Hundreds protest D.C. school layoffs

October 9, 2009 - 7:54am

D.C. School Protest (WTOP Photo/Patricia Guadalupe)

The layoffs came after the school year started. (WTOP Photo/Patricia Guadalupe)

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of teachers and their supporters rallied to protest the layoffs of nearly 400 D.C. public school employees, about 6 percent of the work force.

The protesters gathered outside D.C. government offices Thursday as teachers chanted and held signs expressing their frustration with the mayor and schools chancellor.

Teachers say it's unfair to students to lay off their teachers after the school year starts, and that the layoffs didn't give teachers an opportunity to look for jobs before the school year started.

Leticia Barnes Long, president of the Wilson High School Parent Student Association, says teachers need to be outraged at the city's literacy rates and protesting about that.

"If I could get this many teachers outraged at the literacy rates across the city, people should be protesting every day that ninth- and tenth-graders can't read," Long says.

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of teachers and their supporters rallied to protest the layoffs of nearly 400 D.C. public school employees, about 6 percent of the work force.

The protesters gathered outside D.C. government offices Thursday as teachers chanted and held signs expressing their frustration with the mayor and schools chancellor.

Teachers say it's unfair to students to lay off their teachers after the school year starts, and that the layoffs didn't give teachers an opportunity to look for jobs before the school year started.

Leticia Barnes Long, president of the Wilson High School Parent Student Association, says teachers need to be outraged at the city's literacy rates and protesting about that.

"If I could get this many teachers outraged at the literacy rates across the city, people should be protesting every day that ninth- and tenth-graders can't read," Long says.

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