Los Angeles, CA – On March 8, Garfield High School held the 55th anniversary of the East Los Angeles Walkouts. In early March 1968, thousands of students walked out of East-area high schools to demand equality in public education and protested inferior conditions. This was the first urban youth-led protest of the growing Chicano movement and received national attention.

Garfield High School (GHS) teacher Juan Garcia and students organized the assembly attended by over 1200 students. Garcia spoke to the assembly, “It is important to know our rich history of struggles and contributions to this land.”

Newly-elected LA Unified School District (LAUSD) Boardmember Dr. Rocio Rivas gave opening remarks and spoke of the significant worldwide events of 1968; such as anti-war protests, Mexico City student protests, and the ELA Walkouts.

Aimee Rico, a student, introduced the panel of speakers who were all former students and Brown Berets. Among them were 1968 walkout students Mita Cuarón, Yolie Ríos, Rachel Ochoa and Cassandra Alarcón, and Brown Berets Ralph Ramirez, David Sanchez and Carlos Montes. Each gave a personal account of school conditions and their roles in the historic walkouts.

Ramirez, Sanchez, and Montes came to be known as part of the ELA 13; arrested for conspiracy to disrupt the school, charges later dropped as unconstitutional.

This was an especially important event for Carlos Montes since he graduated from GHS. Montes spoke of Centro CSO’s fight against charter school threats, the privatization of public education like Ednovate Esperanza charter high school. He invited all to attend the UTLA/SEIU99 rally scheduled for March 15. Among the rally demands is fully-funded schools.

#LosAngelesCA #ChicanoLatino #GarfieldHighSchool

East Los Angeles, CA – Over a 100 students, teachers and parents from Garfield High School (GHS) held a protest in East Los Angeles on October 13, against a planned construction of a new charter high school.

East Los Angeles unincorporated area has become saturated with private charter schools, causing a crisis in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) public schools. Mother Antonieta Garcia spoke about the damage another charter school will cause to public schools and the environment. GHS students led chants denouncing the charter school.

Garfield High School is being threatened with the construction of a new Ednovate Charter High School only a block away. Ednovate is a corporate charter school operator with wealthy investors in its board and plans to expand. Ednovate plans to construct a two-story building with 16 classrooms for a high school a block from GHS. Ednovate used a maneuver to avoid public scrutiny, using a land planning tactic to avoid the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) study. This new high school will devastate GHS with less students, leading to less funding.

Ricardo Rivas and Juan Garcia, two great teachers at GHS, thanked the community of parents and students for participating. They also talked about the vast history and tradition of excellence at GHS.

Lupe Torres with Centro CSO’s Education Committee and an East LA resident talked about getting involved by doing a community door-to-door walk to reach more residents. A Centro CSO forum is set for November 4, at 5 p.m. on charters and privatization attacks on public schools. Torres urged all to contact CSO to get involved.

Eastside Padres also joined and supported the protest.

LAUSD enrollment is already down, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic hardships. East LA already has Esteban Torres High School and Garfield High School and both have excellent instruction programs. Also nearby are Boyle Heights’ Roosevelt High School, Mendez High School and Bravo Magnet High School. There is no need for another high school in the Eastside area.

Garfield High School has a long history of academic and cultural excellence. Multiple generations of families have graduated from GHS. Jaime Escalante, a well-known math teacher, became famous at GHS. He is portrayed in the movie Stand and Deliver. The well-known rock group Los Lobos also attended GHS.

To get involved with Centro CSO’s Education Committee, be sure to contact CSO at 323-943-2030, CentroCSO@gmail.com, or @CentroCSO on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The next Centro CSO public meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on October 20.

Centro CSO has also started a petition (https://www.change.org/p/supervisor-hilda-solis-protect-garfield-hs) to fight back against Esperanza and is fundraising for legal support at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-centro-cso-donate-now.

