Dena Levitz, The Examiner
2008-05-13 07:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

Students in the D.C. school system opposed to the massive changes looming in nearly 50 schools set to close or be restructured next academic year have scheduled a walkout next week.

Fliers being circulated citywide call for a walkout on Friday, May 23. Students are urged to descend on Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s office at 10 a.m.

This marks the second walkout organized in response to the planned closures of 23 schools. Howard University students are helping organize the protest.

The first walkout happened in January just before Rhee released the final list of schools on the chopping block.

That time, students and some staff members left DC Public Schools buildings and marched to the chancellor’s office.

The protest was directed at

the way schools were being selected for closing — by size of enrollment rather than academic record.

The approach for the upcoming protest is similar, as is the motivation. But this time, more students are behind the effort, sources told The Examiner.

Maria Jones, a Burroughs Elementary School parent, said the students involved are at scattered schools in the District or attend nearby Howard.

“We fully support them in what they’re doing,” she said.

Fliers advertising the walkout say the better approach to reform is to “keep public schools in our neighborhood” and fix them, rather than close them.

Students staging the event are also critical of the possibility that Rhee could hand over control of long-failing schools to private companies or public charter operators, which are choices available to her under the No Child Left Behind Act.

It isn’t clear how many people will be involved in the walkout.

Earlier this school year, students were behind a protest at the city’s largest public high school, Woodrow Wilson.

Rhee took away students’ free lunch period there and made them eat in their classrooms following a rash of violent incidents. That walkout, involving nearly 100 students, prompted the chancellor to reverse her ruling.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com