Tukwila Six - Solidarity for Teachers - Student Walkout - Rally

Thanks for making this video. It's really inspirational. I regret that I wasn't there to support the teachers, but this video makes clear how much these students are learning. The segment about the teacher's husband who is an Iraq vet was especially moving.

Here is an earlier Indy Media Post that has a lot of contact information for the Tukwila Six
I personally called the principle and vice principle (got voice mail) on Monday 11/26


((1))  http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/11/369098.shtml


((2))  http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/11/368961.shtml

---> Corporate Media has their "insider news story" here:
((3))  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2004041566_tukwila29m.html

((4)) Google Search link here:
 link to www.google.com


More video footage on this Indy post/link (right here) coming within 24hrs

This movement is being "tracked by"
 http://zebra3report.tripod.com/joeanybodyshome/id106.html
To keep the peace community informed and to show my "solidarity"
...I will be archiving all "Tukwila Six" information on my website to the best of my one man reporting ability

~joe

UPDATE--Teachers Threatened with Termination for Anti-war Student Walkout
PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!!!
(new information 11/29 on the principle still being on the warpath)
READ --> text below on how student peace activist had the cops called on them!
-----------------------------------------------------
***URGENT CALL FOR SOLIDARITY***

***CAMPAIGN UPDATES***

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..11/29/07... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
***CALL OR EMAIL TUKWILA SCHOOL DISTRICT***

On November 16th, more than 125 students from Foster High School in Tukwila, WA answered a nation-wide call for a student walk out protesting the war and military recruiters in schools. (See student-made video below) In response, the Tukwila School District threatened students with suspension, but their main target was teachers. Disciplinary investigations threaten the firing of SIX teachers and administration placed one of the six, Brett Rogers, on administrative leave. We put out a call for support for the Tukwila Six and students.
Hundreds of emails and phone calls of solidarity have had a MAJOR IMPACT on the Tukwila School Board.
At a Tukwila School Board meeting Tuesday the 25th, students and community members jam-packed the room, passionately demanding NO repression of students and DROP ALL DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDING AGAINST THE TUKWILA SIX! (See below for video clip)

Media coverage has brought a spotlight to Principal Ilgenfritz's REPRESSIVE instincts to the DEMOCRATIC EXPRESSION of students and against ACADEMIC FREEDOM of teachers.
Because of PUBLIC PRESSURE, the solidarity campaign has won a partial victory—popular teacher Brett Rogers was been TEMPORARILY REINSTATED Tuesday. However, the disciplinary investigations continue and some of the teachers are still in their probationary period, so pressure must be put on the school district to retain the Tukwila Six this year AND next. (See Seattle Times article below)
______________________________________________________
***WEDNESDAY UPDATE***
"Principle Ilgenfritz calls cops on peace activist students"

***WEDNESDAY UPDATE***
______________________________________________________

Also Wednesday, when students tried to meet at the Foster commons after school to discuss the crisis, the principal brought in eight police to break up and disperse the meeting. Student posters were torn down by the principal, and students were told that they are not allowed to hang up posters. Teachers have been told that they may not discuss the crisis with colleagues or students. One girl talking about teacher Brett Roger's situation was loudly threatened by Principal Ilgenfritz with suspension. All these incidents are blatant violations of students' and teachers' constitutional rights to free speach, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly!

The phone calls and emails must continue- this is not over. These teachers' livelihoods are still at stake and the students' rights are clearly under attack.
(More detailed information at bottom of email)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tukwila Teachers and Students Solidarity Committee URGENTLY requests that you again FLOOD the administration with phone calls and emails with the following DEMANDS
1. Fire NO teachers!
2. Drop all disciplinary investigations against teachers NOW!
3. KEEP ALL THE TEACHERS THE REST OF THIS YEAR AND NEXT YEAR!

4. When politicians lie to us and continue their oil-driven war against the people's will, student walkouts and other forms of civil disobedience are justified and necessary. SUPPORT THE STUDENTS' INITIATE. No discipline for any students who walked out and took a stand against this war!
5. End attacks on Foster Student Rights to Free Speech and Assembly.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please call or email NOW!


Foster HS Principal George Ilgenfritz: 1 (206) 901-7905
 ilgenfritzg@tukwila.wednet.edu

And Interim Superintendent Ethelda Burke: 1 (206) 901-8000, (206) 901-8006,

 burkee@tukwila.wednet.edu

Please CC these Tukwila School Board:

 mfertakis@comcast.net
 pmaltsberger2000@yahoo.com
 jasminkakujundzic@yahoo.com
 wahlsea@yahoo.com


Please send a copy of protest emails to us at

 tukwila.teachers.solidarity@hotmail.com so we can count how many protest emails have been sent in.

If they refuse to answer your call,
phone Foster HS Assistant Principal Daryl Wright 1 (206) 901-7902 and Foster HS Office Manager Darlene Aguiluz 1 (206) 901-7915.

