HOUSTON — A large amount of people rallied in downtown Houston Saturday, demanding an end to what they call the hostile takeover of HISD.
Carrying signs and chanting, protesters marched in front of Houston City Hall. They were led by Bishop James Dixon, head of the Houston chapter of the NAACP, who delivered a fiery speech comparing the state takeover of HISD to apartheid.
“The powerful are oppressing the perceived powerless,” he said to the crowd. “When they organized this strategy, what they did not expect was for all of us to unite, to stand and fight against it. They thought we would be quiet. They thought we would be docile. ,They thought we would go for the okie-doke and just accept it as normal life. Be we came today to say hell no!”
The protest was sparked in part by a series of terminations involving principals and teachers who the district deemed to be low performing.
In an HISD meeting that went into Friday morning, the board of managers voted to move ahead with terminations. The meeting featured around 200 speakers, many of whom were parents and school employees speaking out against the district, state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles and the terminations.