Free education/Sã0 Paulo Occupations/Fernão Dias Paes School/Occupation statement of 11th November 2015

We started to organize after the government’s announcement of the restructuring and closing of schools. Since the 6th of October, we are organizing demonstrations seeking dialogue about the way the process was being done. After not being heard by any instance, we saw in the idea of occupying a way to enhance the voice of the students.

If we are the ones being restructured we must take part in this process. We, students, excluded from the restructuring process will be affected by spending cuts resulting from these measures. All participants in this occupation are high school students. We entered yesterday, November 10th, in the morning and prevented the entrance of teachers and coordinators. We held an assembly with only students and decided to occupy the school.

Our struggle is the struggle of all students. We will not accept any proposal that does not encompass all state schools affected. In the dialogue with the government there was no negotiation. During the occupation there was no initiative from the government to negotiate our claims. Remediation only confirms that public education today trains cheap labor. Not to oppose this is to accept the precarization of public education. Occupying schools is another strategy to struggle for education. This occupation remains only with the solidarity of collaborators. To continue the struggle we need to come together and occupy the schools and thus achieve our goal: Prevent the Restructuring. Against the restructuring, lets occupy the schools! For better education!

Chant

The government came hot and I’m already boiling

The government came hot and I’m already boiling

You want to defy us? I don’t understand

Against students? You gonna lose F

ernão, school for struggle Diadema, school for struggle

Ana Rosa, school for struggle

Prepare your self, if you close, we’ll occupy! Watch a video of this update at https://www.facebook.com/mal.educado.sp/videos/vb.291834600950292/720062384794176/?type=2&theater

Elsewhere Online

In the following video, a student activist shares how the regional director of education called some parents to speak with her at the government education office. After elaborating on why parents do not represent the student movement, she says parents are aware of that and won’t be complicit in the government’s attempts to derail the student activists. After being told that the regional director agreed to meet with the students at the school at 7:30am the next day, the student activists woke early to prepare. However, the regional director of education didn’t show, instead calling the parents to her office instead of coming to the school. The student says, “if she wants to talk to us, tell her to come here to the school and we will talk with her.” You can watch the video at https://www.facebook.com/FisicaDaRepressao/videos/927708653983799/

Despite mainstream media’s reports to the contrary, student activists occupying the Fernão Dias Public School take care of their school. They prepare the meals, organize the cleaning and keep the school in order. In mainstream media, the student activists are being called vandals. You can learn more at https://www.facebook.com/jornalistaslivres/videos/328137493976801/

You can find a map of the Occupied Schools where student activists are protesting against the government-ordered education restructuring in São Paulo at https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=z1kij_3A0EM8.k2x_iUJW21z8

There are ongoing updates on a Facebook page called O Mal Educado at https://www.facebook.com/mal.educado.sp/timeline

There is a joke pictures about the overcrowded classrooms at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=739372576197499&set=a.393548330779927.1073741826.100003742894448&type=3&theater