A roomful of Manual High School supporters declared “war” on Denver Public Schools board members and Superintendent Michael Bennet on Thursday after their vehement request to keep the troubled school open was denied.
In an emotional display of fury and distrust, students, community advocates and a number of prominent African-American ministers beseeched board members at a packed public hearing to keep Manual open.
One called the decision to shutter it for a year racist. Another told board members that what they were doing was abusive to children. A third called the district a “dictatorship.”
At one point, those in the room began singing “We Shall Overcome.”
“Be human enough to rescind it (the decision),” said the Rev. James Peters, a member of the Greater Denver Ministerial Alliance. “It was wrong. It was arrogant. It was racist.”
DPS board members last month abruptly voted to close the under- enrolled and low-achieving 112-year- old school at the end of this school year and reopen it in 2007 as a premier high school.
District officials promised Thursday that the 600 or so displaced Manual students will be guaranteed yellow bus transportation to one of the district’s higher-performing high schools, if there is a demand.
Throughout the invective at the public hearing, board members and Bennet remained stoic. After the speeches, Bennet said the fact that he is on the “other side” of the ministers has caused him grief.
“What you have … is a confession on the part of the district,” Bennet said, referring to Manual, “that we can’t promise an education … that we’d want our own kids to go to.”
The Manual High Education Complex, currently broken up into three small schools in one building, has lost 47 percent of its students in the past four years. An independent analysis by the Colorado Children’s Campaign showed that the school graduates fewer than half its students.
Bennet asked the crowd for help in making sure the current Manual students get taken care of. DPS has promised mentors, summer school and college guidance for every student.
But one by one, the Manual crowd walked out. The Rev. Acen Phillips yelled as he was walking out that “the war is on.”
Phillips said Manual advocates were going to get help from lawyers across the country to research the possibility of a lawsuit. Community advocate Jorge Merida hinted at a boycott of DPS.
“This is creating a solidarity in our community,” Phillips said. “With blacks, browns, Asians and whites, they are creating a movement among us.”
Manual sophomore Ricky Escobedo, who wore a Students 4 Justice T-shirt that read “Not Down With the Shutdown,” said he knew kids who were going to drop out because of the decision.
“It’s easier to just give up than it is to fight,” he said.
After the meeting, Bennet said he hoped the community would take him up on his invitations for input.
Though he said he believes the decision to shutter the school for a year was the right one, he noted, “I think you can learn from any process.”
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-820-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
