Student Protesters Continue Sit-In At Newark School District Headquarters
NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A group of Newark students continues to sit in at the school district's offices and say they will stay until the superintendent meets with them or resigns.
Members of the Newark Student Union entered school district's Public Schools Advisory Board meeting Tuesday night. Around 8:30 p.m. they ascended to the eighth floor where Superintendent Cami Anderson and other administrators have offices.
The group has remained there since.
"We're reclaiming territory that has been taken from us," Kristin Towkaniuk, president of the Newark Student Union, told 1010 WINS on Wednesday. "We're reclaiming this because the superintendent has taken so much away from us and this is our space."
Student Protesters Continue Sit-In At Newark School District Headquarters
The students oppose changes in the district, including a new way to assign students to schools.
Mayor Ras Baraka joined other politicians and religious leaders in support of the students' action and their call for Anderson to step down. Baraka said the state has renewed Anderson's contract.
"They're obviously frustrated about not being able to have a voice in what happens around their own education,'' Baraka said at a news conference outside of school district headquarters. "As the mayor of this state's largest city, I am also frustrated that I do not have a say-so in what is happening in the education of the children that exist and live in these communities.''
New Jersey has run Newark schools since 1995, and Baraka has said he wants New Jersey to return the district to the city's control. Anderson's administration and One Newark plan involving the expansion of charter schools have met skepticism from city officials and Baraka.
"Our message to the academy is we're ready to talk, we're ready to have a constructive dialogue. We've been waiting for over a year, we want answers," student Jose Leonardo with the Newark Student Union told 1010 WINS' Kevin Rincon.
"She [Anderson] hasn't shown up to board meetings for over a year now and we're sitting here waiting for her give us accountability," one student told Rincon.
The district said it hand-delivered letters Wednesday to parents of six students to ask them to pick their children up.
Assistant Superintendent Brad Haggerty said the district appreciates the students' passion, but wants them to return to class.
"Despite our best efforts to work together, they have repeatedly ignored district requests to meet and engage in a constructive dialogue,'' district spokeswoman Brittany Chord Parmley said in a statement Tuesday.
A school bus is parked outside ready to take the students to class whenever they call it quits, Rincon reported.
When asked if he thought the students should return to class, Baraka told reporters: "This is school right here. What better way to learn history than to be a part of it?''
The group has been live broadcasting parts of the sit-in on YouTube and have been active on social media, adoting the Twitter hashtag #OccupyNPS.
Students staged a similar sit-in last year.
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