The city stepped in this afternoon to stop Occupy Wall Street protests from derailing the school day.
Fueled by a message posted on the protest movement’s website, rumors spread earlier today that the schools would be dismissing students early. “National Day of Action” protests in Lower Manhattan, which have grown increasingly tense over the course of the day are timed to the movement’s two-month anniversary and come soon after a city crackdown. The protests are set to spread to subway stations across the city at 3 p.m. and to the steps of the Department of Education’s headquarters at 4:30 p.m.
City officials quickly acted to quash the early-dismissal rumors. On Twitter, Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson and the DOE’s official account both sent messages assuring followers that the school day would proceed as planned. Wolfson said early dismissal was “never discussed.” And Chancellor Dennis Walcott emailed principals to tell them not to dismiss students early “as a result of any protests.”
“Rumors indicating that school will be closed early are false,” Walcott wrote in an email with the subject line “Today is a full school day.”
Middle schools, which have long been scheduled to dismiss students early because of parent-teacher conferences, did end classes early as planned.
Later this afternoon, two Occupy-affiliated protests are scheduled to converge at the DOE’s Tweed Headquarters, where a protest 10 days ago attracted a large crowd. A “Children’s Brigade,” similar to one that took part in Occupy’s Oakland protests earlier this month, is set to march from Union Square to Tweed. Other parents, teachers, and students plan to climb the steps around the same time in a separate event listed by the Facebook group “Occupy the DOE” (which has 255 “like” votes). The listing bills the protest as a “family friendly event, with activities for children.”
“Feel free to bring cupcakes, art supplies, your mic check and a whole lotta noise!” the event ad reads.
Last month, Occupy-inspired protesters derailed a meeting of the city school board, known as the Panel for Educational Policy. The panel is scheduled to meet again tonight. That meeting will take place at Frank Sinatra High School for the Arts in Long Island City, Queens, away from the protest hub.
The United Federation of Teachers is supporting the protest movement, which opposes increasing inequality.
Here’s Walcott’s complete email to principals:
From: Walcott Dennis M Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2011 12:35 PM Subject: Today is a full school day Dear Colleagues, Today is a full school day, and students should not be dismissed early as a result of any protests. We expect students to be in school for the full day, including for any scheduled after-school programs. Middle schools that are scheduled to hold parent-teacher conferences this afternoon should proceed with the conferences. Rumors indicating that school will be closed early are false. Please share this information with your school communities. Sincerely, Dennis M. Walcott