VIDEOS:
Student-made Walkout Film:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGSDzDF7xoY
Footage on Foster Walkout, Tukwila Six and After School Board meeting:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrhRplEvW4w
KIRO 7:
 http://www.kirotv.com/education/14714796/detail.html (click where it says "video")

NorthWest Cable News:
 http://www.nwcn.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=196453

NEWS ARTICLES:
Seattle Times Article: "Protesting teacher back at Tukwila school" Thursday, November 29th
seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2004041566_tukwila29m.html
Seattle Post-Intelligence Nov. 16th Walkout Article:
seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/340003_peace17.html
FOUR articles on walkouts at:
socialistalternative.org

Further background information:
On Friday, November 16th, more than a 1,000 students in Washington State participated in a nation-wide student walkout to protest the war and military recruiters in schools. This included around 125+ students at Foster High School , just south of Seattle . Foster is part of the Tukwila School District , of which 71% of the student body is low-income and eligible for the free and reduced-cost school meals. Since the beginning of the Iraq War, the U.S. military has been assigning ever greater numbers of recruiters to lure young people into signing up for this bloody, costly and illegal quagmire in Iraq, especially in marginalized schools like Foster High School.
· With a "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2001 provision forcing principals to give up the private contact information of young people to military recruiters, students and teachers have the natural right to protest.
· With a bloody and illegal war, where the soldiers that are killed and maimed are disproportionately minorities and victims of the "poverty draft," students and teachers of Tukwila have the natural right to protest.
· With more than $500 billion dollars and the lives of more than a million Iraqis having been utterly wasted on a failed war, with schools in marginalized areas falling apart, we should all be protesting with the slogan: "Money for Schools—Not For War!"
· With 75% of the American people polling against the war according to the latest Washington Post poll, and a Democratic Congress still making excuses for why it can't cut off funding to bring the troops home, we must support the young people who speak out against their future being bombed away.
· And we MUST support their teachers whose only misconduct was making their lesson plans truly relevant to the lives of their students
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For further background on walkouts organized by Youth Against War and Racism, go to:

www.YAWR.org

To contact the Tukwila Teachers & Students Solidarity Committee

Email:  tukwilateachers@yahoo.com

Call: 253-573-9252

(Please leave a brief message and we will respond as soon as we are able).

-----------------------------------------
MORE BACKGROUND INFO:
-----------------------------------------


Foster is part of the Tukwila School District, of which 71% of the student body is low-income and eligible for the free and reduced-cost school meals. Since the beginning of the Iraq War, the U.S. military has been assigning ever greater numbers of recruiters to lure young people into signing up for this bloody, costly and illegal quagmire in Iraq, especially in marginalized schools like Foster High School.

The memo from Interim Superintendent to at least 6 teachers essentially says:
In the next couple days, we will summon you to a meeting because we are "investigating reports of possible misconduct relating to you in connection with the student walk-out." There could be disciplinary consequences pending completion of this investigation.
You are not to discuss "this matter with any District students or staff," or else you could be terminated.
You have the right to have a union representative present with you during the investigative interview in case you feel your rights might be violated.
The administration is clearly trying to isolate the teachers and students from one another to try to divide them and weaken them. They are trying to use the tactic of divide and rule. They are also blatantly violating the teachers' right to free speech.

The teachers have been careful to abide by the Interim Superintendent's directive not to talk with any District students or staff about these matters. But nothing in the Superintendent's letter said teachers could not talk with their union representatives or community supporters. In fact, the letter explicitly says they could talk with the union.
Some teachers who received letters were simply on their lesson planning hour and therefore were not scheduled to teach class when the student walkout happened. These teachers went outside just to see what was going on when the students walked out, but they did not walk out or promote the walkout. So the school has no evidence against some teachers who received the threatening letters.
It appears the administration is targeting these teachers in a political with-hunt because they have spoken their minds in the past over other issues. For example, two of these teachers were banned in the past from sending out school-wide emails because they spoke their minds in school-wide emails that the administrators did not like.
Iraq Veteran
The husband of one of the teachers who received the threatening letters is an Iraq veteran. He went to Foster High School on November 16th and spoke to the students from first-hand experience about the truth of the Iraq War that the government and corporate media are actively hiding from the American people, and he walked out with the students.
As the Iraq veteran left the building, he was confronted by a security guard who identified himself as a police officer/veteran/federal marshall who said: "Don't even start with me, I'm a veteran."
The school administration is disciplining a teacher whose husband is a veteran whose life was put at serious risk in Iraq and who has now turned against the war. This is very disrespectful to the veteran, his family, and the working-class students who are being forced to shoulder the burdens of this war. The school administrators are more concerned with trying to having power over teachers and students than letting the communities who have been hit the hardest by the war speak out against the war and the predatory military recruiters in their schools. This—after the American people voted the Democrats into Congress to end the war, but the Democrats are still making excuses about why they cannot cut off funds for the war and direct those funds toward education and other desperately needed social services. When the leaders of our country will not end this unjust war, then it becomes up to ordinary workers, parents, students, and soldiers to end the war.

