Power of Ten Update
In this Issue:
- Community Forum Recap
- Your Presence Requested at Civil Rights Court Appearance Thursday
- School Board Meetings Tomorrow and Next Tuesday
1) Community Forum Recap
Thank you to all who came out on Saturday for the Save Our Schools Community Forum. Many thanks and respect go to Bob Slade, James Mtume and Bob Pickett of the OPEN LINE Radio Show. Bob’s philosophy on life is……”Your success in life is measure not by what you do for yourself, but what you do for others…a good deed done always comes back to you.” This could never be truer than when doing good deeds for children.
Our goals for this event were to
- provide information about the situation in East Ramapo, what is being done and what solutions are being discussed
- involve the larger community in sharing information and proposing solutions
Presentations were made by Arthur Schwartz of Advocates for Justice regarding the status of the lawsuit, and by Olivia Castor about issues in the High Schools. Everyone attending received the handout “What Can I Do?”
Members of the community expressed concern with issues including school security and suggested tactics such as a boycott of school. Because of the extremely high turnout (more than 500 people), many questions from the audience were not addressed. However, question cards were saved and we will be sharing these with Power of Ten readers in future updates. One panelist also felt there was not enough time to share what she had come to say; her comments can be found here.
One of the most intriguing and hopeful new developments was that our NY State Representatives are sponsoring a bill which would give the Education Department more authority to intervene in East Ramapo. A petition supporting this bill is now available at: www.poweroften.us/petition
The complete forum is available online here: http://new.livestream.com/ggf/events/2027694
2) Federal Civil Rights Court Date:
PLEASE COME AND ATTEND OUR FIRST DAY IN COURT:
April 18 at 10:00 AM
Federal Courthouse Room 421 – Judge George Yanthis
300 Quarropas Street White Plains, NY
Learn more about the civil rights lawsuit
3) School Board Meetings Tomorrow and Tuesday
April 16 and 23 at 7:30 PM
105 S. Madison Ave, Spring Valley
Are you aware that the infamous attorney for East Ramapo, Albert D’Agostino, verbally abused a student, in front of multiple witnesses, at a school board meeting? NO EMPLOYEE of ERCSD should be allowed to VERBALLY ABUSE a student and get away with it! We have ZERO tolerance for students who are BULLIES and we will have ZERO TOLERANCE for ADULTS WHO BULLY STUDENTS! It is unacceptable and unprofessional and students are demanding that the ERCSD Lawyer be FIRED.
Justice is coming to East Ramapo … and WE can make it happen!