It goes to show you that people will do anything when it comes to putting on for justice. Even if it comes down to starvation! According to the Huffington Post, eight Chicago protestors ranging from priests, mothers, fathers and grandparents have stopped eating for 34 days to save a beloved high school!
Jitu Brown, Anna Jones, Irene Robinson, April Stogner, Rev. Robert Jones, Dr. Monique Redeaux, Marc Kaplan, and Prudence Brown have decided to go without eating after learning that Walter H. Dyett Highschool was forced to shutdown last year because of detrimental concerns to the schools population and poor academic records.
Even though the hunger strike started out on August 17th, 1500 people strong, due to health concerns many of the protesters had to drop out.
The Chicago Board of Education may plan to reopen the school, but only to change the academic school into an art-focused one.
Well, these protestors aren’t settling for that because instead they are fighting for the school to be reopened into a “green technology” school instead as well as renaming the school to Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology Highschool.
Jitu Brown in particular, who is the national director for the Journey for Justice Alliance, believes the school is more than an art focused academic, but a way to set a future for young leaders to become scientists, doctors, and global-citizens.
“I’m on this hunger strike because we were rendered voiceless,” said Jitu Brown. “We met with every bureaucrat, attended every sham hearing and smiled when we should have roared. We have a right to a significant voice in the education of the children we are raising, in the decisions about how our tax dollars are spent. Bronzeville has spoken. Time for the decision-makers to listen.”
Let’s chat below, do you think that the city of Chicago will reopen the school?
Sources Sited: Huffington Post
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/55fb076ce4b08820d917c965
TSR Intern: Charise W. !! @planet_reese on IG!!
