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Despite Permission, Detroit Teacher Fired for Helping Students’ Trayvon Martin Fundraiser
Democracy Now / Video Report
Published: Friday 13 April 2012
Brooke Harris and her students at Pontiac Academy for Excellence drew up a plan to raise money by donating one dollar each to wear a hoodie to school
An eighth grade charter school teacher in Michigan has been fired after helping her students organize a fundraiser for Trayvon Martin's parents. Brooke Harris and her students at Pontiac Academy for Excellence drew up a plan to raise money by donating one dollar each to wear a hoodie to school, as Martin had worn when he was shot dead. She obtained permission for the fundraiser but her Superintendent opposed the plan. Harris was initially suspended and then later fired without explanation. "They did not want to walk out of class; they didn't want to wear the hoods over their head. They just wanted to pay a dollar to wear their regular clothes instead of uniform and donate that money to someone else who they saw needed it," Harris says. "I just wanted to know what I specifically did wrong, so I could learn from my alleged mistake and be sure never to do that again."
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Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 900 stations in North America. She is the author of "Breaking the Sound Barrier," recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.
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By Aviva Shen
10 comments on "Despite Permission, Detroit Teacher Fired for Helping Students’ Trayvon Martin Fundraiser"
May 01, 2012 7:31pm
She was told what she did wrong. She was on disciplinary suspension and ordered not to set foot inside the school during the investigation. She violated that and came into the school on a contrived reason and was fired. She won't listen and tries to make this about some other issue. This isn't about Trayvon Martin or a hoodie fundraiser (by the way, hoodies inside are against the dress code, which is why they couldn't do it). This is about a problem employee who thinks she can set her own rules and then cry 'what did I do wrong?' Everyone has had one of these in her workplace. Don't get confused by the Trayvon Martin element.
April 23, 2012 8:02pm
Brooke Harris appears to have be an exceptional teacher. She assisted her students in completing a project in which they were interested. She was fired.Why? The superintendent offered no insigh. The superintendent seemed uncomfortable in the video. Who knows what pressure may have been exerted on the superintendent. Just a disgrace that this can happen to a fine teacher. I hope there is legal action that can be taken on her behalf.Dr S Sellinger
April 23, 2012 8:01pm
Brooke Harris appears to have be an exceptional teacher. She assisted her students in completing a project in which they were interested. She was fired.Why? The superintendent offered no insigh. The superintendent seemed uncomfortable in the video. Who knows what pressure may have been exerted on the superintendent. Just a disgrace that this can happen to a fine teacher. I hope there is legal action that can be taken on her behalf.Dr S Sellinger
April 14, 2012 10:40pm
What she got fired for, it appears, was to demand to know what she had done wrong!
April 14, 2012 7:42pm
Have you read anything very closely, for heaven's sake? He was visiting a family member who LIVES in the gated community. He had a perfect right to walk down any street in the complex. He was unarmed, he was WALKING and it was raining (I live in Florida), so he put up his hood. And when was wearing a hooded sweatshirt enough to cause someone to shoot at the wearer? He wasn't in disguise, as your silly post implies. A hat and sunglasses? I wear both all the time, but I'm a white woman. Get the point????
April 14, 2012 8:07am
The part that bothered me in the demonstartions I saw on TV,.. The black people in the march were waving and laughing and dancing in front of the cameras..I thought this was suppose to be a serious issue. Also I have to ask what was he doing in a gated community in a hooded sweatshirt. was he suppose to be in there.. what is the real story.. we shall see..I think I might have received the same treatment if I was where I wasn't and was wearing a hooded sweatshirt..I cannot walk into my bank...with a hat or sunglasses or a hooded swaetshirt.. wonder why..?
April 14, 2012 10:36pm
Well, Kathy, you have to ask yourself: What CHANNEL did you see this on (FAUX Noise?), and why would THEY show you protesters "laughing and dancing," if they were SUPPOSED TO BE showing you a protest?
I guarantee you, if the network had wanted to cover a serious protest, they would have SHOWN YOU a serious protest. The little shots of ridiculous behavior would have been passed over, for the shots of serious people.
BTW, there is a REASON for those rules in banks (which happen to be private property), and that is so that people are plainly revealed to the cameras, in case of a robbery.
In a public space, those rules are plainly too restrictive to individual liberties, a principle that you and Zimmerman should have remembered.
April 14, 2012 8:39am
All the news reports have said he was in the gated community to visit his father, who lives there. Why do you "have to ask" why the kid was visiting his father???
April 13, 2012 9:04pm
An illogical decision on the part of the school superintendent.
April 13, 2012 3:30pm
These authoritarian a***oles always zero in on someone weaker. They can't fire Obama or any prominent progressive so they go for the weakest within reach. She should sue and I'm sure there are progressive lawyers willing to take this case.