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May 2009 Anchors Away

Senn Students Speak Out: Senn Student Views on U.S. wars, immigrant rights, the naval academy, politics, May Day*

Jorge Cruz, junior– May Day is a big day to protest so Mexicans and other immigrants have papers and rights. We are all united on this issue, and want to show everyone that we are united and support the immigrants. I also think we should stop the U.S. wars in Iraq and other places because too many people are killed. And we need to continue the struggle at Senn to get the Navy Out.

Darlin Sabillon, junior– Having May Day is important, as people should not be afraid to express themselves. I say we need to stop the U.S. wars because they are wasting money on things that are not important. Use the money for other things such as in our school. Right now, the Navy is taking over much of our school, which is not right.

Kwame Freeman, senior– I’m not an immigrant, but I support their cause and struggle for equal rights. All people deserve an equal place in society. I also say to stop the U.S. wars, which are not helping anyone.

Sulema Garduno, freshman– I agree that there should be legalization for all immigrants now. The May Day march is a good start on that. Obama needs to do more things, and this is one of them. Also, we need more jobs. We all need to have a voice on the issues.

Jose Hernandez, junior– I think it is important to help the undocumented get legalized and to take up other issues. For example, in our school building, the Navy makes it too crowded. They’re taking over and taking up too much space.

From a Former Senn Student–

Christian Marroquin, a Senn student from 2004-2007 speaks about why he is for Navy Out of the Senn High School building–

“2004 was when the RNA was established. In its first year, there was division between the Senn and Navy students. Some Senn teachers had to give up their regular classrooms, and some left the school because of the RNA and Senn students lost out on some good teachers. One thing that was really disturbing was the yellow line that divided Senn and RNA. It showed so much difference between Senn and RNA. You could see the difference from the walls and classrooms. RNA had their own private gym that was taken from Senn H.S. RNA had all new technology that was not seen in Senn H.S. It made you feel lower than the RNA students, that if you were in RNA you would have better attention and quality of education.

I feel the reason why a military school moved into our neighborhood school was to pull the students into the military way and make them believe what the military would be like. The military is trying to show you that you will get a better education with their way of education if you come to a military school. The military is trying to show you that if you stay with the military, you can get more of this kind of education. They are trying to fool you into becoming a part of the military in the future and fool you into thinking that you can be better than Senn students.”

*ON MAY DAY– These Senn H.S. students spoke to us in the context of May Day, that is, International Workers’ Day on Friday, May 1. This year over 3,000 workers, students and others marched in Chicago. May Day is in honor of the workers who fought and died in Chicago and elsewhere in the U.S. for the 8-hour day in 1886, and in other struggles since then. It is a day for raising important issues for the working class. May Day in recent years in Chicago has had the main demand of legalization of all undocumented immigrants, and pointed out there cannot be equal rights for workers unless all win equality under the law. It also spoke about the need to oppose U.S. wars of aggression and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere, and militarization of the Chicago public schools.

SENN HIGHLIGHTS: GROWING & SHINING IN LEAPS AND BOUNDS!

Senn High School will soon be benefiting from two grants of money that total nearly three quarters of a million dollars.

Some $400,000 will be going to help the AVID college-prep program. The money will go towards professional development, strengthening parental involvement, tutoring and other college readiness activities, and trips and connections to colleges and universities.

Another $381,000 is going for two new state-of-the-art science labs. This was announced by Representative Jan Schakowsky at a press conference at Senn H.S. on April 16.

This money for labs is a start on the equality needed with the Rickover Naval Academy which, with 1/3 of the number of students as Senn, will still have higher quality lab equipment and facilities.

These two grants are signs that Senn High School can be a quality general community public high school open to all students in its attendance boundary. This is important at a time when the corporations are trying to destroy public education and replace it with various forms of selective private schools, known as charter schools or by other names such as Renaissance 2010 in Chicago.

Senn High School students, faculty, parents, and community have been fighting to save and improve Senn High School.

One part of this has been to demand that Rickover Naval Academy leave the Senn High School building, and leave enough room for the continually growing Senn High School program to expand.

Another focus has been to demand that Senn High School have facilities that equal the high quality equipment provided to Rickover Naval Academy. One result is that some additional money will now be spent on the school.

The lesson remains that we have to persist in our struggle to maintain and improve the high quality programs for all at the open enrollment Senn H.S.

Senn High School will present an Art Festival on Saturday, May 16, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Front Campus. The Festival will feature piano solos, poetry recitals, clay art building demonstrations, student artwork, face painting and henna tattoos. Bring the family.

Are the Cadets Right When They Say RNA Is Not a Recruiting Program for the Military?

Many Naval academy cadets say to our distributors that their JROTC program is not recruiting them into the military. What they are missing is that the government law for JROTC is for the program to try to recruit them. As we know from marketing, the method can be a soft sell, as it may be in RNA.

For those not convinced, perhaps they can answer the following question? If JROTC is not for recruiting into the military at a time when the military is having a hard time getting recruits for its illegal and unjust and unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, then why is the huge JROTC budget for 2009-10 listed under “Recruiting and Other Training and Education?” See “Department of Defense FY 2009 President’s Budget Exhibit O-1,” p.31– www.defenselink.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2009/fy2009_O1.pdf

One way JROTC can involve military recruiting is described by a former Chicago high school student. He told us how he was taken on a field trip with other JROTC students “for a fancy dinner and program to meet a lot of military people talking about how proud they were to be in. They talked about their experiences in going to war. Officers would shake your hand and ask you how you felt about the military and ask you what you thought. They tried to convince you to join up, which felt like pressure because they asked a lot of questions and said things about getting better physical stuff and insurance to try to convince you, to try to brainwash you to join up.”

News and Updates

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        Save Senn Coalition, P.O. Box 60365, Chicago, IL 60626….773.250.3225.