The attendance secretary at the school also refused to excuse the absences of students who had permission slips signed by their parents to miss school, which is a flagrant violation of parent and student rights.
Principal George Ilgenfritz also told one student that she didn't know anything about war. (Ironically, the student is from an immigrant Somali family who has family in the war-torn country of Somalia.)
On the Tukwila School District's website, the following message has been posted by Interim Superintendent Ethelda Burke: "We believe in the historic mission of public education within our democracy... Our schools are expected to encourage and prepare students to be productive citizens. We believe the challenge is to transform every child - to give every student a chance to become an autonomous, thinking person and a self-governing citizen. We are all here to work together to provide the best education for the most prized commodity of our fine city - the students of the Tukwila School District."
Yet when the students participate in an act of peaceful civil disobedience in the best traditions of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement who challenged unjust segregation laws, now the Superintendent is hypocritically trying to discourage students from being "self-governing citizens" and standing up for what is right.
We need to match the determination of these courageous teachers, students and the Iraq veteran with all the support we can! Please take a few minutes now to call and email the Principal and Superintendent at the numbers and emails at the top of this email!
YouTube video of Foster High School student rally for peace: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOuLz3kKExI
Report on Washington State Nov. 16th student walkouts against the war:  http://yawr.org/nov16/seattle.html
Articles on Youth Against War and Racism student victories against military recruiters in schools:
 http://yawr.org/victory/victory.htm#tacoma
 http://yawr.org/victory/victory.htm#kennedy
 http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article13.php?id=611
Please forward this email widely to supportive organizations and individuals who might be able to help!


SAMPLE PROTEST LETTER:

Dear Principal Ilgenfritz,
I am writing to demand that the Tukwila School District support the initiative and moral fortitude
of students who took a stand against the effects of the Iraq war on their communities. The student
march and rally on November 16th were student-generated and entirely peaceful.

With a "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2001 provision forcing principals to give up the private
contact information of young people to military recruiters, students and teachers have the
natural right to protest.

With a bloody and illegal war, where the soldiers that are killed and maimed are
disproportionately minorities and victims of the "poverty draft," students and
teachers of Tukwila have the natural right to protest.

With more than $500 billion dollars and the lives of more than a million Iraqis
having been utterly wasted on a failed war, with schools in marginalized areas
falling apart, we should all be protesting with the slogan: "Money for Schools—Not For War!"

With 75% of the American people polling against the war according to the latest Washington
Post poll, and a Democratic Congress still making excuses for why it can't cut off funding
to bring the troops home, we must support the young people who speak out against their
future being bombed away.

These teachers only misconduct was making their lesson plans truly relevant to the lives
of their students.

On the Tukwila School District's website, the Interim Superintedent posted the following message:
"We believe in the historic mission of public education within our democracy... Our schools are
expected to encourage and prepare students to be productive citizens. We believe the challenge
is to transform every child - to give every student a chance to become an autonomous, thinking
person and a self-governing citizen. We are all here to work together to provide the best
education for the most prized commodity of our fine city - the students of the Tukwila School
District."

Yet when the students participate in an act of peaceful civil disobedience in the best traditions
of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement who challenged unjust segregation
laws, now the school district is hypocritically trying to discourage students from being
"self-governing citizens" and standing up for what is right?
You should immediately:
1. Reinstate the teacher Brett Rogers who has been put on administrative leave!
2. Drop the disciplinary hearings against all six teachers who face investigations!
3. Take no disciplinary action against students who participated in the walkout!

Please write me back saying that upon further investigation you realize that there is no
need for disciplinary action against these students or teachers.

Sincerely,

Ramy Khalil
Youth Against War and Racism
Member of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 587
Committee for a Workers' International
(206)293-8389

 http://www.joe-anybody.com/id106.html
I have started a web-page to document the Foster High Tukwila Peace / Walkout / Witch Hunt
quickly
I will be archive information as I receive it or find it on the Internet

This is an un-official web-page

I am a independent journalist who is showing solidarity with these brave students and honorable teachers

GET ACTIVE!!

The U.S. governnent is sworn to uphold the U.S. constitution and the anti-fascist covenants from the second world war against the axis powers. These covenants are very clear that the liberation side seeks to end aggressive war as any nations foreign policy, and put in its place negotiation and collective agree as the new way forward. The treaties are the United Nations CHarter, the Nuremburg Trials, the Geneva Conventions of war , the international Criminal Court.