Carlos Montes is a graduate of GHS, a long time advocate for public education, as one of founders of the Brown Berets in ELA he was a leader of the historic ELA HS Walkouts of March 1968 a key event in the urban Chicano Movement of the late 1960’s. HBO produced the movie Walkout about these events.

#EastLosAngelesCA #PeoplesStruggles #CentroCSO #GarfieldHighSchool #Ednovate

Los Angeles, CA – 2019 marked the ten-year anniversary of the successful fight to stop the charter school Green Dot from taking over Garfield High School. The threat started with the so-called Public School Choice 1.0, approved by the then pro-charter Los Angeles Unified School District board and Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines in 2009. Low-performing schools were to be put on a bid list. This allowed charter schools like Green Dot and others to write up a bid or proposal to take over and manage a publicly-funded school.

Garfield High School (GHS) was on the hit list and was put into a bid process. Corporate Green Dot charter schools, under the leadership of former CEO Marshall Tuck, started a takeover bid of GHS. At a community meeting, teachers and parents asked Centro CSO organizer Carlos Montes for help. Montes, a well-known Garfield High graduate and longtime advocate for public education and Chicano Studies, helped lead the historic ELA high school walkouts of 1968.

Several GHS teachers and counselors provided leadership and support and met with Centro CSO to plan a campaign to keep GHS public and locally managed within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The Parent Center staff also helped and supported this fight.

A series of actions were organized to fight off the Green Dot takeover. One action was a large community meeting in the GHS cafeteria with Yolie Flores Aguilar, then a LAUSD board member. At this packed meeting, the parents, students and teachers blasted Yolie Flores Aguilar for supporting the Green Dot takeover. Aguilar was totally exposed as not having the best interest of GHS and the community at heart. She later decided not to seek reelection to LAUSD.

Other actions included attending LAUSD board meetings, a rally and press conference in front of GHS in unity with United Teachers of LA.

Neighboring Montebello Unified School District also expressed an interest in submitting a bid for Garfield Hight School. The GHS community united to fight the takeover and decided to write and submit a proposal to manage the school and keep it as an LAUSD public school. Parents, teachers, students and administrators like then Principal Michael B. Summe attended a workshop put on by United Teachers of LA to prepare to write and submit a proposal.

With input from all parties, Roberta Ikemi, a long time GHS math teacher, wrote the final complete proposal and submitted to LAUSD.

Jackie Goldberg, then a former LAUSD board member, supported the fight to stop Green Dot. After all the protests exposing Green Dot charters schools as a privatization takeover, Green Dot decided to withdraw.

LAUSD Superintendent Cortines awarded the bid to the Garfield Hight School team with certain conditions. But the victory was clear; Green Dot had been defeated and Montebello USD decided not to submit their own bid.

After this struggle, Garfield High School moved forward and became a successful model of how the community can unite to manage a local public school and be successful. GHS students’ graduation rate is 90%, and over 90% go on to two- or four-year college. GHS now is doing great. This is a recent history of fighting for public education that should not be forgotten. The recognition should be given to the East LA Chicano working-class community, teachers, parents and its allies who united, and won.

#LosAngelesCA #ChicanoLatino #GarfieldHighSchool #TeachersUnions #GreenDot #PublicSchoolChoice10 #LosAngelesUnifiedSchoolDistric

Los Angeles, CA – Garfield High School parents, students, teachers and community groups led a protest here, in predominately Chicano East Los Angeles, Aug. 21 to show their opposition to the LA Unified School District’s move to bid out over 50 new and existing schools. The angry Garfield High School parents and students oppose the plan to privatize their school and other schools.

The community is mobilizing to oppose the resolution brought forth by board member Yolie Flores that calls for outsourcing the 50 schools. A vote is set for Aug. 25 at LA Unified School District’s Board meeting at 1:00 p.m..

#LosAngelesCA #StudentMovement #ChicanoLatino #GarfieldHighSchool #Privitization #PublicSchools