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Thousands of Oakland public-school students skipped classes to attend a "teach-in" last month. Pupils heard speaker after speaker denounce military action against Iraq. No pro-war presentations were heard. Organizers called the event a timely exercise in critical thinking. "We are the establishment," Dan Siegel, the school board member who proposed the teach-in, told the Los Angeles Times. Critics took Oakland's school board to task for authorizing something so blatantly partisan. Officials claimed they couldn't find pro-war speakers. Nearby San Francisco plans a similar teach-in in the next few weeks. The Times reports that between 5,000 and 10,000 students participated as a substitute for the regular schedule. They heard shrill speakers like Ling Yee, a former radical member of the Berkeley City Council. "Americans attack people of color," she exclaimed. "We should not tolerate this." A previous teach-in in 1999 was held for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the convicted cop killer and leftist martyr. Oakland's school board also stirred controversy in 1997 with its assertion—later retracted—that ebonics was the primary language of some black students. This year, officials say they need a $100 million bailout from the state to avoid bankruptcy.

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February 01, 2003, Vol. 18, No. 4

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