Three obvious war crimes being committed by the U.S. Immpeialist led co-allition are, 1) targeting and killing civilians, 2) torturing and killing prisoners of war, such as Abu-Graib, Guantanamo Bay, and hundreds of illegal imperial detention centers run by the C.I.A. in Iraq, Afghanistan, and thoughout the middle east and beyond, with flights to extraordinary rendition to torture, 3) collective punishment, such as Shock and Awe, the bombing of villages, towns and cities throughout the middle east Holylnad to rubble because the peoples who abide there have legitimately, according to the Geneva Conventions of war, taken up the right of armed struggle against the illegal foreign invasion and occupation of their countries. The Geneva Conventions say further that there must not be a regime change in those countries and that the occupation forces cannot treat the peoples there in a mean or degading way, and are responsibe for their well-being while the occupation is in control to the occupied country.

The Nuremburg Trials, chaired by U.S. judge Jackson condemns aggressive war as the supreme criime on the planet earth as it actuates all other cimes high or low, big or small in a worst cast reaction globally. The planning and doing of aggressive war itself is the supreme war crime, and it is so whether Germany does it or the U.S.A. says judge Jackson. That makes the invasions and occupations of middle east countries by the U.S.A. a war crime which breaks the high crimes and misdemeanors clause of the U.S. constitution, and the international laws that are the anti-fascist covenants, signed on to by the U.S. government and the majority of governemtns in the world, including Canada, and Britain.

The United Nations Charter, the raison d' etre of the United Nations also says that it is set up to ensure that democracy as collective agree and negotiation takes place as a new way forward for the peoples of the world to settle relations between nations, and that further it intends thereby to make the terrible horrors of modern warfare only a long distant memory for comming future generations. This covenant the U.S. Imperialists have also violated by their discredited policy of implementing the former axis powers core militarism, such as I) Might makes right, 2) Unilateralism, 3) Pre-emptive strikes, all of which the UN Charter was brought into being by the worlds' anti-fascist fighters to end, and set instead the goal of the UN and all countries to liberate themselves by abolishing aggressive war itself, and its machinery and manufactury, in each country. The security council is controlled by the Minority Imperialist powers with a veto and huge reserves of money. It uses those to levers to end the democracy of the majority of commonwealth nations globally, in general assembly and thereby taking away the original purposes of the United Nations itself, and turning it into a war making tool instead of a peaceful making tool to abolish war by Charter reason of being. This same process of subversion was done to the League of Nations , and was commented on by Albert Einstein during the twenties of the last century, when he remarked that the league had become a war making tool for the imperialist war making powers, and so now both organizations have been subverted to the agendas of Imperialist empire builders out of the majority peacemaking peoples hands, by executive power vetoing the democratic majority.

The International criminal court and the world court of the hague has found the U.S. Invasions of the middle east as criminal acts as measured by the anti-fascist covenants, and GW Bush has said that international law will never find any U.S. soldier guilty while he is president. That is only the exta territorial laws of empire building and that is why he is appointing the judicary to uphold , might makes right, and giving the green light to them to allow the breaking of the anti-fascist covenants to which he is sworn to uphold.

These students and teachers that walk out in protest of the criminal unjust , illegal wars that Bush and his lying buddies have put in place, are the true heroes of the peoples of the world and the United States , they are the living, breathing true practicioners of the liberation side, and are no way criminals to be fined, disciplined, dismissed or explelled. We need to show maximum solidarity with them and their just cause to end the aggressive war and bring the troops home now, and begin to impeach Bushco for their high crimes. End pollution wars, not endless wars for more polluiton. Re-tool to wind, tidal, and solar power.

Thanks Jack - Excellent points!

Here is "video number 2" that I filmed on 11-27 - in Tukwila Wa.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV9NhJSvrxA

(I still have more footage to edit)

This web-page I made here:

 http://www.joe-anybody.com/id106.html

has two (2) new video's (Vol 3 & 4)both are from the 11-27-07
rally outside the school board meeting in Tukwila Washington

Both are hosted on YouTube I should have two more video's by tomorrow:

((1))  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsLrDMFbW0k
((2))  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR_MlmriKvw

Here is number 5 video clip from the Nov 27 rally at Foster High School

This one is sub-titled "Organize"

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtM3nQpJuik

All the videos and more can be seen on the homepage link below:

Here is the last video ...# Six(6)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNtjWGlpnHo
(titled) "PEACE"

Six teachers - Six Video's

In Solidarity

Next meeting at the Foster High School Board is 12-11-07

See all these videos and more on my website link below:

AUDIO FILE
This is an hour recording that was sent to me to upload
Interesting inside scoop on whats going on
I posted this on 12/7/07

Hosted on Archive.net
 http://www.archive.org/details/TukwilaSixProject

This interview is by:
Zombie Nation KYRS

The people interviewed are:
Angie Jube-Cuba
Tom McCarthy
Seth Manzel