Philadelphia School Teachers To Participate In Black Lives Matter Week of Action

Black Lives Matter’s week of action will be hosted by Philadelphia teachers.

Black Lives Matter Coming To Philadelphia Schools

Philadelphia, PA –  A Philadelphia organization of teachers, the Caucus of Working Educators, is convincing Philadelphia teachers to participate in their “Black Lives Matter Week of Action,”  which begins January 23, 2017.

According to CBS Philadelphia,  Caucus Member Tamara Anderson said that their goal is to inspire the next generation of leaders in the community.   She said “We would like to bring attention to the 13 guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement,”  and noted that often teachers and students attend BLM rallies but have no further opportunity to connect and create further dialogue.

Another Caucus member, Amy Roat, said that Black Lives Matter’s ideology is an affirmation of black people’s contribution to society and that it’s important to recognize their part in history.  Inclusion of this Week of Action would act as an extension of the district/high school’s mandatory African American history requirement but would also look at “restorative justice, empathy, and loving engagement … diversity and globalism, transgender-affirming, queer-affirming and collective value …” according to The College Fix.

An exact number of schools that will be participating in this week of action is not known yet.  One reporter asked Tamara Anderson about the reason that the Black Lives Matter movement began and she stated largely due to the shooting of Michael Brown by “a rogue cop” but that the 13 guiding principles of BLM were written in response to the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

Caucus members are also urging Philadelphia teachers to wear BLM shirts and buttons during the week of action. They also list as a “justification” for the request for teachers to participate is that “bringing issues of racial justice into the classroom … affirms the identities of our students.”

The request follows an event in October, 2016, where 2,000 teachers wore “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts on the district’s day of “unity”  to “highlight problems black students face as a result of institutional racism, such as lower graduation rates and higher suspension rates than white students.”  That event had the blessing of the Seattle teachers’ union and although not an outright endorsement, a “statement of encouragement” from the district.

And it follows another unpleasant event where a veteran special education teacher in the St. Paul, Minnesota public schools was forced to retire after he angered a BLM organizer.  This teacher, who taught for 16 years, was called a “white supremacist” by the organizer after he posted on social media that students  “won’t quit gaming, setting up fights, [and] selling drugs.  The teacher was initially placed on unpaid leave by the district and required to attend “equity” training.  After his suspension, he was not allowed to resume teaching but was given a job of “subbing” around the district.

Black Lives Matter is made up of political organizations with political goals that most people would disagree with, including disrupting the “nuclear family” structure (see Black Villages), taxpayer-funded reparations for black people (see Reparations), and the elimination of charter schools (see Invest-Divest.) If you are unfamiliar with the Movement 4 Black Lives website we linked to, that’s the coalition of over 50 Black Lives Matter organizations which is receiving $100 million in donations to push their political goals. This is the political message that the school district is promoting when they allow “Black Lives Matter” messaging.

Should our children be taught that the politics of Black Lives Matter in school, and that BLM members are role models? There are plenty of black leaders and organizations that are role models and examples of leadership that the youth of today need.  Not this anti-police group.

Also, BLM should get their facts straight.  Michael Brown was not shot and killed by “a rogue cop.”  The police officer in question was acquitted by a grand jury and cleared during a federal investigation which determined that the officer was being violently assaulted by Michael Brown, and that he was defending his life.

Do you think that Black Lives Matter belongs in our schools? Let us know on our Facebook page or in the comments below.