On May 12, Detroit BAMN conducted a sit-in at Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm's office to demand the removal of dictator Robert Bobb who is shutting down and privatizing Detroit public schools. As the attack on public education and democracy in communities spreads across the country, we are building the civil rights movement that can defeat it! Details below.

Students, parents, and community activists, led by BAMN (the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary), are sitting in at Governor Jennifer Granholm's office today to demand that she attend at Detroit Public Schools Board meeting by the end of May to hear from Detroit parents, students, teachers, and community members tell her how Robert Bobb's academic and facilities plan would destroy public education in Detroit, as counterposed to the DPS School Board's academic plan that would develop and advance public education in Detroit. Further, the sit-in participants are demanding an end to the proposed school closings that, if carried out, would mean the further destabilization of the district and neighborhoods of Detroit, as well as driving Detroit students out of the DPS School District. Finally, sit-in participants demand the firing of Robert Bobb.

"The Michigan Court of Appeals decision to lift the injunction against Robert Bobb's illegal seizure of academic control of DPS resemble the actions of the Jim Crow courts of the old South," stated Joyce Schon, an attorney for the Detroit Public Schools Board of Education. "The court disregarded the law and the equal rights of the people of Detroit to democratically govern – through our elected board – the education of our children. We are going to overturn the new Jim Crow the same way we beat the old Jim Crow, by using the methods of the old civil rights movement," concluded Schon.

"When you force a young elementary school student to change schools three times in three years, that's not 'right-sizing' – that is total disregard for the education and well-being of Detroit's children," said Stacey Crowell, a parent and school volunteer at Hamilton Elementary School.

"Governor Granholm only thinks she can get away with this because the people of Detroit are poor and black. This is a civil rights issue, and we are going to follow the path of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and build a civil rights movement. We are not leaving Lansing until the Governor agrees to come to Detroit and attend school board meeting where she can hear from parents and students what's wrong with Robert Bobb's plan for our schools. And we want our demands that all school closings be cancelled and Robert Bobb fired to be heard," said LaShane Green, another eastside parent who volunteers at several DPS schools.

UPDATE after the arrests

At 5:30 PM, Michigan State Police arrested 13 Detroit residents who were sitting outside Governor Jennifer Granholm's office asking to meet with her. Rather than meet with them she had them arrested on the charges of criminal trespass.

The Detroit residents, parents and students were demanding that the Governor hold a public meeting in Detroit with the Detroit School Board, stop the closing of 45 more public schools, and fire her appointed Emergency Financial Manager, Robert Bobb.

The attorney for the protesters George Washington said, "Governor Granholm meets with Robert Bobb all the time but rather than meet with Detroiters, she had them arrested."

Shanta Driver, National Chairperson for BAMN said, "The Governor has shown her contempt for Detroit, but arrests did not stop the movement built by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, and they won't stop us from defending Detroit's public education. The Governor actions will only strengthen our resolve to fight and win"

Also, see the article at DailyCensored.com