PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A student-run group called Young Voices rallied in front of the Rhode Island Department of Education at noontime on Wednesday to support Central Falls Supt. Frances Gallo, who plans on firing all of the city’s high school teachers as part of a state-ordered reform initiative.
Some 20 students from Providence gathered to speak on behalf of students in Central Falls, who were not invited to the rally because Young Voices was worried about the possibility of reprisals from the Central Falls’ teachers.
According to Karen Feldman, one of the co-directors of Young Voices, Central Falls youth said that teachers have been telling their students that they might lose their houses if they are fired. According to Young Voices, students have said that their teachers are using the classroom as a bully pulpit to express their outrage with Gallo’s decision. [Emphasis CAJ]
Young Voices, which includes students in most of the state’s urban districts, held a press conference for several reasons: to support Gallo’s efforts to reform the high school; to correct some misinformation about the teacher firings and to represent the concenrs of Central Falls’ students.
Read the complete article at The Providence Journal.
