South Lake High School." She said one public meeting has been held and another is in the works to gather community input on the relocation of South Lake High.

As the students of the five schools get ready to leave for summer break, one thing is sure: Parents and students will continue to voice their demands to the Seattle School District. During the walkout, SOS organizer Don Alexander said, "This does not stop here."

Reader Comments

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Elaine	Sep 15, 2002	Heberlein	student
Thank you for covering this, I had trouble finding information. I would like to write an article about this topic for Ballard High Schools newspaper.


Calista Phair	Mar 24, 2003	425-277-7837	student 11thgrade at Renton Hi
I'm calista phair the one student who organized the walk out, if you have any concerns our questions feel free to call.